Forged at the turn of the century in North Dakota, the George F. Kemper Construction Company built railway grades and bridges for the Northern Pacific Railway. With the completion of the railway, the business moved to newly developing southern California where George's son, Maxwell F. Kemper and grandson, R. Bruce Kemper built a solid reputation in tunneling and tunnel lining. In 1971, Kemper Construction joined Colorado-based Frontier Constructors, a mining contractor established in 1965, to form Frontier-Kemper Constructors. Frontier-Kemper later established its headquarters and shop facilities in Evansville, Indiana, strategically located to serve the Midwestern and Appalachian coalfields.

In 1979, Frontier-Kemper became affiliated through share ownership with Deilmann-Haniel GmbH of Dortmund, Germany, a respected company with more than 130 years of significant accomplishments in the mine construction and equipment fields. After its merger with the Heitkamp Group in 1989, the Heitkamp-Deilmann-Haniel Group now comprises one of the largest and most respected mining, tunneling, civil and industrial construction contractors in Europe.

In 2001, Frontier-Kemper expanded its engineered machinery and equipment capabilities by forming the FKC-Lake Shore Division, and acquiring the hoisting machinery assets of Lake Shore Mining from the Oldenburg Group.

In 2006, the Heitkamp-Deilmann-Haniel Group sold 51% of its ownership in six subsidiaries to privately-owned German investment company ATON GmbH. In 2007, Aton GmbH aquired the remaining 49% interest held by Heitkamp-Deilmann-Haniel. Aton is now the sole owner and shareholder of the DHI Group, Deilmann-Haniel International Mining and Tunneling GmbH.

A Record of Achievement

Since its inception, Frontier-Kemper has completed over 240 construction contracts involving nearly 185 miles of tunnels and slopes, and over 33 miles of vertical shafts. While most of these projects have been performed by Frontier-Kemper alone, some larger projects are often undertaken in partnership with other major contractors.

Today, Frontier-Kemper has grown to become one of the best-equipped and most capable American general contractors specializing in heavy civil and mining underground construction. For the past eight years, Frontier-Kemper been listed by Engineering News Record as one of the Top 400 Contractors in North America.

Frontier-Kemper's core workforce includes 90 executive, managerial and professional employees including professional engineers registered in more than 20 states. And with an additional 100 field engineers, superintendents, and project managers, as well as specialized staff for machinery installation work, Frontier-Kemper's clients enjoy the benefit of knowing that their projects are in the capable hands of a group committed to the highest quality work, the highest safety standards, and full performance of contract commitments.

Industry Pioneers

In the 1970's, Frontier-Kemper pioneered large diameter (16'-6" to 20'-3" diameter) raise boring techniques, applying this specialized method to mine shaft construction as well as civil projects. The company has also been instrumental in the development of slipformed raise linings and mine slope development with heavy roadheaders.

From Coast to Coast

Frontier-Kemper's Northeast Division was formed in 1994. Headquartered in the New York City area, our Northeast Division performs tunneling, shaft sinking, sewage treatment and power plant rehabilitation, bridge construction and modification as well as maintenance and upgrade work for the New York Department of Environmental Protection's public water system.

Our Seattle-based Northwest Division was established in 1998 and performs a similar scope of work for the various public agencies and private owners in the northwestern and west coast markets.