Layne Christensen Co. has acquired Bencor Corp. of America – Foundation Specialist. Founded in 1969, Bencor is one of North America's leading contractors in foundation and underground engineering. Bencor specializes in deep foundations for dams, levees, shafts and below ground structures, and also excels in the design and building of earth support retention systems for basement excavation for high-rise structures, subway lines and stations and depressed highways. Bencor has performed work in the United States, Canada, South America, Europe and North Africa, and has more than 100 permanent employees headquartered in Dallas. The purchase price for the stock of Bencor was $32.1 million.

Peter Iovino, Layne GeoConstruction Division president, says, "The GeoConstruction Division in the past few years has focused on larger projects like dam/levee rehabilitation work. Most of these projects are quite large, and require the construction of both cementitious grout curtains and deep slurry walls within bedrock. In the United States, there are just a few companies capable of performing the slurry wall part of the remediation work, and Bencor is a recognized leader in that technology. Bencor with its size, structure and technical expertise, represents an excellent and strategic opportunity to substantially increase, complement and solidify our Division's specialty work capabilities. Bencor, together with the acquisition of our 50 percent interest in Costa Fortuna in Latin America, will put the GeoConstruction Division at the top of the list of specialty foundation leaders in the world and will open doors to larger and more profitable projects.”

Ugo Piccagli, the founding father of Bencor, and now a consultant to the Layne GeoConstruction group, says, "We are extremely excited about the possibilities from a combination with Layne's GeoConstruction Division. Since 1969, with unchanged ownership and management, Bencor has constructed many diverse projects, including cutoff walls, drilled shafts and caissons, underpinnings and deep foundations. Currently, Bencor is working on many interesting projects including a major rehabilitation project for the U.S. Corp of Engineers at the Clearwater Dam in Piedmont, Mo. The Clearwater Dam project, a joint venture, where Bencor is the operating partner and has an 80-percent interest, is approximately 50-percent complete, and will continue through 2011. It includes the installation of slurry cutoff walls that penetrate through the Clearwater Dam embankment and clay core into bedrock. While Bencor will continue its successful operations under the same managerial structure, the combination with Layne Christensen adds further support to our ability to perform larger projects and to offer other complete foundation packages administered under one single contract. We are pleased that Bencor will be part of the Layne GeoConstruction family."