Construction Partners, Inc. (NASDAQ: ROAD) announced after the close on October 19 that it has acquired S.E. Cline Construction, Inc., a commercial site development and underground utility construction company headquartered in Palm Coast, Florida. Cline’s operations, including about 60 employees and a rail-served, permitted hot-mix asphalt plant site in nearby Bunnell, will become part of C.W. Roberts Contracting, CPI’s Florida platform company.
CEO Jule Smith welcomed “Scott Sowers and the Cline Construction team.” He said the deal builds on CPI’s acquisition of P&S Paving in Daytona Beach last year and strengthens C.W. Roberts along Florida’s Interstate 95 corridor.
The asset.
Cline Construction provides site development and underground utility construction for public and private projects throughout northeast and central Florida, from its base in Palm Coast in Flagler County, between Jacksonville and Daytona Beach. The release does not break out Cline’s revenue, backlog, or public-versus-private mix.
The deal includes more than the operating crews. It also brings a rail-served hot-mix asphalt plant site in Bunnell that is already permitted. CPI did not say whether a plant is operating on the site today. It described the site as “an attractive opportunity for future vertical integration and organic growth” along Florida’s east coast.
The platform.
Construction Partners, based in Dothan, Alabama, is a vertically integrated civil infrastructure company. It works in local markets across Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas, supported by its own hot-mix asphalt plants, aggregate facilities and liquid asphalt terminals. Most of its work is publicly funded, including local and state roads, interstates, airport runways and bridges. It also does private paving and sitework for industrial parks, shopping centers and residential developments.
The company is growing fast. Third-quarter fiscal 2026 revenue rose 28% to $999.4 million and adjusted EBITDA rose 24% to $163.0 million. On August 7, CPI raised its full-year outlook to $3.64 to $3.68 billion of revenue and $559 to $569 million of adjusted EBITDA. In the same release it announced Ellsworth Construction in Oklahoma, and its cash flow statement shows $337 million spent on business acquisitions in the first nine months of the fiscal year. CPI runs a decentralized model in which local platform companies like C.W. Roberts absorb add-ons in their regions.
Buying the site package, and the permit.
The structural point is what a paving company gets by owning the work that comes before paving. Site development and underground utility work, which typically covers clearing, earthwork, and water, sewer and storm lines, comes early on most private and many public jobs. CPI says Cline’s capabilities “strongly complement” C.W. Roberts’ asphalt paving in the greater Daytona Beach market. That gives the combined company a chance to bid the whole site rather than only the final lift of asphalt.
The plant site matters just as much. A permitted, rail-served location for a hot-mix plant is hard to replicate. Permitting takes time and faces local opposition, and rail access lowers the cost of bringing in aggregate and liquid asphalt. CPI’s whole model is built on owning the asphalt supply behind its paving crews. For a buyer like that, a permitted site can be worth more than the equipment yard.
For civil and site owners, this is a reminder that some of a company’s value can sit off the income statement. Permits, plant sites, pits, owned real estate and rail access can all count in a sale. They need to be identified, documented and priced, whether through the purchase price, a separate real estate deal or a lease.
The civil M&A environment.
Florida civil is busy. Earlier the same day, Cardinal Infrastructure Group (NASDAQ: CDNL) amended its pending deal for Hughes Brothers Construction, a Central Florida heavy civil and site development contractor. Cardinal kept the $357.5 million purchase price and moved to 60% cash and 40% stock. Cardinal reported $55.0 million of adjusted EBITDA on $220 million of revenue at Hughes Brothers for the 12 months ended June 30, 2026, and sellers can earn up to $162.5 million more based on adjusted EBITDA for the 12 months ending June 30, 2027.
Within the next 24 hours, 5th Century Partners–backed Southern Paving & Milling announced it had bought Charlotte’s Carolina Site, and St. Louis-based Azuria Water Solutions bought Horseshoe Construction, a trenchless pipe rehabilitation contractor in Bryan, Texas. On October 19 we also covered Craft Work Capital’s first civil platform, Alpha Infrastructure. Public roll-ups, PE platforms and MEP-focused investors are all now buying site work. We track that buyer pool on our Civil & Site Development page.
What it means.
For site development, underground utility and paving owners in the Southeast, Construction Partners is buying both scale and adjacencies. The buyer universe for a well-run civil company now includes public companies with currency and capital, PE platforms, and investors coming over from the MEP side. Owners should know which of their assets each buyer values most: crews and backlog, equipment, customer relationships, or hard-to-permit real estate. Owners with bid-heavy public work should also understand how buyers treat backlog quality and margin consistency. We walk through that in our construction-exposure valuation piece.
No purchase price, revenue, or EBITDA was disclosed for Cline.
Fielding calls from road builders or site platforms?
Schryver & Co. advises trades and civil contractors with roughly $5 million to $100 million of revenue and $1 million to $5 million or more of EBITDA. If public buyers, PE platforms and strategics are calling, we can help you sort out who would pay for what, including the equipment, real estate and permits that rarely appear on a P&L. Reach out at will@schryverco.com.
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