The Alabama Road Builders Hall of Fame recently inducted six individuals and one company as new members.

The Hall of Fame was created by the Alabama Road Builders Association board of directors "to honor, preserve and perpetuate the outstanding accomplishments and contributions of individuals and companies that have brought significant recognition to the state of Alabama in the field of transportation construction."

"Those honored will serve as symbols inspiring others to pursue rewarding and challenging careers in all transportation construction fields," said Hall of Fame Board Chairman M. B. McCartney of Gadsden's McCartney Construction.

Here is a look at the new Hall of Fame inductees.

David Abramson spent his entire career in the highway construction business. Early on he worked for Abramson & Son, which was primarily owned by his father Leo and brother Bill. After working in the field for several years, he acquired ownership in the business, which was then incorporated as Abramson & Sons, Inc. At that time A.E. Burgess was a partner.

In 1970 the three Abramsons purchased the portion of the company owned by A.E. Burgess and moved to Pinson, Ala. In 1977 they incorporated a separate company, Alabama Bridge Builders, Inc., with the principals being Bill Abramson, David Abramson, Keith "Tack" Mims, and Tom Godfrey. Bill and David eventually separated the companies, with Bill keeping Abramson & Sons and David taking Alabama Bridge Builders.

As president of Alabama Bridge Builders, David took the company to about 100 employees by the mid 1980s. In 1985 he acquired grading and asphalt paving company Ballew & Roberts Construction Co., Inc., along with his two current partners and John Haraway, who had been a long-time Ballew & Roberts employee.

In 1994, David traded his interest in Alabama Bridge Builders, Inc. to Tack Mims for Mims' interest in Ballew & Roberts. In 1997 he sold the company and retired.

David Abramson made it a point to have a working relationship with every Highway/Transportation director. He also developed an excellent reputation with elected officials. His efforts were very influential in seeing that the state's last gas tax package was passed.

Samuel Edward Hodges was born in Anniston, Ala., in 1913. He graduated from Alabama Polytechnic Institute, class of 1936, with a degree in highway engineering. Between graduation and the formation of his company, he worked for the Alabama Highway Department, the Tennessee Coal Iron and Steel Company, and the Southern Railway System in Chicago. In 1946 he returned home to Anniston.

Ed and half brother Pitts Douglas formed Hodges & Company in 1947. The company performed road and street work, base work, paving, gas lines, water lines, sewer line construction, rock quarrying and crushing, and operated an asphalt plant.

Ed, along with other bituminous plant mix distributors, was instrumental in organizing the Alabama Asphalt Pavement Association. In 1959, at the organizational meeting, Hodges & Company was one of 17 firms that became charter members. He was also elected one of the original eight directors. In 1970, he became the Alabama Asphalt Pavement Association's 12th president.

In September of 1976, he sold the business to Ashland Oil Company of Kentucky and retired as president of Hodges & Company. He passed away in June 1992.

Michael Bailey McCartney was born in Gadsden, Ala., in 1934. After graduation from Auburn, he worked with the Florida State Road Department before going to work for Cone Brothers Contracting Company, Tampa, Fla., as superintendent in charge of asphalt plants and all asphalt construction.

In 1962, McCartney returned to Gadsden and joined McCartney Construction Co. and Calhoun Asphalt Co. During the 1960s the two growing companies participated heavily in the Interstate program — including paving I-59 as it passed from Birmingham to Chattanooga — and in the building of Neely Henry Dam. Today McCartney serves as president to both companies.

In 1974 McCartney became president of the Alabama Asphalt Pavement Association and in 1975 served as president of the Alabama Road Builders Association. He is currently Alabama director for the National Asphalt Pavement Association and has been for the past 20 years. He also serves as a director of The Road Information Program (T.R.I.P.)

McCartney played a significant role in bringing the National Center for Asphalt Technology to Auburn and has been a member of the center's board since its inception.

Mack began his career in the transportation industry in February 1956 with the Alabama Highway Department. He served in many capacities before becoming, in 1983, assistant highway director and serving as department liaison to the state legislature and U.S. Congress.

In 1987 he left the Highway Department and went to work for Ultrapave, Inc. In 1990 he returned to the Department as assistant director, again acting as department liaison to the state legislature and U.S. Congress.

In 1992 Roberts was named highway director under Governor Hunt and again by Governor Folsom in 1993. In 1993 the Department changed from the Highway Department to the Department of Transportation.

