NAICS 2371Industry group · 4-digitregional market1 market record

Utility system construction

SoftwareHeavy Civil Construction Estimating & Operations 237

This industry group comprises establishments primarily engaged in the construction of distribution lines and related buildings and structures for utilities (i.e., water, sewer, petroleum, gas, power, and communication). All structures (including buildings) that are integral parts of utility systems (e.g., storage tanks, pumping stations, power plants, and refineries) are included in this industry group. — Statistics Canada, NAICS 2022A

Establishments · CanadaA: 3,382
Under 10 employeesA: 62%
Establishments · USA: 19,721
Employment · USA: 600,146
Payroll · USA: $49.8B

Size and shape

How many businesses there are and how small they are. Fragmentation is the first thing an entrant — or anyone selling software into this industry — needs to know, and it is one of the few things that is actually measured.

Canadian establishments by number of employeesA

1–41,61248%

5–948814%

10–1942713%

20–4941812%

50–992397%

100–1991123%

200–499622%

500+241%

Of 3,382 Canadian establishments with employees, 62% have fewer than ten — mostly small operators.

Where they areA

Alberta1,26837%

Ontario83125%

British Columbia47614%

Quebec2909%

Largest four provinces by establishment count. Establishments with employees only — sole operators with no payroll are not in this table, so in trades and personal services the true number of businesses is higher.

How many new establishments are still tradingA

Construction, US · opened 2020

83.2%

1 year

68.2%

3 years

56.5%

5 years

42.6%

10 years

opened 2015

Measured, not forecast: the share of US establishments opening in one year that were still active later. It counts good operators and bad ones together, which is exactly why it is the honest answer to “what are the odds”. It is for the whole sector rather than this market, and the ten-year figure comes from an older cohort because no younger one has reached ten years.

How businesses here compete

The structural profile of subsector 237, which every industry beneath it inherits. This is analyst judgment from how the subsector is organised — not research into this industry, and not a measurement.

regional competitionhigh capitalUNVERIFIEDinherited from 237 Heavy and civil engineering construction

Equipment-heavy and bonded, won on the lowest compliant bid. A market of established regional firms with their own pits and plants.

Who sets the price: Public owners, by low-bid tender.
The software it runs on: Heavy-civil estimating, fleet telematics, project controls.

Market screens and studies

Market-entry records filed along this branch of the hierarchy. A record at or beneath this code is about this industry; one above it is about something wider that contains it.

Operating businessScreened

Utility System ConstructionOne thing must be true

binding constraint: distribution

The demand is unusually good — fibre builds, water main renewal and electrical distribution all carry funded multi-year programmes — and the work is awarded almost entirely through prequalified bid lists held by utilities and municipalities. Getting onto those lists requires bonding, safety record and prior work of the same type, which is the circular barrier facing every new entrant. Adjacent to the grid study at 221121, which found the same buyers and a different wedge.

NAICS 23715 vendors named11 sourced figuresOpen →

Software serving this industry

The vertical software markets filed along the same branch — who sells to these businesses and who they would have to displace — and then the generic categories every business buys whatever it does.

Sold across the wider branch

Vertical softwareScreenedfiled at 237 Heavy and civil engineering construction

Heavy Civil Construction Estimating & OperationsOne thing must be true

binding constraint: incumbent vulnerability

Incumbent HCSS (Thoma Bravo) and Trimble B2W

The switching cost is the estimating database, not the software — a contractor's historical production rates live inside HCSS and are the asset that wins bids. Trimble and Kiewit's InEight have the rest. The building-construction record at 2362 faced Procore; this one faces a data moat that is older and harder to copy. Nothing is disclosed here. Every vendor named on this record is private, or sits inside a parent that does not break the line out, so no revenue floor can be built and the market size is genuinely unknown rather than estimated.

NAICS 2374 vendors namedOpen →

And what every business buys · 25 generic categories

Sold to every industry rather than this one, so they are filed against the software industry's own code. The same few vendors recur across most of them.

Companies in this industry · 3

Every company this research names that is filed here or beneath — the operators, and the vendors that sell to them — largest disclosed revenue first. The rank is within the company’s own six-digit industry.

Company	Filed under	Revenue	Rank
Quanta ServicesPrivate	Utility system construction2371	$28.5B	1/3
MastecNYSE:MTZ	Utility system construction2371	$14.3B	2/3
Dycom IndustriesNYSE:DY	Utility system construction2371	$5.5B	3/3

Who works here

The occupations employed in Construction, most concentrated in it first. The share is measured against the whole sector, not this industry — the published cross-tabulation stops there.

Concentrated in this sectorA

Concrete finishers, tilesetters and plasterers One industry 94.3%

Bricklayers and insulators One industry 87.5%

Trades helpers and labourers One industry 80.7%

Carpenters and cabinetmakers One industry 79.9%

Plumbers, pipefitters and gas fitters One industry 79.8%

Roofers, glaziers, painters, decorators and floor covering installers One industry 73.7%

Contractors and supervisors, technical industrial, electrical and construction trades and related workers One industry 70.5%

Technical electrical trades and electrical power line and telecommunications workers Mostly one sector 60%

Managers in construction and facility operation and maintenance Mostly one sector 57.7%

Crane operators and water well drillers Mostly one sector 48.9%

These jobs are mostly done here. An operator in this industry is competing for them against others in the same industry, not against the whole economy.

And the jobs every business has

Building maintenance installers, servicers and repairers Across the economy 24.7%

Technical inspectors and regulatory officers Across the economy 14.4%

Technical occupations in electronics and electrical engineering Across the economy 12.7%

Legislative and senior managers Across the economy 10.4%

Administrative, property and payroll officers Across the economy 7.4%

Financial, insurance and related administrative support workers Across the economy 7.4%

Accounting, insurance and related business administrative occupations Across the economy 6.7%

Other technical trades Across the economy 6.1%

Office administrative assistants - general, legal and medical Across the economy 5.6%

Administrative services managers Across the economy 4.3%

Found across at least fourteen of the twenty sectors. In a small establishment several of these are usually one person, or an outside provider.

All 162 occupations →

Inside this industry

3 rows sit directly beneath 2371, and 6 in all once every level is counted. Each has a base report of its own.

Code	Industry	Establishments · CA	What is known
23711	Water and sewer line and related structures construction	1,155	screened at 2371
23712	Oil and gas pipeline and related structures construction	1,412	screened at 2371
23713	Power and communication line and related structures construction	815	screened at 2371

Alongside it, under 237 Heavy and civil engineering construction

Code	Industry	Establishments · CA	What is known
2372	Land subdivision	2,259	Land Subdivision & Development
2373	Highway, street and bridge construction	2,092	Road Paving & Highway Contracting
2379	Other heavy and civil engineering construction	1,430	Marine Construction & Dredging Contractor