They say luck is when preparation meets opportunity and that’s just about what happened to Christopher “Tipper” Esponge – albeit the hard way. After an accident during an army training exercise in 2009 left him in a wheelchair, Esponge was presented with another way to serve his country.
In 2015 while working on a Master of Business Administration degree, he was approached by his friend Ben LeBlanc with the idea of starting a government contract business. Esponge felt it
was a natural fit for him, and in 2016 E & L Construction began.
Today, Esponge, who is owner and president, offers construction and industrial services to agencies that include the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Department of Interior, the U.S. Coast Guard and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, as well as local businesses. Projects are wide-ranging from general and heavy construction and disaster response, to concrete, plumbing, earthwork and electrical services.
When the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Nashville District relocated an Army equipment transport site to Fort Campbell, Kentucky, E & L was assigned to make improvements along the 14.64-acre tract. “We took an area previously used for fishing and turned it into a barge-loading site for vehicles and equipment to be taken down the Mississippi to Fort Polk for yearly training. It’s also a site for any mobilization assets by waterway,” explains Esponge.
While E & L is involved in primarily federal and military projects, the company has worked on several facilities more widely used by the public, like the Atchafalaya Wetland Trail. There they laid out the concrete for the boat launch and made a trail of limestone, making it ADA (Americans With Disabilities Act) accessible.
Partnering with Ducks Unlimited and the U.S. Wildlife and Fisheries Service, to construct an ADA wheelchair-accessible hunting blind at Brazoria National Wild life Refuge is a 44,414-acre wildlife conservation area bordered by Christmas Bay and the Intracoastal Waterway. Located on the Alligator Marsh Public Waterfowl Hunting Area, the blind is available only to hunters with disabilities. Esponge’s company also provided an ADA wheelchair-accessible blind at McFaddin National Wildlife Refuge in Sabine Pass.
Most recently, the firm has been working in Galveston on a nearly $3 million project for the Corps of Engineers to provide dewatering services. As Esponge explains it, “After dredging the Houston Ship Channel, material is pumped into Alexander Island. We dug 50,000 feet of ditches to restore the land from coastal erosion.” The project, which began in July, should be completed around November.
Of all his projects, Esponge is perhaps most proud of his work for the National Cemetery Association, repairing and expanding national cemeteries in Louisiana and around the country, including those in St. Peterburg, FL, Baton Rouge, Jennings and, most recently, the national cemetery in Natchez, MS to provide more burial sites. “The national cemeteries are, unfortunately, in constant need of expanding to provide more resting places for our veterans as well as maintenance and repair work to help them look like Arlington Cemetery, which we’re most familiar,” says Esponge.
E & L Construction has also provided local construction in Lafayette, New Iberia and clients closer to home. In May of last year, Esponge moved his business from New Iberia to his native Delcambre. The site, located on Bob Acres Road, offers more room for growth and storage of equipment. More importantly, he points out, “We’re closer to the canal where we can respond quicker to help the people here if there’s a hurricane.’
Recent Comments