as nyse trn industry conglomerate founded dallas texas united states 1933 headquarters dallas texas united states key people timothy r. wallace chairman of the board president and ceo ; chairman of trinity rail group james e. perry cfo and vice president d. stephen menzies senior vice president ; group president of trinity rail william a. mcwhirter senior vice president ; group president charles michel vice president cao and controller mary e. henderson vice president and chief audit executive virginia gray vice president organizational development antonio carrillo vice president revenue us 4.4 billion 2013 net income us 375.5 million 2013 number of employees 9 270 2010 website www.trin.net trinity industries inc. owns a variety of businesses which provide product and services to the industrial energy transportation and construction sectors . now the company has five business groups which are rail group construction products group inland barge group energy equipment group and railcar leasing & management services group . 1 contents 1 history 1.1 founding 1.2 1970s 1.3 1980s 1.4 1990s 1.5 2001 1.6 june 2006 1.7 august 2006 1.8 december 2006 1.9 april 2007 2 product 2.1 rail group 2.2 construction products group 2.2.1 guardrail controversy 2.3 inland barge group 2.4 energy equipment group 2.5 railcar leasing and management services group 3 see also 4 references 5 external links history edit founding edit the company first known as trinity steel was founded by c. j. bender in dallas in 1933 . w. ray wallace an engineering graduate of louisiana tech worked for dallas s austin bridge company in 1944 before joining the company in 1946 as its seventeenth employee . at the time trinity steel manufactured butane tanks in a dallas county mule barn . in 1958 trinity steel merged with dallas tank company which was also founded in 1933 and ray wallace became the new firm s president and first chief executive officer . at the time trinity had revenues reaching 2.5 million and employed 200 workers . while some employees of the firm in other states eventually unionized texas workers never formed a union . for a time the company profited by producing larger tanks that enabled it to enter the petroleum business and do steel fabrication for refineries . in addition to free up capital it established an investment company to buy trucks and lease them back to the firm . nonetheless by 1957 trinity faced competition and declines in the petroleum industry . dallas tank trinity steel and bender wallace development company merged in 1958 to form trinity industries incorporated and went public . 1970s edit in 1970 trinity diversified with the acquisition of 153 acres 0.62 km2 of land adjacent to the dallas fort worth international airport and in 1971 established its first real estate subsidiary . acquisition of mosher steel in 1973 after initially contracting work out to them enhanced the company s structural business . among projects completed by the firm s structural division were the texas stadium new york s world trade center the balboa bridge in panama the pennzoil building and two buildings in moscow . 1980s edit by the 1980s two subsidiaries gamble s incorporated of alabama and mosher steel of texas manufactured structural products including materials for drilling platforms highway bridge components commercial high rise buildings and other girders and beams . the firm s marine subsidiary equitable shipyards produced lash or lighter aboard ship barges riverboats for use by hilton hotels and other craft for industrial uses . hackney incorporated its metal components subsidiary produced materials for piping systems . trinity produced completed railcars including tank cars covered and open hoppers and gondolas to transport chemicals coal structural steel and other commodities at locations in oklahoma city oklahoma and longview texas and held two railcar leasing subsidiaries . the company also produced containers for fertilizer liquified petroleum gas and nuclear fuel and waste . in 1981 trinity acquired a metal fabrication firm at channelview texas and babcock & wilcox plants in elkhart indiana and koppel pennsylvania and in 1983 it acquired halter marine . in 1984 trinity acquired the railcar designs and production facilities of the pullman standard car manufacturing company once the largest railcar manufacturer in north america . that same year trinity also acquired the railcar designs of general american transportation corporation . in 1986 the rail car designs and production facilities of greenville steel car company were purchased including the auto rack designs of portec paragon . also acquired in 1986 were the railcar designs of north american car corporation and in 1987 ortner freight car was acquired . 1990s edit in the 1990s expansion continued with the acquisition of the transit mix concrete and materials company of beaumont texas beiard industries syro steel and stearns airport equipment of fort worth texas . by 1993 revenues exceeded 1.5 billion and the firm employed 13 000 people . 2 2001 edit in 2001 trinity industries acquired the designs and production facilities of thrall car manufacturing company which fabricates railroad freight cars . 3 june 2006 edit the company completed the sale of its weld pipe fittings business . august 2006 edit the company sold its european rail business to international railway systems s.a. december 2006 edit during the year ended december 31 2006 it made two acquisitions in the construction products group . april 2007 edit the company s subsidiary transit mix concrete & materials company acquired a combined group of east texas asphalt ready mix concrete and aggregates businesses operating under the name armor materials . 