NORTHFIELD — The sale of Lane Construction Corp.’s West Northfield gravel pits this week for nearly $9.6 million to North Carolina-based Eurovia Atlantic Coast LLC is part of a much larger selloff of Lane’s “plants and paving division” for a $555 million sale of its holdings.

The Northfield operation, along Old Vernon, Caldwell and Mount Hermon Station roads, includes nearly 300 acres of sand and gravel pits — including the former Northfield Washed Sand and Gravel Co.’s operation that was sold in 1984 to Lane Construction Corp.

Northfield Washed Sand and Gravel got its start, by contrast, in 1937, when “Fred B. Kelly started digging a hole on Mount Hermon Road,” according to a 1973 article in The Recorder.

The 13 parcels that were recorded by the Franklin County registry of Deeds on Thursday for $9,563,319 were part of the sale by Salini Impregilo Group’s Lane Construction Corp. to the multinational Vinci Group’s Eurovia SAS.

Announced on Aug. 20 by Connecticut-based Lane, a nearly 130-year-old company whose construction projects have included Interstate 91 and much of the nation’s highway system, tunnels, metro and railway systems, as well as airports and water and wastewater treatment plants, the sale includes over 40 hot mix asphalt facilities along the Eastern seaboard and as far west as Texas.

The sale also includes several mining operations and other quarries in the Northeast.

Lane plans to concentrate on large, complex civil infrastructure projects in the United States where it remains a leader in the transportation, tunneling, and water/wastewater sectors.

French-based Eurovia described itself in 2017 as consisting of 420 companies. It manages and maintains over 37,000 miles of road systems and operates 400 production plants and 350 quarries, with a total of nearly 40,000 employees.

According to the online publication WorldHighways.com, PietroSalini, the chief executive of Lane’s parent group said, “From a financial perspective, we have closed a transaction that involves a non-core asset for Lane — and a non-strategic one for the group — for $555 million, $100 million more than the amount that the Salini Impregilo Group paid to acquire all of Lane three years ago.”

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