CATTRAC CONSTRUCTION, INC. Continues to Set The Pace with Their Full Complement of Contracting, Equipment Rental, Shoring Division and Heavy Haul Transportation Services

By Brian Hoover, Editor

Cattrac Construction, Inc. (Cattrac) has upheld the highest standard of excellence in the civil general engineering construction industry for 50 years. Cattrac was established in 1971 by Mike Dineen and has grown to become a multi-million-dollar, multi-faceted corporation that continues to work for the biggest and best in the industry. Stephanie Dineen took over the reins of the company in 1985 after the untimely death of her husband. The company has prospered and grown under Stephanie’s leadership to offer various earthmoving services, as well as a heavy equipment rental and a heavy haul transportation division.

John Koltura (Koltura) serves as vice president, overseeing the construction and rental equipment divisions’ daily operations. Koltura joined Cattrac in 1997 after working for Silverado Constructors, where he helped manage the construction of the Orange County toll roads. He first came onboard with Cattrac as the chief estimator and construction manager before becoming vice president in 2002. “The key to our success comes from our knowledge and expertise in design/build construction. We mix it up between grading, excavating, shoring, and utilities when necessary,” says Koltura. “We stay busy working for our larger union construction firms on a variety of private construction projects in several industries.”

Above and below: Cattrac scraper fleet on rent at Fort Irwin Military Base in Barstow.

Cattrac is signatory to Local 12 International Union of Operating Engineers and has been a part of many high-profile projects in the civil general engineering industry. Their list of accomplishments includes work on public schools and colleges, medical facilities, casinos, parks, entertainment venues, retail shopping centers, prisons, hotel and parking structures, landfills, highway construction and numerous military projects.

Cattrac has been working with Kaiser Permanente (Kaiser), performing earthwork at medical facilities throughout Southern California for the past 30-plus years. They are currently collaborating with Kaiser as a subcontractor to Whiting-Turner on the Kaiser Permanente Moreno Valley Medical Center Expansion Project. Cattrac’s construction services include excavation and grading to prepare for the construction of a new diagnostic center and a central plant. “We provided Kaiser and WhitingTurner with the shoring design associated with the necessary deep excavating work located adjacent to the existing hospital,” says Koltura. “Eventually, we were awarded the shoring installation and excavating contract that only just started a few months ago due to COVID related delays.”

Cattrac designed the shoring to accommodate the client’s specific needs. “We installed all of the shoring and lagging and supervised the entire design phase through approval with OSHPD (California’s Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development) and Kaiser Permanente,” says Koltura. “The shoring includes the installation of beams, wood lagging, and tiebacks to accommodate up to 20-foot excavations. The engineered shoring is the key to working safely and productively next to the basement level of the existing hospital.” Koltura points out that the current Kaiser Permanente project is challenging in that it is an older structure without a lot of as-built drawings to help understand what the foundation looked like in previous construction processes. “The shoring is engineered and built to support a basement excavation. I believe that one of the reasons they hired our team specifically so that if we run into any unforeseen challenges, we can simply adjust the design and keep the project on track,” says Koltura. “The new buildings will be multi-levels to include the basement. We will be excavating around 80,000 cubic yards of dirt to make room for the form and pour of the construction basement level. We are also performing mass grading over the 5-acre jobsite and overexcavating for the buildings that are going to be built on grade at a later date.”

Above & below: Cattrac utilizes design-build shoring at US Foods Cold Storage in Vernon.

Cattrac will be out at the Moreno Valley Kaiser Permanente job site for the next four years. “The project is broken up into several phases to accommodate the existing and ongoing hospital operations. We will be on and off of the site as the phases progress,” continues Koltura. “I want to mention just how easy it is to work for both Kaiser Permanente and WhitingTurner Construction as they look for and require the best in Union construction personnel. The safety requirements are specific and extensive due to COVID, and that is all magnified when working around a hospital setting.”

