For owners of bridge inspection and load rating firms
The firms DOTs call first.
One company.
Spanwise Group is building a national bridge inspection company from the firms that set the standard. When a bridge inspection, underwater inspection or load rating firm joins, its team leaders and engineers keep running the work, and its finance, insurance and DOT prequalification paperwork move to one shared program.
- Size
- $500K to $10MEBITDA a year
- Where
- Anywherein the United States
- The work
- Bridge inspection or load ratingunderwater inspection too
Your team leaders.
Your prequalifications.
Your seal.
Each one is settled with you before closing: who stays named on your on-call contracts, how each state’s prequalification carries over, and who signs the reports. See how in the questions owners ask.
The Spanwise standard
Your engineers sign the reports. We run the rest.
We work from a written integration playbook, built on add-on acquisitions in another services business. Your firm’s 100-day plan is written from it, with you.
- Customers who come back on inspection cycles and multi-year on-call contracts.
- Team leaders who meet the National Bridge Inspection Standards qualifications.
- Engineers who run the load rating work.
- Prequalification with the state DOTs it works for.
- Books, invoicing against task orders, collections and payroll move to one finance team in the first year. Your project managers stay the people your DOT and county contacts call.
- State DOT prequalification, statements of qualifications and on-call renewals, prepared with your project managers.
- Professional liability and the other coverage DOT contracts require, bought for the group.
- Software for field data and inspection reports, chosen with your team leaders.
- Under-bridge inspection units, drones and dive gear the 100-day plan calls for, paid for with capital raised alongside each partnership.
- Training for inspectors to become team leaders, and support for engineers working toward their PE.
- A bench of experienced operators and finance executives from our network, on call to you and your managers after closing.
Questions owners ask
Who is paying for this?
For each purchase, Worthings Court Capital arranges a bank loan and raises equity from a small group of capital partners for that deal. You meet them after our review and before closing. Your state DOT will look at the new owner too. We walk you through what they ask for.
How would I be paid?
The price is paid mostly in cash at closing, from the bank loan and the equity raised for the deal. Part can come later, as a note (the company owes you the balance and pays it over a set number of years) or as a payment tied to results. If you want to, you can also take part of the price as a share of the larger company. The mix is written into the letter of intent.
Do I have to stay, and for how long?
We ask the owner to stay for a transition period. Its length, your title and your pay are written into the letter of intent. Part of that period goes to choosing and training the person who runs the company after you.
What happens to my inspectors and engineers?
We keep your team leaders, inspectors and engineers in their roles, so the qualifications named in your contracts stay in place, and your engineers of record keep signing the reports they are responsible for. Any change to pay, benefits or titles is agreed with you before closing.
Will my customers or employees find out?
Not from us. We sign a confidentiality agreement before you send anything, and we do not contact your customers, employees, suppliers or bank without your permission. Before closing, we agree with you when and how each group is told.
What happens to the name?
How the decision is made goes into the letter of intent, and the decision itself is made with you before closing. We look at which on-call contracts and prequalifications are held in your firm’s name, what each state requires to change them, and how much a change would cost you in resubmittals.
What is my company worth?
Mostly it depends on how much steady profit the company makes after paying everyone, including a fair salary for you, and on how much of the work repeats each year. The letter of intent states the price and how we got to it.
Why sell to Spanwise rather than a large engineering firm?
A large engineering firm usually folds a firm it buys into one of its offices. At Spanwise, your team leaders keep running the work, and you can take part of the price as a share of what the company becomes.
Is it a waste of your time to talk if I am not sure I want to sell?
No. A first call commits you to nothing, and if you decide not to sell, that ends it.
How it works
Call
A confidential call of about 30 minutes. You tell us about the company and what you want next.
Review
We sign a confidentiality agreement, then read three years of financials and your largest contracts. If something would make us pass, we say so at this stage.
Letter of intent
A short letter with the price, how it is paid, your role after closing and how the name will be decided. The final purchase agreement is written from it.
Meet the money
Before closing, you meet the lender and the equity partners paying for the purchase.
Close
Closing, then a 100-day plan written with you and your managers.
Choose how you and your partners step back
Step back
Sell all of it. You stay for a transition period set in the letter of intent, and you help choose and train the principal who leads the firm after you.
Stay on
Sell most of it, take part of the price as a share of the larger company, and stay on as principal in charge of the inspection work, with a title and pay agreed before closing.
Partners on different clocks
When one partner wants to step back and another wants to stay, each one’s price, role and timing are written into the same letter of intent.
The mix of cash at closing, a note, a payment tied to results and a share of the company is written into the letter of intent.
The work we look for
- Routine and in-depth inspection
- Underwater inspection
- Nonredundant steel tension member inspection
- Load rating
- Scour evaluation
- Drone, rope access and nondestructive testing
EBITDA is operating profit before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization.
Why bridge inspection
The roughly 624,000 bridges in the national inventory get a routine inspection at least every 24 months, and bridges with underwater elements an underwater inspection at least every 60 months. Some go on a 12-month cycle, and owners can extend others to 48 or 72 months under set criteria.
The 2022 update renamed fracture critical members as nonredundant steel tension members, kept them on a hands-on schedule and added refresher training for team leaders.
Inspection and load rating paid for with federal-aid money is bought on qualifications, and much of it runs through multi-year on-call contracts.
Bridges: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2025. 23 CFR 650.311: inspection intervals. 23 CFR 650.309: team leader qualifications and refresher training. 23 CFR 172.7: qualifications-based procurement of federal-aid engineering services.
For brokers and advisors
Send a teaser, a blind profile or a name. Every introduction gets a reply within one business day.
Where a fee agreement with us applies, it is signed before we see confidential information and paid as written.
The size bar is about $500,000 to $10 million a year of EBITDA, anywhere in the United States.
Use the form below and choose “Advisor or broker,” or write to the address in the footer.
Start with a conversation.
Owners and their advisors are welcome. Every introduction is confidential.
- We read every message and reply within one business day.
- If it looks like a fit, we set up a 30-minute call at a time that suits you.
- Nothing you send goes to a lender or equity partner until you agree to it.
Or write to [email protected].
1925 Century Park East, Suite 1700
Los Angeles, CA 90067