Granite Construction has continued its strategic pivot to focusing on smaller, simpler jobs with a pair of highway wins in Texas worth a combined $107 million, according to a company press release.
The two projects are on State Highway 288, near Cedar Rapids Parkway and Dubuque Parkway south of Houston and cover 24 lane miles on the four-lane thoroughfare. The award was made and funded by the Texas DOT.
The awards include construction of five new bridges, the reconstruction and reconfiguration of entry and exit ramps and new grade separations, the firm said. Work on the two new sections of SH 288 will begin this fall, with anticipated completion in summer 2024.
The win follows a smaller, $40 million award announced in July for another 1-mile section of SH 288 in Houston near the Texas Medical Center.
It also comes on the heels of Granite’s completion of a larger joint venture with Ferrovial Agroman US and Webber on the nearby Grand Parkway Project, which was valued at $855 million. Granite booked 30% of that amount into its backlog in 2017, according to a release.
Granite has been working to get away from larger, more complex projects of that nature after an accounting scandal rocked its heavy civil group, forcing it to restate three years of its financials and pay a $12 million fine to the Securities and Exchange Commission.
But Granite’s turnaround story has included some stops and starts. Earlier this month, Granite said it was canceling the previously announced sale of its water and mineral units, saying that current market conditions had undermined its efforts to secure an appropriate value for the businesses.
