GRANITE CONSTRUCTION

By Brian Hoover, Senior Editor

Back into Full Swing of Concrete Paving in Southern California

Granite Construction (Granite) ranks at the top of any list as one of the busiest and most successful paving and roadway contractors in America. From their numerous aggregate and material facilities to their portable asphalt, central mix and concrete batch plants, Granite is fully vertically integrated for maximum competitiveness. Granite has historically been heavily involved in concrete paving throughout the United States. In the mid-2000s, Granite decided to move away from the concrete paving business in Southern California in favor of other more profitable, trending specialties.

After extensive, favorable market research, Granite decided to renew their interests in concrete paving in Southern California in 2018. They hired Jon Hamilton on initially as a project manager, estimating, and quality control engineer in May 2018. Hamilton had worked in concrete construction management for several years for a large, well-known construction firm. “I came on board, and Granite still had a small concrete crew on the job after finishing up an LAX job in 2017.,” says Hamilton. “I met with the crew, many of whom

CMI PS-350 concrete placer-spreader working on Highway 101 project in San Lucas.

I had worked with in the past. There was nothing much going on, but I began estimating and bidding work, and to all of our surprise, we were awarded three big jobs amounting to more than $33 million.” Hamilton was then asked to lead the South Coast Region concrete division, as he and concrete superintendent, Sam Martinez, went to work to rebuild the program. Nathan Jacobs was then recruited to manage the portable concrete plants. The success is in part attributed to the strategic planning afforded by south coast regional vice president, John Boies, area manager, Brian Fortier and Jon Hamilton, concrete paving manager, who together set one year, two year and up to five-year milestone projections.

GOMACO GP4 four-track slipform paver working at Naval Base Coronado.

Granite quickly began updating their equipment and crews with the new contracts firmly under their belt. Hamilton explains that after extended hours of work with several dedicated individuals from Granite, they established a 100,000 cubic yard backlog. They recruited and in-house trained operators, laborers, and masons from the hall as apprentices and built it all from that point forward. “Our superintendent, Sam Martinez, has done a remarkable job, along with his foremen, Mark Rogers, Jose Veloz and Adam Covarrubias,” says Hamilton. “We are now involved with four great concrete projects in Southern California with more being bid and added to the books monthly.”

Hamilton points out that he came on board as a 5,000 cubic yard job was finishing up at Edwards Air Force Base. “We paved some access roads out at the Edwards Air Force Base with our existing GOMACO Commander III four-track paving machine. We also owned a Guntert & Zimmerman S850 midsized slipform paver that was in need of a good upgrade and repair. Instead of putting the money into this older machine, I proposed that we purchase a new mainline paver that would be versatile enough to handle all sized jobs and complexities, says Hamilton. “Due to our recent bidding success, it was decided that we would sell the Guntert & Zimmerman and become one of the first in California to own a new GOMACO GP4 slipform paver from Terry Equipment.”

F-35B VERTICAL LANDING PADS AND TAXIWAY AT MARINE CORPS AIR STATION MIRAMAR

The GOMACO GP4 allowed Granite to pave the taxiway in three passes at 37.5’ wide.

The first job that Granite would utilize their new GOMACO GP4 paver on would be for the Marine Corps Air Station in Miramar. This $10.1 million contract was awarded to Granite to build and pave new vertical landing pads and a taxiway for the F-35B Lightning II Joint Strike Fighters. The $10.1 million project was awarded by the Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Southwest (NAVFAC), and the Army Corps of Engineers to construct high-temperature vertical landing pads and taxiway segments that connected to existing runways. Work began in spring 2019 and is scheduled to be completed by Sept. 2020. “We paved the 200-foot x 200-foot pads with special fiberreinforced high-strength concrete overlays to handle the extreme thermal conditions,” says Hamilton. “These sections had to be paved to specific and exact surface lines and grade, as did the two 700-foot taxiways that led up to these pads. We utilized approximately 12,000 cubic yards of concrete on this unique and important project.”

GRANITE AWARDED $14 MILLION MULTIPLE TASK CONTRACT AT NAVAL BASE CORONADO

Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Southwest, San Diego, recently awarded a $14 million contract to Granite to repair Taxiway India at Naval Base Coronado. The job began in Jan. with Granite serving as the prime contractor and is expected to be complete by early 2021. The contract calls for Granite to replace existing deteriorated concrete on Taxiway India with new compliant airfield pavement. In addition to the taxiway reconstruction, Granite also performed demolition and earthwork, as well as replacement of base material and cement stabilization work. They are also performing work on the shoulders, putting down striping, replacing a waterline, and doing associated electrical and other incidental work. “This job is being performed in multiple stages and phases. We are using our new GOMACO GP4 paver to put down approximately 20,000 cubic yards of concrete on 3,000 foot, 112-feet wide Taxiway India,” says Hamilton. “The GP4 allowed Granite to pave the taxiway in three passes at 37.5’ wide. We placed base material and put down around 10,000 cubic yards of cementtreated base that we mixed on-site with our Wemco central-mix plant. Our new GOMACO GP4 has allowed us to easily pave around 2,400 cubic yards per paving day, and we still have about 12,000 yards left to do.”

