Construction Partners Buys Palm Coast's S.E. Cline Construction

Construction Partners Inc. has acquired S.E. Cline Construction, a Palm Coast, Florida, site development and underground utility contractor, adding about 60 employees and a rail-served, permitted hot-mix asphalt plant site in Bunnell. Cline will be folded into C.W. Roberts Contracting, the company's Florida platform, and terms were not disclosed (Construction Partners via PR Newswire; Florida Construction News).

The deal, announced October 19, is the Dothan, Alabama, company's second Florida acquisition in about a month. It follows the September purchase of Roads, Inc. of NWF in the Florida Panhandle and continues a pattern of buying established local contractors to fill out its Florida footprint (Construction Partners via PR Newswire).

What Happened

Construction Partners, which trades on Nasdaq as ROAD, said S.E. Cline performs commercial site development and underground utility construction for public and private customers across northeast and central Florida. The acquisition includes the Bunnell asphalt plant site, which the company described as an opportunity for future vertical integration and organic growth on Florida's east coast (Construction Partners via PR Newswire).

President and CEO Fred J. (Jule) Smith III welcomed Cline's Scott Sowers and his team and said the deal "further strengthens CWR's presence along Florida's Interstate 95 corridor." The company noted that it bought P&S Paving in Daytona Beach the previous year, giving it an established base on the same stretch of the east coast (Construction Partners via PR Newswire). Florida Construction News reported that the transaction was disclosed in an October 19 SEC filing and that financial terms were not released (Florida Construction News).

Key Deal Details

• Buyer: Construction Partners Inc., a vertically integrated civil infrastructure company that builds and maintains roads in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas (Construction Partners via PR Newswire).
• Seller: S.E. Cline Construction, Inc., headquartered in Palm Coast (Construction Partners via PR Newswire).
• People: About 60 employees (Florida Construction News).
• Assets: A rail-served, permitted hot-mix asphalt plant site in Bunnell (Construction Partners via PR Newswire).
• Integration: Joins C.W. Roberts Contracting, Incorporated (Florida Construction News).
• Price: Not disclosed (Florida Construction News).

Two Florida Deals in a Month

On September 21, Construction Partners announced the purchase of Roads, Inc. of NWF, an asphalt manufacturing and construction business based in Cantonment, Florida. That company provides asphalt paving, roadway construction and disaster response debris removal across Florida, Alabama and the Southeast. The deal brought more than 150 employees, a hot-mix asphalt plant north of Pensacola, and related crews and equipment into C.W. Roberts, and Smith said it "expands CWR's operations in the Florida Panhandle" (Construction Partners via PR Newswire).

The two deals point in different directions on the map. Roads, Inc. adds asphalt production in the western Panhandle, while Cline adds site and utility crews in Flagler County and a ready plant site on the I-95 corridor between Jacksonville and Daytona Beach. Combined, they add more than 200 people to the Florida platform within roughly four weeks (Construction Partners via PR Newswire; Construction Partners via PR Newswire).

Most of Construction Partners' work is publicly funded, including local and state roads, interstate highways, airport runways and bridges, along with private paving and sitework. Its operations are supported by hot-mix asphalt plants, aggregate facilities and liquid asphalt terminals, which is why a permitted plant site counts as a strategic asset in the Cline deal (Construction Partners via PR Newswire).

Consolidation in Florida Site Work

The Cline purchase lands in the same month as a much larger Florida site contractor deal. Earlier in October, Raleigh-based Cardinal Infrastructure agreed to buy Wildwood's Hughes Brothers Construction for $357.5 million, with performance payments that could raise the total to about $455 million, as we reported in our coverage of the Cardinal and Hughes Brothers deal. In both cases, out-of-state buyers are acquiring established Florida crews, equipment and facilities rather than building a presence from scratch.

Implications for Owners, Developers, Contractors and Subs

• Owners and developers in northeast Florida: A familiar local site contractor now sits inside a larger regional company with paving and asphalt capacity. That can mean more bonding capacity and broader scope on site packages, though pricing and relationships may change over time.
• Independent paving and site contractors: If the Bunnell plant site is built out, it would add a new asphalt source on the I-95 corridor. Contractors who buy asphalt from third parties should watch who controls supply in their market.
• Subcontractors: Larger acquirers often self-perform more scope. Utility, earthwork and paving subs that worked for Cline should expect new prequalification and procurement processes under C.W. Roberts.
• Contractor owners weighing a sale: Two Florida deals by one buyer in a month, plus the Hughes Brothers transaction, show steady demand for regional site and paving firms, especially those that own permitted plants or rail-served land.

What to Watch

• Permitting and construction of an asphalt plant at the Bunnell site.
• Whether C.W. Roberts pursues larger FDOT and county work in Flagler and Volusia counties with the combined crews.
• Additional Florida acquisitions by Construction Partners or other regional consolidators.
• The closing of the Cardinal and Hughes Brothers transaction, expected in the fourth quarter.

Bottom Line

Construction Partners has added S.E. Cline's site and utility crews and a permitted asphalt plant site in Bunnell to its Florida platform, a month after buying a Panhandle paving company. The deals extend its reach along I-95 and in northwest Florida as consolidation of Florida site work continues.

Related Coverage

• Cardinal to Buy Florida's Hughes Brothers for $357.5M, Up to $455M
• Update: 448,000 Without Power After Isaias; I-10, U.S. 98 and State Bridges Reopen

Image credit: Brian J. Tromp on Unsplash. Representative free-license photo; the source articles did not offer a usable project image.

Sources

• Construction Partners via PR Newswire, "Construction Partners, Inc. Completes Florida Acquisition" (October 19, 2026): https://finviz.com/news/404225/construction-partners-inc-completes-florida-acquisition
• Florida Construction News, "Construction Partners acquires Palm Coast-based S.E. Cline Construction": https://www.floridaconstructionnews.com/construction-partners-acquires-palm-coast-based-s-e-cline-construction/
• Construction Partners via PR Newswire, "Construction Partners, Inc. Completes Florida Acquisition" (September 21, 2026): https://www.placera.se/pressmeddelanden/construction-partners-construction-partners-inc-completes-florida-acquisition-20260921