Following the 1994 election he retired from ALDOT and worked for United Toll Systems. The company was responsible for the construction of the Emerald Mountain Toll Bridges between Montgomery and Millbrook and the Tuscaloosa Bypass Toll Facility. He was also a lobbyist in passage of legislation allowing privatization of toll facilities in Alabama, Georgia and Louisiana.

In 1999 Governor Don Siegelman appointed Mack director of the Alabama Department of Transportation once again. He remained director until 2001, when he returned to Ultrapave as vice president and general manager. In April 2007 he joined Alinda Roads, LLC as vice president for acquisition and development.

The late I.J. (Jud) Scott Sr. of Scott Bridge Company of Opelika, Ala., worked in the construction business for 55 years until his retirement in 1975. His company specialized in bridges with piers in deep water and projects requiring know-how in floating equipment, cofferdams and mass concrete pours underwater.

Jud started in construction in 1921 with Brooks Calloway Company, where he remained until 1927. He was associated with M.D. Morgan Company from 1927 to 1932. In 1933 he joined Scott Construction Company, Thomasville, Ga., with partners W.F. Scott and W.A. Britton, while continuing to live in Opelika.

Scott and his brothers divided the Scott Construction Company in 1957. Jud formed The Scott Company, targeting bridge construction; it became Scott Bridge Company in 1965. He hired Gerard Swarthout Jr. to join the company as chief engineer and later president of the firm. Today, Scott Bridge Company is led by Jud's namesake, I. (Ike) J. Scott III and Gerard Swarthout's son, Jack.

Jud Scott became a member of ARBA in 1957. He served as board member and committee member. His greatest contribution to ARBA was through his political work with the executive and legislative branches of state government over three decades. He passed away in 1984.

Pat Wilson was born in Equality, Ala., in 1923 and raised on the family farm. In 1940 the family moved to Childersburg. After graduating from Childersburg High in 1941, he worked briefly with Mitchell Brothers at the Alabama Ordinance Plant in Childersburg. He finished the war years in Birmingham with Bechtel-McCone, supervising the repair and refitting of B-29 bombers.

After the war the Wilsons moved back to Childersburg, purchased a grocery store and gas station and added a truck for a rolling store. In 1948 his brother Billy Smith joined Pat in what would become Wilson Brothers. The store truck's body was exchanged for a dump bed, and they were in the contracting business.

After adding additional equipment, Wilson Brothers Construction was ready for the Farm to Market Highway Projects of the 1950s and early 1960s. During this time, Wilson Brothers constructed the longest Farm to Market roadway in the program's history (18 miles from Childersburg to Talladega). The company subsequently diversified into grading, drainage, culverts, miscellaneous concrete, base and paving. In the 1960s Wilson began his years of service with the Alabama Road Builders Association and served in nearly every position, including president in 1976. He retired in 1999 and passed away in 2002.

Vulcan Materials Company, based in Birmingham, Ala., was also inducted into the Hall of Fame. Vulcan's construction aggregates business dates back to 1909, the year in which Vulcan's predecessor company, Birmingham Slag Company, was formed.

In 1916, Charles Lincoln Ireland, a banker from Ohio, purchased Birmingham Slag Company. The company was consistently profitable except in 1932. Following the Great Depression, the company grew in earnest, primarily through joint ventures with other family-owned aggregates companies in the Southeast.

In the 1950s, the Irelands realized that Birmingham Slag would have to become a publicly held company — preferably through merger — to become a major supplier of aggregates for the Eisenhower administration's Federal Highway Program. Bernard A. Monaghan, a lawyer and Rhodes Scholar, engineered a merger with Vulcan Detinning Company of Sewaren, N.J., in 1956. Birmingham Slag, renamed Vulcan Materials Company, became a publicly traded company.

In the late 1950s several acquisitions brought numerous family-owned aggregates companies under the Vulcan banner, and Vulcan greatly expanded its construction materials business. In 1999, Vulcan acquired CalMat, the largest supplier of aggregates on the West Coast. In 2000, Vulcan acquired the aggregates facilities of Tarmac. In November 2007, Vulcan acquired Florida Rock Industries, Inc., in the largest acquisition in Vulcan's 50-year history.

Vulcan has been the largest producer of construction aggregates in the United States since the early 1960s. Vulcan operates 334 aggregates production facilities and sales yards serving the construction industry in 22 states, the District of Columbia, the Bahamas, and Mexico.