Varner Construction LLC

Varner Construction LLC, doing business as A1-Pumping, operates as a HUBZone-certified small business prime contractor delivering forest infrastructure, road maintenance, and civil construction services to the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service, principally under total small business set-asides. The company is a limited liability partnership based in Durbin, West Virginia, and competes entirely as a prime contractor—all 108 awards in the source are prime contracts or indefinite-delivery vehicles with no subcontract activity.

The Forest Service Eastern Region (Region 9) dominates Varner's customer footprint, accounting for 85 awards (79% of the portfolio) and $13.7 million in combined potential value. The remaining portfolio includes two Department of Transportation Federal Highway Administration awards ($3 million combined), one Forest Service Washington Office award ($377 thousand), one Forest Service Southern Region award ($111 thousand), and six Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission awards. The concentration is stark: the Eastern Region alone represents 89% of award count and 99% of combined potential value—a critical single-customer dependency.

Varner's capability portfolio centers on forestry support services, road maintenance and construction, bridge replacement and culvert installation, facilities construction and repair, and emergency recovery work. Recent representative work includes a $1.304 million definitive contract (November 2023) for box beam bridge replacement on Forest Road 209 in the Monongahela National Forest with aquatic organism passage improvement; a $285 thousand purchase order (May 2026) for drainage repair and road reconditioning following the May 2023 flood event on Forest Road 19; an $855 thousand definitive contract (March 2023) for Lake Sherwood Campground Phase 2 facility replacement under the Great American Outdoors Act; a $225 thousand purchase order (April 2025) for Holcombe Creek Bridge deck replacement; and a $70 thousand delivery order (April 2024) for road grading under the forest-wide road maintenance indefinite-delivery contract. Work is performed at multiple locations across West Virginia—primarily Elkins, Richwood, Bartow, and the six ranger districts of the Monongahela National Forest—with administrative oversight in Elkins.

Varner holds two active indefinite-delivery vehicles with the Forest Service: a $1 million single-award indefinite-delivery contract (awarded March 2024, completion December 2028) for forest-wide road maintenance ordered on an as-needed basis, and a $250 thousand multiple-award blanket purchase agreement (awarded April 2022, completion February 2032) for Region 9 facilities construction and commercial services. Five additional blanket purchase agreements and indefinite-delivery contracts appear in the top parent vehicles, with 7, 6, 5, 4, and 4 task orders respectively, aggregating modest combined potential values. Activity has declined in recent years—four awards in 2022, four in 2023, three in 2024, three in 2025, and two in 2026—with only three awards facing ultimate completion within the next twenty-four months (combined potential value $411 thousand), presenting limited near-term recompete exposure.

SCI-reportable invoicing (federal service contracts above $150 thousand) totaled $5.9 million across FY2022–FY2024: $2.9 million in FY2022, $1.5 million in FY2023, and $1.5 million in FY2024. The vendor delivered roughly 6.7 FTEs in FY2022, declining to 0.9 FTEs in FY2023 and 0.6 FTEs in FY2024, reflecting the shift toward goods and construction work outside SCI reporting scope. Across SCI-reportable prime contracts, Varner performed zero percent sub-hours, building delivery entirely through direct labor. Government-paid hourly rates on federal services work ranged from a 10th percentile of $396.96 per hour to a median of $826.78 per hour and a 90th percentile of $1,482.11 per hour, positioning the vendor in mid-market territory for specialized forest and infrastructure services. The portfolio is dominated by support activities for forestry (43 awards) and highway, street, and bridge construction (24 awards), with smaller shares of heavy and civil engineering construction, site preparation, and commercial building construction.