About Sudurverk

In 1966, the current owner of Suðurverk, Dofri Eysteinsson, began his career as a contractor. Dofri was born and raised beside the old Markarfljót bridge. His father was a road foreman. Dofri bought his first excavator, which he initially used to trench a water pipeline for the Westman Islands.

A year later, in May 1967, Suðurverk sf. was founded by Dofri and Sveinn Þorláksson. They started by buying a D6 bulldozer that went to work for the Public Roads Administration (Vegagerðin) in Rangárvallasýsla.

In 1968 they bought a Hymac hydraulic excavator, a machine type that was gaining ground at the time. It was initially used heavily to dig drainage ditches for farmers. As Dofri says, “good days come and go”, and from this point the company grew rapidly.

In 1970 Suðurverk bought a D7 bulldozer. The machine was little used at first as the market slowed, but the following year it was put to work — including being hired out to Vegagerðin for road construction on Skeiðarársandur.

In 1972 the company bought a second Hymac excavator, again used mainly for farmers' drainage ditches. At that time the government subsidised such ditches and almost every farmer wanted them dug on their land.

During the 1973 Westman Islands eruption, Suðurverk hired out a backhoe loader and a tracked excavator for the clean-up. In parallel came work at the Sigalda hydroelectric plant and various contracts linked to its main contractor.

For the following years, Vegagerðin and its sub-contractors were Suðurverk's main customers through equipment rental.

In 1983 Suðurverk bid on Landsvirkjun's first phase of Kvíslaveita — the construction of Svartá dam, which was to divert Svartá into Þórisvatn. The next year further packages followed in later phases of Kvíslaveita. Sultartangi dam was also being built at that time; Hagvirki held that contract and rented equipment from Suðurverk.

In 1985 Suðurverk split as the owners decided to go their separate ways. Dofri continued with Suðurverk, which changed from sf. (general partnership) to hf. (limited liability); Sveinn stepped out of contracting. The market had softened, but that same year the new Suðurverk landed its first job — the excavation for the Kringlan shopping centre. More Reykjavík projects followed. Hydro work was quiet, but road construction picked up. At the time the company had 15–20 employees.

In 1996 a large project came in: diverting the uppermost part of Þjórsá into Þórisvatn (the final phase of Kvíslaveita). As that job was ending, Suðurverk was awarded the 7 km tailrace canal at Sultartangi power station — roughly 7 million cubic metres of blasting.

Then followed various jobs for Vegagerðin — the Vatnaheiði road on Snæfellsnes, the Þverárfjall road on Skagi, the Tjörnes road and the extension of the Örfirisey breakwater, to name a few.

In 2003 came a major project linked to Kárahnjúkar. To take it on, Suðurverk invested in large machinery suited to the work. Off the back of that, Bechtel awarded Suðurverk work at the aluminium smelter site in Reyðarfjörður. The Kárahnjúkar-era fleet proved ideal for that project too. The smelter work started modestly but grew significantly; by the end it was more than twice the size of Suðurverk's Kárahnjúkar share in materials and turnover, and roughly four times the original scope. Follow-on work for Alcoa and later the harbour at Reyðarfjörður came next.

After those projects concluded, various road jobs followed until Landeyjahöfn came into view. As that was the home region of Suðurverk's owner, the team was determined to win the work. Suðurverk submitted the lowest bid, met every requirement, and secured the contract.

Unlike most contractors, Suðurverk's overhead is deliberately kept small — but large enough to serve its purpose. Greater emphasis is placed on using the best possible machinery and equipment required to deliver excellent results to clients — as track record has borne out.