Ja Jones Construction Company

j.a. jones construction was a heavy construction company headquartered in charlotte, north carolina. operating internationally since the 1950s, it merged with germany's philipp holzmann ag in 1979. in 2003 the company ceased operations due to the failure of its parent company. the company was founded by james addison jones in the 1890s. one of jones' early landmark projects was the twelve story independence building, charlotte's first "skyscraper" and the soon to be first office of j.a. jones construction. in 1930 the company won a major contract to build a new military airbase in the canal zone in panama. during world war ii the company built 212 cargo ships and tankers and was a substantial builder of liberty ships in support of the war effort. it also built camp shelby in mississippi as well as k-25 and k-27, production plants for manufacturing uranium-235 at the clinton engineer works at oak ridge, tennessee. in 1979 the company was acquired by philipp holzmann a.g. and under that