50 Years in the Making:
Randolph (Randy) Bissette moved to the Hampton Roads area from North Carolina in 1958 to start a job with local roadbuilder Ames and Webb. In 1969, Randy and Woody Houck ventured out to start their own curb and gutter business, B&H Concrete. After two successful years, the pair parted ways amicably in 1971. Randy started Bissette Construction while Woody maintained the B&H name.
Bissette Construction was founded in Chesapeake and with a focus on curb and gutter installation. In 1976, Randy purchased one of the areas first slipform machines for formless placement of curb and gutter. Since then, the company has installed countless miles of curb and gutter, along with sidewalks and concrete entranceways for residential subdivisions, commercial sites and City/State roads throughout the area, including the southside, peninsula, and venturing into North Carolina and the Eastern Shore.
In 1991, Mark Bissette left his position as a Project Engineer with civil engineering firm PHR&A, and joined his father Randy in the family business. Mark remembers, “I went from wearing a button down shirt, tie, and khakis to bluejeans, t-shirt and shovel in my hand. It was quite the transition, and seemingly a step backwards from my engineering position. But right away it was rewarding, building the job day by day and seeing it all come together was more appealing to me than the design side of the business. I learned the business from the bottom up, from labor work, finishing concrete, operating equipment, driving trucks and hauling equipment, culminating in running a crew as foreman.”
In 1995, Mark was named President of the company, and alongside his father, the company started performing utility construction in 1998, installing water lines, sewer lines and storm drainage. Mark remembers, “Dad wanted me to use more of my engineering background, and venture into other parts of site construction in addition to the concrete work that he and mom founded the company on.” By 2001, Bissette Construction had added earthwork/grading operations, making it a full-service site construction company.
In 2003, the company suffered the loss of its founder, Randy Bissette. Due to the work ethic and values that he instilled in our key employees, the company has been able to persevere and continue to grow. Randy was known for his dependability, honesty and integrity, and we still strive to maintain those values in all company operations. “I am very happy that I decided to come to work with my parents in the family business,” said Mark. “It was wonderful getting the chance to work with dad for a number of years. I got to see a side of him that I hadn’t seen prior to that. Although he is no longer with us, I believe he would be very pleased with what we have achieved.” Although she is no longer involved with the daily business, Randy’s wife Frankie is still a source for consultation and support. Click here for mom’s Prayer for our 50 Year Anniversary.
The company has continued it’s growth pattern, completing many large projects for local owners and developers, general contractors, and local municipalities. Projects have included installing residential streets for local developers and building parking lots/sites for large commercial projects. We have also installed utilities and curb and gutter for roadways such as Dominion Boulevard in Chesapeake and Princess Anne Road in Virginia Beach.
Earlier this year, in order to expand it’s utility division, Bissette purchased the assets of Precision Pipe, Inc, and brought all of their employees on board. Rick Callahan (owner of Precision Pipe) and his staff have been a great addition to our company and will help us better serve our customers by having more crews available to get larger projects completed in short order.
Mark is proud of the reputation that Bissette Construction has earned, doing things the right way. “We have a great culture with the company that includes a family feel to it. Customers know that we can be trusted to ‘get the job done, and get it done right’, a mantra that was passed down from Randy. We are very grateful for our relationships with our customers, many of them repeat customers, who appreciate our honesty and dependability. I am also extremely proud and thankful for our employees, who have been key to propelling us to where we are today. We currently have about 55 employees, many of which are long-term employees. Combined we have over 300 years of time served with Bissette Construction.”