4 product edit rail group edit the group manufactures and sells railroad cars hopper cars gondolas flat cars roll cars intermodal cars tank cars etc. and component parts . its customers include railroads leasing companies and shippers of products . construction products group edit the group produces concrete aggregates highway products beams and girders used in highway bridge construction . its customers include contractors and subcontractors in the construction and foundation industry . guardrail controversy edit in march 2012 joshua harman co owner of guardrail manufacturing and installation companies spig industry and selco construction services filed a federal false claims act fca suit against trinity highway products llc . trinity manufactures under license the et plus system a guardrail end terminal system designed by the texas a & m transportation institute tti . mr. harman alleged that trinity did not properly notify the federal highway administration fhwa in 2005 when trinity changed the et plus guide channel from five inches to four . trinity made the modification upon the recommendation of tti which had successfully crash tested the product . 5 prior to may 18 2015 fhwa did not expect product submitters to notify fhwa of non significant modifications if the modification was though to have no effect on how the device would slow stop or redirect the vehicle . 6 harman further alleged that these were cost cutting changes that resulted in unsafe products being deployed on u.s. highways . automobile accidents involving the et plus system have involved guardrails penetrating vehicles and causing injury to the driver . lawsuits regarding the guardrails causing injury to motorists were pending in u.s. courts in 2014 . 7 in october 2014 the federal lawsuit resulted in a fraud jury verdict of 175 million which under fca was tripled to 525 million . 8 in june 2015 the u.s. district court in the eastern district of texas certified the verdict and assessed the final penalty at 663 million . 9 trinity has appealed the case to the fifth circuit court of appeals . 10 in january 2014 nevada suspended the use of the guardrails due to trinity s lack of disclosure . 11 by october 2014 14 states had suspended new installations of the end terminal . 12 a report by the university of alabama at birmingham which examined data from almost a decade of crash reports concluded the et plus guardrail end terminal to be nearly three times more likely to result in fatality than the previous version of the end terminal . in january 2015 the fhwa commissioned a peer review of the university of alabama at birmingham report . all four reviewers raised concerns about limitations or flaws in the study s methodology which led all of the reviewers to question the validity of the study s findings and conclusions . 13 in october 2014 the fhwa issued a memorandum requesting information from state transportation departments regarding the et plus performance . 14 in addition the fhwa requested the guardrail be retested . trinity voluntarily stopped shipping the et plus until the additional crash testing requested by the fhwa could be completed . up to that point 42 states had stopped installation of new et plus guardrails pending further testing . 15 the company conducted a series of eight crash tests at 27 inch and 31 inch heights to conform to the prevailing standard for guardrails of this type nchrp report 350 . 16 after a review by the fhwa and an independent expert in march 2015 the fhwa announced that the et plus et plus passed all eight crash tests and that the product remained eligible for federal reimbursement . 17 in march 2015 the virginia department of transportation announced plans to replace et plus guardrails . 18 in september 2015 the fhwa and the american association of state highway and transportation officials published a joint task force report titled safety analysis of extruding w beam guardrail end terminal crashes . the report concluded that there are no unique performance limitations that can be attributed to the et plus that there are real world conditions that exceed the performance expectation of all end terminal systems and that additional crash testing of all existing report 350 compliant end terminals would be irrelevant and uninformative . the report also cited installation maintenance and repair as factors affecting product performance . 19 20 on october 23 2105 trinity highway products announced that it would resume shipping the et plus to fill orders as they are approved and accepted . 21 inland barge group edit the group manufactures dry cargo barges and hopper barges . energy equipment group edit the group manufactures tank containers and tank heads for pressure vessels propane tanks and structural wind towers . railcar leasing and management services group edit the group provides fleet management maintenance and leasing services . 22 trinity industries leasing operates dot 111 tank cars for lease in north america . see also edit list of rolling stock manufacturers references edit finance.google.com google finance review handbook of texas online trinity industries agrees to acquire thrall car . new york times . 2001 08 14 . stocks.us.reuters.com guardrail dangers real life cases . wpri 12 eyewitness news . retrieved 2016 04 20 . eligibility letter request faqs safety federal highway administration . safety.fhwa.dot.gov . retrieved 2016 04 20 . outrage over guardrail crashes tied to lost limbs deaths . abc news . 2014 09 22 . retrieved 2016 04 20 . ivory danielle ; kessler aaron m. 2014 10 24 . producer of highway guardrails to halt sales . the new york times . issn 0362 4331 . retrieved 2016 04 20 . texas court hits trinity with 663m fca judgment law360 . www.law360.com . retrieved 2016 04 20 . a case to watch highway contractor appeals 663m false claims act judgment jd supra . jd supra . retrieved 2016 04 20 . ivory danielle ; kessler aaron m. 2014 10 12 . highway guardrail may be deadly states say . the new york times . issn 0362 4331 . retrieved 2016 04 20 . kessler aaron m. ; ivory danielle 2014 10 27 . virginia to remove suspect guardrails . the new york times . issn 0362 4331 . retrieved 2016 04 20 . peer review of report relative comparison of nchrp 350 accepted guardrail terminals guardrail safety federal highway administration . www.fhwa.dot.gov . retrieved 2016 04 20 . ivory danielle ; kessler aaron