At the time it filed for bankruptcy on July 23, the Truland Group was the 10th largest electrical contractor in the U.S. and had roughly 1,000 employees working on more than 250 construction projects around the country — including some of the most high-profile developments in the Washington, D.C. area, the Washington Post reported on Saturday. Last Wednesday, there were few signs of a once-bustling business at two of the company’s Virginia offices. Truland is working its way through the initial stages of a chapter 7 bankruptcy that could bring about the end of a family-owned business whose roots in the region date back more than 100 years. Its shutdown is creating ripple effects across the D.C. region, impacting not just hundreds of laid-off Truland employees — many of whose paychecks have bounced — but dozens of construction companies that hired Truland to do electrical work on condos, office buildings, hospitals, hotels and schools. Many are now hustling to find replacement subcontractors and looking to recoup costs from Truland’s insurance companies.