Cattrac is also currently busy working out at WellQuest Living of Menifee Lakes, a new $30 million assisted-living and memory care center in Menifee. When completed, this project will offer more than 100 living-care units, along with a long list of amenities and features. Cattrac is a subcontractor to Consolidated Contracting and began their earthwork contract around eight months ago on the 7-acre parcel. “The initial start required us to consider blasting, but instead, we brought in our Cat D10 to do the heavy ripping of the typical solid rock outcroppings you find in Menifee,” says Koltura. “We brought in two mobile crushers and a screening plant to size the 3-inch material that would later be placed and recompacted as fill material on site. We are using Cat 336 80,000 lb. excavators with breakers and Cat 980 wheel loaders to size the hard rock material. We are also required to export around 15,000 cubic yards. We will crush 70,000 tons of rock after our experienced operators rip the material to the appropriate crushing size for the two crushers we rented from Quinn Company Cat. The system is working so well that we are considering purchasing the units to expand our operations and capabilities.” Cattrac’s work is scheduled to complete their contract in February 2021. “We will bring this job in on time and within budget even with all of the COVID restrictions that were associated with the project,” continues Koltura. “Our project manager, Brian Henrington, and superintendent, Dan LeMaster, are doing an incredible job managing this challenging job.”

Above: Cattrac performing over-excavation at Los Angeles County Sheriff’s warehouse.

Cattrac utilizes its own in-house equipment that is made up of excavators, wheel loaders, scrapers, motor graders and small dozers and water trucks. “We run all Caterpillar equipment and have more than 40 pieces in our inventory. We utilize our fleet to complete our work and rent to other contractors throughout Southern California,” says Koltura. “We are also considering repowering our entire fleet of 18 scrapers to Tier IV required levels.”

Koltura says that they expect a huge boom to occur post-COVID since several jobs were postponed due to the virus. “We have a big backlog in public school work and other projects within the medical field. Several of these medical facilities did not want to redesign to meet the COVID regulations, so that meant postponing around $3 million of work, which we will eventually put back on the schedule,” says Koltura. “We are still on several school projects, including Roosevelt High School in downtown Los Angeles, Pacifica High Schools in Garden Grove, and La Quinta High School in Westminster.”

Cattrac has also long been working within the entertainment and casino industry. They were recently working on a design-build project for a large casino put on hold until 2023 due to COVID. They have been the grading contractor of record for Pechanga Casino since it was first built in 2002. Cattrac also did the grading for the new hotel extension and excavated for the additional tower, as well as all of the design shoring work.

The site preparation work for the Morongo Resort and Casino was also a huge undertaking for Cattrac back in 2005. They assisted in site preparation by excavating and grading the 20-acre site and installing all of the wet utilities prior to pouring concrete footings. Additionally, Cattrac brought in a complete crushing operation that produced 10,000 tons of RipRap used to reinforce the facility’s gabion walls. In 2008, Cattrac was also privileged to assist the Sycuan Band of the Kumeyaay Nation in constructing their new casino and gold resort. Cattrac’s services included mass excavation, site grading, utility excavation, and shoring at the Sycuan Resort & Casino. “We have been part of many other casino projects over the years, like San Manuel Casino, Agua Caliente Casino, and the Spa Resort Casino in Palm Springs,” says Koltura. “We are a Nevada licensed contractor and were proud to contribute to construction at the Monte Carlo Casino and the City Center in Las Vegas. This is a great niche for us, and we will continue to pursue work in this sector.”

One of the larger projects for Cattrac was completed in 2016 and included the moving of 800,000 cubic yards of earth from Stadium Hill at Mt. San Antonio College. The college needed to demo Stadium Hill to make room for a new athletic complex. “The Mt. San Antonio College project included a full range of services that enabled our crews to move such a massive amount of earth over 16-acres of land,” says Koltura. “We have the best in the business working here at Cattrac, and it is our people and their amazing talents that will take us into the next half-century of business success.”

Cattrac’s client-focused construction services for commercial industrial, residential, and public agencies encompasses all phases of site preparation and earthmoving disciplines. For more information on Cattrac Contruction, Inc., please visit www.cattrac.com or call their Fontana headquarters at (909) 355-1146. Cc