Dix Corporation
Dix Corporation provides construction and rigging techniques to solve customers` problems. Services include turbine runner rebuild, marine construction, equipment installation, dismantling and reinstallation and heavy rigging and transport.
Company details
Find locations served, office locations
- Business Type:
- Service provider
- Industry Type:
- Construction & Construction Materials
- Market Focus:
- Nationally (across the country)
- Year Founded:
- 1947
About Us
A Tradition of Innovation
For over sixty years Dix has pioneered construction and rigging techniques to solve customers' unique challenges. One of a kind solutions have lowered project costs, improved schedules, and enhanced safety.
Dix is currently applying this 'tradition of innovation' in dams and plants throughout the Pacific Northwest to improve safety, quality and productivity, and provide owners the very best return on their investment.
A Commitment to Customers
Dix is proud to have worked for customers like ALCOA, Boeing, Kaiser Aluminum, and the U.S. Navy. For more than half a century, their high standards and challenging requirements have been met by a commitment from Dix: 'To be the best industrial contractor working for the best industrial clients.'
You can count on the dedicated commitment to excellence you receive from Dix whether we are starting our 60th project together in sixty years...or starting our first project tomorrow.
Mission Statement
We will continue to be recognized as an innovative and versatile industrial contractor throughout the Pacific Northwest. Our passion is to help our customers maximize their facilities for profit and quality.
We intend to achieve a higher quality of life for our employees and their families through growth in earnings produced by a focus on excellence.
History
After being discharged from the US Navy in 1946, Pete Dix Sr. moved from California to Spokane, Washington and started his business in 1947 as Dix Steel Company. Pete decided that it would be a good business strategy to combine steel fabrication along with steel erection which was uncommon at the time, and it proved to be very successful.
During the ‘40s and ‘50s as farming picked up in the Palouse and other areas around Spokane, Pete could see the need to supply farmers with new storage buildings to keep up with their growing equipment fleets. The solution was to supply and erect Quonset buildings and over the next few years the company erected several hundred around the countryside.
As times and customer needs changed, so did the company. Pete always tried to stay one step ahead of his competition and wanted to meet his customers needs head on. In 1951 Dix was featured in “Engineering New Record” for his innovative solution to a customer’s problem. Dix was awarded the contract to erect the structural steel for the new 14-story, Ridpath Hotel in downtown Spokane. As there wasn’t a large enough crane in the area to erect all fourteen floors, the Dix solution, heralded as a “first” in ENR, was to disassemble a mobile crane, hoist it onto the fourth floor and reassemble it to erect the remaining ten stories of steel. This kind of innovative thinking continues on every project the company does and is one of the many reasons today’s Dix Corporation is so successful.
As the mining industry grew in the ‘60s and ‘70s Dix took on the challenge of pioneering the concept of “turnkey” industrial construction in the area. This led the company into larger projects that included grassroots facilities as well as mill expansions/modernizations in Idaho and Montana. With the increased business, Dix opened a new office and fabrication facility in 1973, near the Spokane International airport. That facility expanded in 1979 to a total of 45,000 square feet.
In 1974 Dix took on another challenge in fabricating and erecting the massive U.S. Pavilion for the “World’s Fair” in Spokane. That structure still stands today as a Spokane landmark. The American Institute of Steel Construction gave Dix the 1974 Architectural Award of Excellence for the outstanding aesthetics in structural steel for the project. In addition to the pavilion, Dix fabricated and erected five bridges that crossed the Spokane River on the fair site.
As business trends changed again in the ‘80s Dix fabricated, built and launched several barges for the US Navy on Lake Pend Oreille in northern Idaho. These were used as support facilities for the Acoustic Research Detachment, located on the lake. During those same years Dix was called on to launch several model subs, including the 300 ton prototype of the “Seawolf” class submarine.
