On the road to building South Florida, few names have moved more dirt — or stayed more loyal to the iron — than Downrite Engineering.

Downrite recently purchased a Cat Centennial Edition D5 from Kelly Tractor, and when owner and president Sam LoBue saw the signature equipment piece, he looked back to a career built on hard work, trust and Caterpillar.

"I bought my first piece of equipment from Kelly Tractor in 1984 at the age of 21," LoBue said. "To now be one of the few to receive a 100-year anniversary machine — I'm grateful. I have Cat in my blood."

From that first purchase more than four decades ago, Downrite has grown into one of South Florida's leading site development contractors, operating a fleet of hundreds of machines. And while the company briefly turned to other brands during the supply challenges of COVID-19, LoBue said they are working their way back to a fleet that's nearly 100 percent Cat.

"Except for when we couldn't get it during COVID, we've always been a Cat company," he said.

The Centennial Edition D5, finished in Caterpillar's battleship grey paint scheme, is both a nod to the brand's history and a symbol of how far the industry has come.

As technology continues to evolve, the interface between operator and machine has become increasingly intuitive.

Speaking to this shift, LoBue said, "You don't have to be an operator anymore to run most of them. If you can run a video game, you can pretty much run one of these machines."

More than anything, LoBue sees the dozer as a testament to the relationship between Downrite and Kelly Tractor.

"I'm just grateful to the Kelly family for helping me," he said.

And as the Centennial Edition dozer begins its work, it joins a legacy fleet at Downrite that has helped build South Florida's roads, communities and infrastructure for generations — with plenty more ground still to cover.