Dan Higgins left British Pavements in the mid-1950s and set up his own drainage and road repair business in loose partnership with others. Mostly undertook small jobs, though one of the highlights was the ‘Waverley Project’ – a contract to pave six miles of State Highway between Waitotara and Waverley. They worked seven days a week, heating up bitumen in a roadside kettle and used rudimentary machinery (some home-made) to complete the job.

Eldest son Pat, fresh from an automotive apprenticeship and military call-up duties, joined Dan in 1958 to form D Higgins & Son and the official Higgins company era begins – although Pat did not become a full partner in the business until 1960. Based in a small workshop at Child Bros transport depot in Albert Street, Palmerston North, Higgins continued with its drainage and roading contracts around the Manawatu, utilising a lot of basic equipment, as machinery was hard to come by in those days.

The first two full-time employees were hired in 1960, Sam Cameron and Wally Cooper who both stayed with the company until retirement in the 1990s.

Equipment became easier to get and modern machinery allowed Higgins to take on more interesting work, including the construction of the foundations for the Wellington TV tower at Mt Kau Kau. The increasing workload saw Higgins purchase its first site at Roxburgh Crescent, Palmerston North, where a gravel crushing operation was housed. Towards the latter part of the 1960s its first office and headquarters was established at the site.

Dan and Phyllis had wanted their children to learn skills that would be useful outside of contracting and Michael, being clever with numbers, went into accounting. He joined the company that did the books for Higgins and by 1968 the volume of work at Higgins was so great he joined the business full-time in the small two-room office – this building now forms part of the workshop area.

With the £10-assisted passage programme in full swing, new immigrants swelled the New Zealand population and they needed housing, which saw Higgins enter the housing subdivision business and several state housing projects.

The seventies was a decade of expansion. Roading was becoming more important and Higgins bought the Belspray asphalt manufacturing business in Hawkes Bay in 1971 to bulk up supplies. Continued growth called for more support staff and the first section of the current office complex was built in 1972.

The third Higgins son, Bernard, joined the company in 1974 after training as a fitter and turner. Dan, now 65, was now able to leave more of the day-to-day work to his three sons, though he continued to be very active well into later years.

With more subdivision and construction work, Higgins decided to move into the ready-mixed concrete business, establishing Higgins Redimix in 1976. This also brought the total number of Higgins employees to 100. Collier Contractors of Levin was purchased in 1977 and the Pavements (Wellington) Limited hotmix was bought from Purser Belwood in 1978.

Several major contracts were undertaken in the seventies including the Manfeild race circuit, the Palmerston North Airport runway, the Napier Airport runway, sealing of the Ohakea air force base runway and a joint venture to supply asphalt to the Wellington port container terminal.

Growth continued with more emphasis on roading and subdivision contracts. The Higgins reputation spread outside New Zealand when it was awarded the contract to build the runway serving Norfolk Island.

Back home the concrete side of the business was forging ahead and in 1984 Higgins purchased Domett Redimix in Feilding, which was then combined with the purchase of Sanson Metal to form a self-supporting concreting operation. To further secure metal supplies, Higgins purchased land alongside the Manawatu River and in the following years established aggregate quarrying focused on Te Matai.

Another milestone was reached in 1987 when Russell Asphalt of Hawkes Bay was purchased, followed soon after by the acquisition of the Ray Withers gravel pit at Roy’s Hill in Hawkes Bay. In 1995 it was renamed Higgins Contracting – the first time the Higgins name was used on a business outside of Manawatu and the Roy Withers name was replaced by Higgins Aggregates. It also saw the consolidation of the now familiar Higgins greenpaint scheme on all Higgins trucks and plant.

Employee numbers moved past the 200 mark as the company expanded through the centre of the North Island.

More overseas work came at the start of 1990 when Higgins, working with Fletchers, was involved in contracts on a number of Pacific Islands. The first was on Tonga, constructing the island’s airstrip, using local coral as the basecourse, then building a number of inland roads in Western Samoa in 1992. Higgins returned to Tonga in 1995 to build 30 kilometres of roads.

Around the same time, Higgins also took part in the construction of the Summerhill Drive flyover project to alleviate congestion in Palmerston North, expanded the city’s airport runway and, more unusually, built a German-designed firing range for the NZ Army at Linton.

Higgins began expanding further south of Manawatu/Horowhenua in the 1990s, first purchasing Purser Belwood in Wellington to become the Higgins Contracting branch in the capital. Two years later Higgins Concrete was established in Wellington, followed in 1995 by the joint purchase of the Horokiwi Quarry near Petone, where the Pavements Ltd asphalt plant also operates. These moves consolidated the Higgins business in the southern North Island.

At the same time, Higgins also looked further north, opening Pavements BOP in Mt Maunganui in the Bay of Plenty in 1994 in partnership with Brent Glover. Shortly after Higgins purchased the 50% Glover share holding, the name changed to Higgins Contracting BOP and all the trucks went green. Strong subdivisional growth and Council infrastructure development has seen considerable branch growth since then.

A job in the late 1990’s to lay asphalt at Auckland airport stimulated the expansion north. The setting up of the Auckland branch in East Tamaki in 2000 was timely as Higgins won a contract to help construct new on and off ramps, bridges and links for the Southern Motorway spaghetti junction upgrade between Grafton Gully and Parnell, along with widening a ten kilometre stretch of State Highway 1 from Rangiriri to Ohinewai. The traffic management company Maverick Services was added to the group in 2000 along with the road signage company Approach Signs.

Sadly, the Higgins family also farewelled its founder Dan who passed away in 2001 aged 93.

In 2004 a brand new ready-mix concrete plant and depot was established at Porirua.

Engineering company DCS Penny became a part of the Higgins family of companies.

Also in 2004 Higgins filled in more gaps in its North Island coverage, buying Glover Contractors in Hamilton, renamed the Higgins Waikato branch, and setting up a new branch in Taupo.

It also became involved in several new green energy projects – wind farms, providing the roading and foundation work for Te Apiti near Ashhurst in 2004, the T3 expansion at Tararua and in 2007, starting the West Wind site at Makara.

Close to 50 years after the company began, Higgins established a new group office in Church Street, Palmerston North in 2005.

As a result of the Feb 2004 floods, Higgins Contractors were involved in major works to get damaged road networks up and running. 2006 saw a continued strengthening of Higgins position in the market with the winning of the Best Roads Maintenance Contract again and significant projects in Wellington.

Numbers of staff hovering at around 800.

Contractors Taupo and Waikato opened new permanent asphalt plants. Higgins Waikato moved to a new purpose built site. Significant project work was won by Higgins Contractors including MHX alliance, Avalon Drive, D2P (Dowse to Petone) highway upgrade and the Westwind wind farm development.

Higgins acquired 50% ownership in Roadrunner Roadmarkers.

A Manawatu lifetime business award was presented to the Higgins brothers for services to the community.