Foundation Mechanics

When Jennifer Kelecius and a business partner launched Foundation Mechanics in 2011, they mostly did consulting work for another company, then began doing a variety of smaller construction and landscaping projects.

The firm continued with only a handful of employees until 2016 when Kelecius won an Illinois Tollway contract under a small business set-aside program to serve as the prime contractor on a $1.4 million project to make landscaping improvements along a 30-mile stretch of the Jane Addams Memorial Tollway (I-90).

Buoyed by that success, Kelecius soon enrolled her business in other Tollway diversity initiatives intended to give small, diverse, woman-owned firms more opportunities to compete for Tollway projects--and the company began winning additional contracts for Tollway construction and landscaping work.

Since then, Foundation Mechanics has participated in 26 more Tollway contracts, including a new $2.1 million construction contract it won in March, while serving as a prime contractor on 19 of those contracts. During that time, the company has doubled in size from six employees to 13, allowing it to take on additional work from the Tollway as well as doing projects for other public agencies and private businesses, Kelecius said.