Steele Earthworks

Ask Tony what makes a job stick with you, and it usually isn't the easy one.

This one had more parts and pieces than the jobs we run day to day. Special fittings, tighter requirements, a lot of things that don't line up ideal right out of the gate. So you build in plan A, plan B, plan C, and you make sure there's always a backup, because you already know something's going to move on you. Usually right at the start.

That's the part the crew actually looks forward to. You work the problem, you pivot, and eventually the whole thing finds a rhythm.

Before anything moves, the ground gets marked. City locates come out, paint goes on the pavement, and we know what's potentially buried down there before a single bucket breaks ground.

It's never a guarantee. But with Brandon's phases mapped and parts confirmed for Phase 1, we're not guessing on the things we can control. That's how you keep nine miles moving.

What does your pre-dig checklist look like?

Burns, Oregon. Nine miles of new pipe through a small town that doesn't stop for the job.

Coming into a project like this, you have to know exactly what you're up against before anything moves. Tight schedule, not enough space inside city limits, and a community still running while we're in there. Here's what we're working with.

Nine miles of pipe doesn't move itself.
Tony and the crew are doing the work before the work, cleaning fittings at the staging area so they're not losing time in the field, reading plans constantly, staying a step ahead of the crew so when they're ready to move, nothing is in the way.
Traffic control, saw cuts, rigs cleared. The goal is simple, to keep going.

Your job has a quarterly review. Our job has a rock crusher. One of these is more honest than the other. Big rock goes in, small rock comes out, everybody goes home. That's the whole business model.

Tony Delucia has been running crews long enough to know that no single operator makes or breaks a job. It's how the whole crew moves together.

Right now he's leading Steele's work out in Burns, OR, and watching how he talks about the team says more than any highlight reel could.