Sumner Excavating

Sumner Excavating, a veteran-owned, service-disabled veteran-owned small disadvantaged business based in Whitley City, Kentucky, performs federal road construction, maintenance, and emergency repair services for the USDA Forest Service as a prime contractor on delivery orders and indefinite delivery contracts. The company operates exclusively as a prime (100% of recent awards) and competes across total small business set-asides and full-and-open procurements.

Sumner Excavating's federal footprint is highly concentrated in a single customer and region. The Department of Agriculture Forest Service Region 8 (Southern Region) accounts for 126 of 137 awards (93% by count) and $29.8 million of the combined $30.1 million potential value across all awards; the company has worked with only two federal agencies, with the NRCS accounting for one award. Work is performed exclusively in Kentucky across the Daniel Boone National Forest and subordinate ranger districts (London, Redbird, Stearns).

The company holds position on five named IDIQs issued by the Forest Service. The largest are Indefinite Delivery Contract AG531AC150004 (22 task orders, $997 thousand combined potential value), Contract 12531A18D0002 (21 task orders, $858 thousand), and Contract AG531AC110002 (19 task orders, $806 thousand). Two additional IDCs active in the portfolio are Contract 12531A18D0004 (15 task orders, $487 thousand) and Contract 12531A18D0003 (11 task orders, $364 thousand). Sumner Excavating also holds two single-award total small business set-aside IDCs each with an $8 million ceiling through March 31, 2028, awarded June 1, 2023, supporting the Kentucky North Road Construction Pool Vendors and Kentucky South Road Construction MATOC programs. Representative work under these vehicles includes a $1.61 million firm fixed-price delivery order for emergency repair of a slide on National Forest System Road 16 (Daniel Boone National Forest, awarded September 1, 2023, completion October 1, 2024); a $337,894 delivery order for the Edward Branch Canoe Launch Trail and Parking Area project in Frenchburg, Kentucky (awarded September 16, 2026, completion April 1, 2027); and a $237,107 delivery order for repair and stabilization of National Forest System Road 623 on the Bee Rock National Scenic Byway (awarded September 21, 2023, funded through the Federal Highway Administration's Emergency Relief for Federally Owned Roads program).

The company's work is characterized by NAICS codes 541712 (Support Activities for Forestry, 123 awards) and 238110 (Highway, Street, and Bridge Construction, 12 awards), with PSC concentration in Natural Resources/Conservation activities (117 awards) and highway/road/bridge construction and maintenance (15 awards combined). Activity has been uneven — 18 awards in 2020, 15 in 2022, but only five in 2021 and 2023, with one award recorded in 2026. Only one award (combined potential value $338 thousand) faces ultimate completion within the next twenty-four months, limiting near-term recompete exposure. SCI-reported service contract data covers minimal activity — $1.6 million invoiced across FY2024 against 0.4 FTEs, with no SCI records in FY2023 or FY2025 — indicating that the bulk of Sumner Excavating's federal work flows through delivery orders for goods, construction, and project-specific labor not captured in the Service Contract Inventory's reporting threshold.

Excavating, road maintenance, site preparation, trucking, demolition and removal of debris, storm damage cleanup, reclamation