San Francisco 49ers’ Levi’s Stadium features guardrail system developed by Mound House company

Many of the three dozen employees of The Cable Connection watched the San Francisco 49ers recent home football opener as closely as a coach looks for a competitive edge in game film.

The reason for their close attention?

The staff of the company headquartered at Mound House were watching for glimpses of the guardrail systems they created for the new Levi’s Stadium, the home of the 49ers in Santa Clara.

“There’s a lot of our product at the stadium,” says Dan Nourse, The Cable Connection’s manager of sales and customer service.

The company landed the work as a subcontractor to the company that handled steel fabrication throughout the stadium, which had a total price tag of $1.3 billion.

Lou Marino, the chief executive officer of The Cable Connection, says specialized hardware fittings developed by the company help it win contracts at projects such as Levi’s Stadium.

Skilled machinists at The Cable Connection facility shape stainless steel into the hardware that connects guardrail cables into wood or metal posts.

The company’s catalog of fittings, cables and accessories runs for 30 pages, and the products are used inside and outside of buildings ranging from industrial structures to high-end custom homes.

One popular variety of the fittings, which the company has trademarked as “Invisiware,” is installed inside the posts of a guard-rail system. That prevents folks — such as those attending a stadium event — from loosening the cables from their posts.

The company has completed work for other stadium projects, including those at both the University of California, Berkeley, and Stanford. “No matter where they play The Big Game, we’re there,” quips Nourse.

But often, Marino says, employees of The Cable Connection aren’t told where the company’s products will end up because of secrecy imposed by the owners of building projects or the contractors for whom Mound House company works.

The company has operated in the Carson City area for a quarter of a century, drawn by its ability to recruit the highly skilled machinists who create its products.