GRANITE SERVES AS CRCP SUBCONTRACTOR TO PAPICH CONSTRUCTION ON HIGHWAY 101 REHABILITATION PROJECT SAN LUCAS

Before taking delivery of their new GOMACO GP4 slipform paver, Granite was awarded and began working on a job for Papich Construction to place continuously reinforced concrete pavement (CRCP) on the Highway 101 rehabilitation project. “We started in Sept. 2019, putting down CRCP on Highway 101 between Paris Valley Road and Lockwood San Lucas Road. We didn’t have our GOMACO GP4 yet, so Terry Equipment delivered a GOMACO 2800 two-track loaner paver to the job site, and we put down one of the smoothest surfaces I have ever paved,” says Hamilton. “We used

GOMACO GHP-2800 two-track slipform paver and GOMACO RTP-500 rubber-tracked placer working in tandem.

the GOMACO 2800 for the first phase and then moved to our Commander III on the second phase. There were some very tight 13-foot areas with only a few inches of clearance where we had to pave a single lane, so we utilized our CMI PS-350 placer spreader. It is like using a tiny paver in front of a paver with a conveyor belt that can swing out 90 degrees down perpendicular. The trucks would drive under the unit, and the belt would drop down flat. The truck would then dump the concrete into the hopper, and the entire process was repeated.” Granite crews put down approximately 36,000 cubic yards of concrete for the new two-lane road project with concrete shoulders and new concrete ramps. Granite also had their new Erie Strayer MG-12 mobile gravity 12-cubic yard central mix batch plant on-site.

NEW AND UPCOMING PROJECTS

Granite is also the concrete subcontractor to Skanska on the New Otay Mesa I-905, Route 11, SR 125 Interchange Project in San Diego. Additionally, they are the construction manager/general contractor (CMGC) for the overall Highway 101 Carpinteria to Santa Barbara project estimated at $400 million. Three separate Granite regions (Central, South Coast and Northern Los Angeles regions) will complete five segments that will reconstruct 10.9 miles of Highway 101. “We are all coming together in a seamless operation on this Carpinteria to Santa Barbara project that started in late 2018. Our South Coast Region concrete crews will place more than 200,000 cubic yards before the entire job is complete in 2025,” continues Hamilton. “We will be using our GOMACO GP4 and our newly ordered GOMACO GP-2400 slipform paver to place CRCP on this 101 widening and renovation project.”

Far Right: Granite’s GOMACO GP4 paving over fixed forms with ready mix concrete.

GRANITE SOUTH COAST REGION CONCRETE EQUIPMENT LINEUP

Granite’s South Coast Region has worked hard to put together an extended fleet of equipment for its concrete division. They now own and operate three batch plants, including two Erie Strayer MG-12 mobile gravity central mix batch plants, and a Wemco central mix batch plant. “Our plant manager, Nathan Jacobs rebuilt our Wemco central mix batch plant and turned it into a 30-year high production machine that can produce 350 cubic yards an hour,” says Hamilton. “Not only do we have these stateof-the-art plants, but we also have the leverage that comes with being vertically integrated here in California and throughout the nation. We have quarries and aggregate plants and facilities up and down this state, which is a real advantage in this competitive business. These are the kind of advantages we will need as we pursue our plans to make Granite the premier concrete paving construction firm here on the West Coast.”

Granite now also has a fleet of pavers at their disposal to handle any job, large or small, at any width or capacity. They have their GOMACO Commander III four-track paver, two GOMACO RTP 500 rubber-tracked placers, a CMI PS-350 placer spreader, their flagship GOMACO GP4 slipform paver with a GOMACO GP 2400 on order and scheduled to be delivered in early 2021. “We deal with Andru Small over at Terry Equipment for all of our GOMACO machines. He and the folks at Terry Equipment do a great job for us and they have well-trained GOMACO University team members that we can call on whenever we need assistance.”

Granite was incorporated in 1922 with a California License number of 89 and is one of the largest diversified construction and construction materials companies in the United States. In addition to being one of the world’s most ethical companies, they are also an industry leader in safety and an award-winning firm in quality and sustainability. For more information on Granite and what their more than 7,000 employees can do for you, log on to www.graniteconstruction.com or call their South Coast Region headquarters at (760) 444-1028 for more information on their Southern California concrete division.