History

In the 1950s, Ralph Hannah Burns took up hauling chickens and fertilizer back and forth from southern West Virginia to Virginia. After years of making a career out of hauling livestock, Burns found himself in the middle of the bustling road construction industry. Equipped with a dozer, a backhoe and a couple of dump trucks, Burns grew a one-man operation into a successful, booming business. At the company’s largest footprint, he had nearly 70 employees across the state of West Virginia, with three asphalt plants, two concrete plants and the rock quarry at Mill Point. Burns sold the road construction operation, and the business moved and expanded into bulk transportation. Burns’ son, Dick Burns, mirrored his father’s business-minded tendencies. Dick quickly moved into the hauling business as well – transporting liquid asphalt and continuing to provide repair services to local customers.  In December 2017, Burns’ son,  Ralph “R. W.” Burns, took over the business and transformed it into the Burns Service Center.