profits on new work were very small in 1955 dividends paid in 1955 ex ceeded earnings for that year so that these companies caused us to report a decrease in our share of the undistributed profits of subsidiary and affiliated companies the declining trend in our backlog of work was reversed at the end of the first quarter of 1955 and thereafter the company enjoyed unusual success in obtaining new work the company ended the year with the highest backlog of uncompleted construction work in its history the mere size of the work backlog is not necessarily a measure of the profits it may produce for it can be inflated by the inclusion of contracts of the type which produce large gross revenues but small gross profits such as cost-plus-fixed-fee contracts for military or atomic energy commission installations building contracts also tend to carry lower profit margins in relation to gross revenues than do heavy engineering contracts where the risk is commensurately greater your management feels that our portfolio of construction contracts on hand at the end of the year is well balanced both from the standpoint of the types of risks involved and the periods of time during which the work must be performed it includes a substantial proportion of long-term contracts as well as short-term contracts and is diversified by types of work and by the countries in which the work must be performed we are hopeful that it will produce over the next several years profits commen surate with its size left above floto n process equipment installed in inuel copper corporation plant f 59,000,000 by a joint ventur below construction in progress near salt lake city of earth filled wanship dam and spillway for a reservoif and water conservation purposes being performed by utah construction company for u s bureau of reclamation at a contract price of 2,600,000 heavy equipment employed in initial phases of construction of a power house on barnhardt island in the st lawrence river for the n y power authority utah construction company is a participant ii this 36,000,000 joint venture of utah walsh morrison-knudsen kiewit perini & son this installation is a segment af the vast st lawrence seaway project left pouring concrete in construction of table rock dam on the arkansas missouri border for the u s corps of engineers a 24 387 000 project being performed by a joint venture n wh ch utah con t uct on company is a pa t c pant and will be completed n 1958