Smith-Midland Targets $100M Backlog as Barrier Rentals, Data Centers Drive Growth

Smith-Midland Targets $100M Backlog as Barrier Rentals, Data Centers Drive Growth Posted by Defense World Staff on Aug 29th, 2026 Share on Twitter Share on Facebook Share on LinkedIn Share on Stocktwits Get alerts: Smith-Midland (NASDAQ:SMID) outlined growth opportunities in highway safety barriers, infrastructure construction, utility projects and prefabricated building systems during a company presentation led by Chief Executive Officer Ashley Smith and Chief Financial Officer Dominic Hunter.

Smith said the company, founded on his grandfather’s family farm in 1960, produces proprietary and generic precast concrete products through facilities in Virginia, Maryland and Washington, D.C. Its proprietary offerings include J-J Hooks highway barriers, Easi-Set and Easi-Span utility products, SoftSound noise walls and SlenderWall lightweight precast panel systems. “We have proprietary products. We have intellectual property,” Smith said, citing patents, trademarks, crash testing, federal approvals and state approvals associated with several of the company’s product lines.

Barrier replacement and rental fleet expansion Smith identified the replacement of older roadside barriers as a significant tailwind. Federal Highway Administration crash-test standards are updated periodically, he said, and states are increasingly setting deadlines to transition to newer barriers meeting MASH safety standards. The company’s J-J Hooks barrier is sold, rented and licensed to other precast producers. Smith said California has set a Jan. 1, 2027, deadline for use of MASH-tested barriers, and Smith-Midland’s licensee in the state has been increasing production at facilities in Northern and Southern California as well as Reno, Nevada.

Smith-Midland has also expanded its barrier rental business, Concrete Safety Systems. Smith said the fleet has grown from roughly 10 miles of rental barrier several years ago to approximately 150 miles currently, including barrier repurchased from a customer following a large Northern Virginia project. The company also has about 500 crash cushions, or attenuators, in its rental fleet. Rental operations provide installation, relocation and removal services, Smith said. He described the model as a source of recurring revenue and upfront project cash flow that can be reinvested in inventory and other operations. During a question-and-answer session, he said the company was operating at about 80% utilization of its barrier capacity and estimated a blended return period of approximately three and a half years on barrier investments.

The company is developing a limited-deflection barrier design that Smith said could be less expensive to install than competing products. He said the product still requires additional crash testing, federal approval and state approvals before commercialization.

Backlog, contract activity and 2025 comparison Hunter said Smith-Midland reported backlog of $57.4 million in its second-quarter 2026 filing, up 19% from the first quarter. The company’s goal is to increase backlog to about $100 million by adding sales and marketing resources, he said. Hunter noted that backlog does not capture all of the company’s activity because it represents signed contracts being executed at a particular point in time. Short-duration barrier rentals, special security-related barrier projects and rapid product orders can be completed before they are reflected in a reported backlog figure. He estimated that approximately $5 million to $7 million of activity may flow through without being captured in backlog.

The company also disclosed a $10 million Interstate 81 project in Roanoke involving SoftSound and retaining-wall components. Hunter said the award was Smith-Midland’s third-largest single contract and was received after the latest backlog measurement. Smith-Midland recorded $93.4 million in revenue during 2025, its best year on record, according to the presentation. Hunter said the company’s trailing 12-month revenue w...