K.w. Emerson, Inc.

K.W. Emerson, Inc., doing business as KW Emerson Inc., is a woman-owned small disadvantaged business based in San Andreas, California, that delivers civil engineering and infrastructure construction services to the federal government as a prime contractor (100% of recent awards), competing predominantly under total small business set-asides and disaster-response programs. The company is a self-certified woman-owned small business and small disadvantaged business with a heavily concentrated customer relationship and a recompete cliff approaching within the next twenty-four months.

The vendor's customer base is dominated almost entirely by a single federal agency. The Department of Agriculture Forest Service Pacific Southwest Region (Region 5) accounts for 89 of 130 total awards (68% by count) and $253.8 million of $263.9 million combined potential value (96% of dollars), making this relationship the backbone of the company's federal footprint. Remaining activity is scattered across the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (8 awards), the Forest Service Washington Office (7 awards, $1.2 million combined value), the National Park Service Pacific West Region (2 awards, $2.7 million), and the Army Corps of Engineers Sacramento District (2 awards, $1.4 million). This concentration on a single regional office within a single agency creates significant recompete and renewal risk; three awards totaling $8.9 million reach ultimate completion within the next twenty-four months.

K.W. Emerson's capability portfolio centers on forest road construction, maintenance, repair, and emergency restoration services. Representative work includes a $4.5 million Great American Outdoors Act contract awarded October 2025 for scenic byway recreation site rehabilitation in the Sierra National Forest (campground improvements, site clearing, tent pads, vault toilets, picnic tables), a $3.5 million atmospheric river emergency repair BPA call awarded March 2026 for road damage restoration in the Dinkey Lakes area, and a $7.5 million post-fire road repair contract from September 2023 for the Providence Creek area. The company also holds expertise in bridge construction and relocation, culvert maintenance, asphalt restoration, and burned-area emergency response (BAER) services, with multiple contracts addressing wildfire recovery across Sierra, Inyo, Sequoia, and Stanislaus National Forests. Work is geographically concentrated in California's national forests, with performance locations including Clovis, Berenda, and various Sierra Nevada project sites.

K.W. Emerson holds two major indefinite delivery vehicles with the Forest Service Pacific Southwest Region: a $50 million Blanket Purchase Agreement for California Forest Engineering and Road Maintenance (awarded April 2023, running through March 2033) and a $45 million single-award IDIQ for road construction and maintenance across four Southern Sierra Zone national forests (awarded August 2022, extended through August 2027). These vehicles carry total small business set-aside designations and serve as the contracting foundation for the bulk of the company's task-order awards. Recent task orders under the $50 million BPA include work valued from $426,918 (Dinkey Trimmer Road washout repair) to $3.5 million (Dinkey Lakes atmospheric river repairs). The company also participates in older IDIQs through the Forest Service's older procurement vehicles, with 11 task orders under IDC AG9AB5C170066 ($6.2 million combined), 8 task orders under AG9A40C110017 ($1 million), and 5 task orders under 127EAW22D0008 ($2 million).

Activity has declined in the most recent period — the source shows 10 awards in 2023, 1 in 2024, and 2 in 2025 — likely reflecting a shift in contract administration as older IDIQs completed and the two new primary vehicles (the $50 million BPA and $45 million IDIQ) became the dominant procurement mechanisms. SCI-reportable invoiced revenue from federal service contracts shows $5.9 million in FY2022 across 8.6 FTEs, falling sharply to $1.6 million in FY2023 across 2.0 FTEs, and no reportable SCI revenue in FY2024. This collapse in SCI-reported dollars likely reflects the shift in contracting vehicle structure (BPAs and IDIQs typically invoke task orders that are not captured in SCI's service-contract reporting threshold in the same way) rather than a loss of actual federal work, as the vendor continues to receive large BPA calls. On SCI-reportable work, median government-paid hourly rates ran around $338.66 per hour, with senior labor pricing through $400.36 per hour and junior rates around $181.76 per hour. The company operates as a pure prime contractor with no subcontractor engagement recorded across SCI prime contracts (0% average sub-hours share), building its own delivery teams for field engineering and construction labor.

K.W. Emerson's footprint is heavily concentrated in NAICS 238110 (Highway, Street, and Bridge Construction) with 87 of 130 awards, followed by support activities for forestry (11 awards) and heavy and civil engineering construction (5 awards). This concentration reflects the company's specialization in road infrastructure rather than diversification across federal agencies or mission areas. The recompete window heading into the next twenty-four months exposes $8.9 million in potential value, but the critical renewal event is the continued exercise of options under the two primary IDIQs, which together anchor the vast majority of current and future work.