Since 1993, when Andrew Backlund started G.K. Backlund, Inc. with his wife, Greta, the company has grown into a full-service grading and excavating contractor, completing projects for commercial, residential and public works customers.

Andrew says that longevity in the business is what allows G.K. Backlund to “do a variety of jobs and do them all well.” He has been in the business since 1984, initially working for a grading/excavating contractor right out of college. Two of his field superintendents have as much, if not more experience than he does.

G.K. Backlund’s projects include commercial work for stores such as Wal-Mart, Home Depot and Lowes; public works for CalTrans; public works such as city libraries and city halls, and residential projects such as housing tracts, condominiums and apartment buildings.

The company is currently working on the Norman Murray Senior Center in Mission Viejo for general contractor Douglas E. Barnhart. On this particular project, G.K. Backlund stepped in when there was a problem with the original grading/excavating contractor. Barnhart’s project manager, Don Rondeau, called on G.K. Backlund because of his past experience working with the company. Andrew says that after he took a look at the project, he was confident that his company could meet the schedule and budget for the project.

The project includes an addition to the existing senior center, which is located at a city park. G.K. Backlund spent two weeks at the end of October clearing off the old landscaping—trees and grass—and completed selected demolition around the existing building. The company was able to salvage the playground equipment that was then donated to a local church. They removed dirt and recompacted the area where the building addition will be constructed.

(Top Right) The Case 865 easily processing the soil at the new park site. (Bottom Right) Future Building addition for Murray Senior Center. (Left) G.K. Backlund's GPS crew provides higher production, greater quality control on finish grade.

G.K. Backlund’s portion of the project is in three phases: rough grading of the site, fine grading for site concrete, and pavement sub-grade and final site finish grading. The project is a typical size and scope project for the company. G.K. Backlund will import 13,000 cubic yards of soil, recompact 16,000 cubic yards of soil, and excavate 9,000 cubic yards of fill on the 15-acre project site.

The company used a Caterpillar 973 track loader and Case backhoe with hydraulic hammers for the demolition. According to Case’s website, the hydraulic hammers offer “low recoil design resulting in less wear and tear on the carrier, and only two moving parts resulting in a hammer that is easy to maintain and highly dependable, with more blows per minute for greater productivity.”

G.K. Backlund is completing the grading with Caterpillar 623 wheel tractor-scrapers, a Caterpillar 824 wheel dozer, a Case blade motor grader for the finish grading, and water trucks. According to Case’s website, their 800 series motor graders have “an industry leading flip-up rear hood and a rugged and beefy A-frame drawbar and moldboard design.”

G.K. Backlund has up to ten people on this job at any one time, including laborers and operators. They expect to completely wrap up the project in August of 2007.

Two of the companies more memorable jobs are one just finished at the Otay Ranch Town Center outdoor shopping mall for General Growth Properties, and a project completed about eight years ago for CalTrans, which was a landslide repair near Lake Casitas. G.K. Backlund was responsible for finish grading for all the site work for the 50-acre parking lot surrounding the Otay Ranch Town Center. Andrew says that the schedule was tight—they completed their work the day before the mall opened—which meant the crew worked ten-hour days for four months, working around the hundreds of other tradesmen on the project. During the landslide repair job, the earth started sliding again, which meant the project became an emergency repair that they worked on 24-hours a day until the slide was stabilized and the project was completed.

Andrew says that his company is focused on doing their best to meet their customers’ needs. “Whatever they need us to do, we want to be able to do it for them,” he says, “we do not want to be the problem, we want to solve the problem.”

He says the company does what they say they’ll do, and “99% of the time we get it done when we say we will.

“All of our customers know that they can rely on us to get the job done right,” he continues. “And, we’ve been successful in keeping them happy.”

Confirming that opinion is the fact the Andrew estimates that 90% of G.K. Backlund’s business is from repeat customers. The remaining 10% is usually a referral from a past business relationship. Eighty percent of their work is as a sub-contractor to general contractors. The other 20% of their work is as a prime contractor for development companies in Orange County, public works projects and local colleges.

The company’s office is located in Anaheim, and they complete work in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego and Kern counties. They employ 25 people and own 13 pieces of equipment.

G.K. Backlund has experienced steady growth through the years. When Andrew and Greta started the company, it was just the two of them. As they added to their family—they have seven children, including a set of twins, ages 7 to 17—Greta stayed home to manage the home. Andrew anticipates continued steady growth in the company.

 “We have more opportunities than we can take care of currently,” he explains.

Through the years Andrew has reminded his people that they are there to keep the customer satisfied, no matter what. He says that as the owner, one of his main roles is to keep his employees headed in the right direction and that is “to use our experience and reliability to clearly meet our customer’s needs with honesty and integrity.” 

Andrew says he’s blessed to have had Terri Corcoran running the office for the past ten years. “She’s the glue that holds us together,” he says, “and combined with our superintendents’ experience, we have been able to meet our customer’s needs project after project.”

For more information call: (714) 634-1700 Cc

(Top Right) The Case 865 turning sideways while safely grading slopes for the new amphitheatre. (Middle, L-R) Jacob Sanchez of D3 Equipment and Andrew Backlund. (Right, L-R) Richard Duenas, Andrew Backlund, Robert Turner and Paul Duenas. (Below) The Case 865’s power and GPS automatic controls make every pass count for finish grading on the new soccer fields.