MORENO VALLEY CONSTRUCTION

Zach Zuppardo (left) is Moreno Valley Construction’s vice president overseeing daily business activities and field operations, along with his father and partner, Jay Zuppardo, who serves as the company president.

Continues Their Remarkable Growth with Purchase of New Wirtgen SP 15i Compact Offset Slipform Paver and New LeeBoy 8520 Paver

By Ian Hoover, Editor

When we last touched base with Moreno Valley Construction in 2019, they were in the fledging stages of forming their new asphalt construction division. One year later, Moreno Valley Construction has not only successfully launched this new division but has also more than doubled its business overall. Zach Zuppardo is the vice president overseeing daily business activities and field operations, along with his father and partner, Jay Zuppardo, who serves as the company president. “A little after the first of the year, we started bidding asphalt paving projects in the San Francisco Bay Area and have been awarded more than $8 million in road work to date,” says Zuppardo. “We are currently looking for a permanent location in the Bay Area right now and even have a spot in mind. We will offer all of our full civil general engineering services while focusing on roadwork for the cities, counties, Caltrans and other agencies.”

Zuppardo explains that one of the roadwork projects in northern California is a $2 million-plus job for the City of Albany. “This is a full remove and replace project where we are placing new asphalt on city streets, pouring new sidewalks, placing new curb and gutter and replacing underground utilities,” says Zuppardo. “Additionally, we are paving around 3 miles of asphalt trails for the City of Tiberon, along with other asphalt jobs at several other northern California locations.”

Moreno Valley Construction is utilizing their new Wirtgen SP 15i on many school jobs right now in Southern California. Pictured here on a project at Valleyview High School in Moreno Valley, where they are paving 325,000 square feet of new parking lots as well as placing around 4,500 linear feet of curb and gutter.

With a new asphalt division, comes the equipment that is needed to support the work. Moreno Valley Construction has over 70 machines in their heavy equipment fleet that consists of primarily Cat equipment. “Our equipment fleet has also more than doubled over the past year.

We predominantly own Cat equipment with an emphasis on machines like 938 wheel loaders and 325 excavators. We also own and operate 20 Cat skid steer loaders, John Deere skip loaders and 44 work trucks,” says Zuppardo. “We turn to other vendors like Nixon-Egli Equipment Co. for specialty equipment like our new LeeBoy 8520 paving machine and our new Wirtgen SP 15i compact offset paver for monolithic profiles and narrow paths.”

Moreno Valley Construction already had a paver in their fleet, but they were looking for a new machine to handle all of the roadwork they have coming up. “We are currently purchasing a brand-new LeeBoy 8520B paver from Nixon-Egli Equipment,” continues Zuppardo. “We did our due diligence and decided that the LeeBoy was the perfect, dependable production machine for our type of work. We have a heavy backlog of asphalt road paving jobs on the books right now throughout California and we are excited about getting our new LeeBoy out on the job site as soon as possible.” Moreno Valley Construction also recently added a new half-million-dollar slurry seal truck, along with several rollers to their asphalt equipment fleet. “We offer full-service asphalt construction services, complete with paving, grading, striping, and sealing crews,” says Zuppardo. “To round out our fleet, we are looking at adding a new Wirtgen milling machine very soon. We recently bid a $6.5 million roadway expansion project in Perris and other large projects where we were up against some pretty big players. We have consistently been coming in as one of the top three bidders. I think owning the equipment we need and having that at our disposal is a big part of what will be required going forward on these larger projects.”

Moreno Valley Construction has at least a few thousand feet of curb and gutter and sidewalk work on almost every project. In the past, they did it all by hand, but the new Wirtgen SP 15i has expedited the workload and projects.

Moreno Valley Construction is working on many school jobs right now in Southern California. They have a project at Valley View High School in Moreno Valley, where they are paving 325,000 square feet of new parking lots. They are also paving around 19 miles of asphalt biking and pedestrian trails for the City of Cucamonga. Additionally, the company is busy doing what may be considered their bread and butter type work, concrete construction. This work includes the $6.2 million job they recently completed for Riverside Poly High School, where they removed and replaced nearly all of the concrete to bring the facility up to all ADA compliance requirements. “We have over $20 million worth of work in progress at Antelope Valley College and Edwards Air Force Base combined. This includes a $5.5 million, a $4.8 million and a $5.2 million project that is mostly concrete work at Antelope Valley College and a $5.2 million job at Edwards Air Force Base,” says Zuppardo. “We are performing around 350,000 square feet of concrete work at the new elementary school that is being constructed at Edwards Air Force Base. This project includes around 9,000 linear feet of curb and gutter and is one of many reasons we decided to purchase our new Wirtgen SP 15i slipform paver.”

Moreno Valley Construction has 270 employees working out in the field right now on everything from school district work to large asphalt paving projects.

Zuppardo points out that they also performed around 4,500 linear feet of curb and gutter on the Valley View High School project in Moreno Valley. “It seems like we have at least a few thousand feet of curb and gutter and sidewalk work on almost every project. In the past, we did it all by hand, but we knew that with our workload, it would be necessary to expedite that process,” says Zuppardo. “The Valley View High School project represented our inaugural use of our new Wirtgen SP 15i slipform paver. We have so much sidewalk and curb and gutter work either going on or coming up, we decided that it just made good business sense to own this machine. It was an easy decision, but deciding on what machine to purchase required a little more effort.”

Zuppardo says that they were initially thinking about going with another brand but changed their minds when they met the folks from Nixon-Egli Equipment Co. at the World of Concrete in Las Vegas. “We went to the World of Concrete this past February, and we liked what we saw and heard at the Wirtgen exhibit. We were able to see firsthand the quality of the Wirtgen SP 15i compact slipform paving machine, and to say that we were impressed would be an understatement,” says Zuppardo. “Jay Rosa and the people from Nixon-Egli then told us about the service and support they had to offer. When you purchase an expensive specialty machine like this, you want to know that the manufacturer and distributor will be there for you in every way after the sale is complete. Nixon-Egli followed through with their promises of service and support, and that made all the difference.” Zuppardo also says that most every operator out there is not going to know how to run one of these high-tech slipform pavers. “Jay Rosa is our Nixon-Egli representative, and he made sure that we got the proper training on the operations of our new Wirtgen slipform paver. I’m not going to lie. There is a definite learning curve, but Nixon-Egli has been there for us every step of the way, and our productivity has gone through the roof.”

Moreno Valley Construction is a full-service heavy civil engineering contractor based out of, you guessed it, Moreno Valley. Zuppardo makes it clear that although they are swamped right now in northern and southern California, they know and remember how fast things can change. “We are excited about our growth but remain poised and prepared for any downturn,” says Zuppardo. “We have around 270 employees working out in the field right now on everything from school district work to large asphalt paving projects. We have a long list of $3 to $6 million projects on the books and have more than doubled our business from the $30 million we did last year. Our biggest challenge is keeping up with this growth, and we are taking nothing for granted. We keep our nose to the grindstone with an eye to the future, while remaining vigilant and aware of any possible economic trends or changes.” For more information on Moreno Valley Construction, please visit their website at www.mvc-inc.com or call their Moreno Valley offices at (951) 697-6888. Cc