Since the mid- 1990s, Jimmy Chiu, infrastructure program director at San Francisco International Airport, has played an important role in the airport’s unique partnership with Graniterock’s Construction Division. “Right from the beginning, we worked on a way to solve problems in a non-adversarial way,” Jimmy said. For example, if mix designs developed in a lab environment did not perform on site, the airport team worked with Graniterock to find a solution. 
Read More

“There is no typical day. It never ends up the way I have planned it, and the day continuously changes– it is impossible to become bored. I love to be busy, and I have interaction with people all day long. If someone calls with a problem, you solve it, and it makes them happy,” Katlin said.
Read More

Construction contracting is a highly regulated business.  This is even more true when it comes to home improvement work, a staple for small contractors.  The first step for anyone in the business is to get a contractor’s license in the right classification.  Unfortunately, the requirement is widely disregarded. 
Read More

A negative event occurs that would logically seem to depress the stock market but results in triple digit gains, or a positive happening has the exact opposite effect. So take that as a warning – just like the weather, when it comes to economic predictions there are no guarantees. 
Read More

CEO Sean Venables and his partner Mark Petersen recently described the company’s behavior-based safety program. “It was slow getting this approach started, but what we’ve seen is a change in attitude about safety among people in the field. Their concern for each other’s well-being, where everyone is looking out for each other, has made a big, big difference. 
Read More

 Many of us spend our lives listening to a seemingly endless stream of information from radio, television, the internet and social media outlets, from our co-workers and significant others – so much so that it becomes a challenge to focus on what is really important. I am guilty of letting my mind wander as my kids relate some mundane (in my mind anyway) event that has happened to them at school. I usually pay the price later on when the subject comes up again and I’m asked if I remember. No such luck, I can’t remember a thing, because I wasn’t paying attention.
Read More

Tony Ruiz was born to be a builder. As a teenager, Tony recalls, “I didn’t like school and I always wanted to get into construction. When I was 15 or 16, I would go down to the laborers' hall before school, trying to get onto a job. Finally, when I was 17, I was hired one day to strip stem walls during the building of the 280 freeway. I worked 10 hours straight that day, until the foreman made me stop.” That was the beginning of Tony’s construction career, and he has never looked back.
Read More

On the job at Graniterock, Jon is a mild-mannered geologist whose role is to help plan and adjust mining, crushing and processing techniques to produce consistent, high-quality aggregates for use in Company products such as asphalt and concrete. Away from work, he is a Superman who has trained thousands of hours to qualify for a spot at the starting line at “Kona”, the iconic triathlon more than 150,000 people aspire to join each year.
Read More

For three months this summer, the pounding of compactors, shrill of back up alarms and reverberation of rollers and excavation equipment competed with the roar of jets taking off and landing at San Francisco International Airport. Graniterock Team Members and joint venture partner DeSilva Gates Construction were busy installing new Engineered Materials Arrestor System (EMAS) safety devices on two of the airport’s four major runways.
Read More

What do you do if faced with a contractor or customer unwilling or unable to pay for labor or materials? When a contractor or supplier comes to me with this problem, the first question I always ask is, “Did you serve a Preliminary Notice?” I then ask, “When was the Preliminary Notice served?” The answers to these questions will often determine their ability to recover money owed.
Read More