In 1985 Dix made a strategic decision to concentrate solely on field construction, sold its fabrication facility and moved into its present offices on Grove Road near Interstate 90. Since then, Dix has ventured into new areas such as container crane rebuild and installations, powerhouse and gantry crane rebuilds and installations on dams across the United States and Canada. Other projects include fish and selective withdrawal systems for migrating fish on rivers in the Northwest. Cement manufacturing plant expansions is another area Dix has worked in since the early ‘50s. The company continues to serve some of the same companies and in the same industries we have worked in for over 60 years. Dix is always up for new challenges, including numerous one-of-a-kind projects that require heaving rigging and lifting of equipment weighing in excess of 1,700 tons.
Dix Corporation’s most well-known project has graced calendars, magazines and posters worldwide. It’s the world’s first (and only) floating golf green. Dix was awarded the contract to design and build the 14th green on Lake Coeur d’ Alene in northern Idaho. This green is about 15,000 square feet and weighs about 5,000,000 pounds. It is movable and provides a varied range of play. The floating green is the hallmark of the world class Coeur d’Alene Resort.
Since Pete Dix Sr. started the company in 1947, it has remained a family business. Since 1978 Pat Dix has serves as President. Pat’s two sons, Mike and Kevin are both working for the company. With new generations of family and employees entering the business, it is still based on the same values and customer commitment that Pete Dix Sr. originally brought to the company. With this kind of commitment, Dix will continue to grow and expand for another sixty years and beyond.
Dix Corporation appreciates you taking the time to read our company history and encourages you to review our projects outlined in this web site. We encourage you to ask questions regarding our projects and capabilities and look forward to adding your company to our list of satisfied customers.
Environmental Statement
Even before it became the thing to do, Dix Corporation has always been interested in our environment and has tried to conduct its business accordingly. Whether it was sand-blasting steel in our old shop, maintaining our rolling stock or monitoring job sites, Dix has tried to keep from polluting the atmosphere or the ground surface with spillages of any type. We maintain this same attitude today and go the extra mile to ensure the specifications are met or exceeded on our projects.
Dix Corporation does not build commercial buildings, hospitals or homes, so we do not 'Build Green' in that sense, but we do work on and around dams and industrial facilities. These projects include the following:
- Fish Passage (restoration of wild salmon runds)
- Fish Friendly Turbine Projects
- Floating Gold Greens (concern for clean water-catching runoff)
- Totally Enclosed Conveyance Systems (no air pollution)
- Equipment Relocation & Reuse (bridges and industrial plants)
- Gantry & Overhead Crane Rebuilds (removal of contaminated paint, grease & oils)
Markets & Capabilities
Since 1947, Dix Corporation has been a pioneer in construction and rigging techniques to solve customers' unique problems. We are still servicing some of the same customers we did in the early years and have added new ones always meeting the new demands of our customers and the industries they represent.
Services Offered
- Specialized Steel Erection
- Equipment Installation
- Dismantling & Reinstallation
- Heavy Rigging & Transport
- Plant Expansions
- Plant Shutdowns
- Gantry & Overhead Crane Rebuilds
- Gantry & Overhead Crane Installations 50 to 500 Ton
- Turbine Runner Rebuild
- Marine Construction
- Navigation Lock Gate Installations/Repairs
- Spillway Gate Rehabilitations
- Fish Mitigation Structures
Industries Served
- Aluminum
- Biofuels
- Cement
- Hydropower
- Manufacturing
- Material Handling
- Mining
- Pulp & Paper
- Steel Mills
Load Test Beams
Dix Corporation has designed and built a set of load test beams that can be used to load test new or rebuilt cranes up to 638 tons. Typically, they are used in conjunction with water weight bags as shown in the photo. The load test beams can be adapted to use other weights. The crane being tested in the photograph handles 450 metric tons (500 US tons) from a single hook. We can change the configuration and test off of two hooks by using the two outside beams. These beams have been used at various locations in the United States and Canada with great success.