Granite Construction workers and representatives of the International Union of Operating Engineers met with Assistant Secretary for Mine Safety and Health Chris Williamson on Oct. 21 at the company’s Brunswick Canyon mine in Carson City to talk about policies and job creation.
Photo by Jessica Garcia.
Granite Construction company representatives and union miners expressed support in bolstering job creation and worker well-being at Carson City’s Brunswick Canyon mine Oct. 21 while hosting Assistant Secretary for Mine Safety and Health Chris Williamson.
The visit highlighted local projects and investments in one of Nevada’s essential industries. Granite workers and employees represented by the International Union of Operating Engineers led Williamson on a brief tour and gathered informally to speak on issues most impacting their livelihoods.
Most talked about the need to create and maintain safe, healthy jobs, including apprenticeship programs to train a workforce interested in developing transportation, water and specialty solutions through its aggregate products.
“What's the best part about it is getting to go to different parts of the country where mining goes on, like here in Northern Nevada, and to get to actually meet and spend some time with the workers who work there and hear from them about how important these jobs are to their communities and how it helps gives them security,” Williamson said.
Williamson originally is from West Virginia and comes from a background in public service and as an attorney-adviser to Administrative Law Judge Jacqueline Bulluck at the Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission. He went on to become senior counsel to National Labor Relations Board Chair Lauren McFerran. In 2022, he was appointed by President Joe Biden as assistant secretary for Mine Safety and Health Administration.
Williamson said his conversations are to help drive safety and learn how new technology is helping to reduce or eliminate fatalities.
“It just goes back to the whole good jobs principle that really matters and makes sure that these jobs that the folks here in Northern Nevada have are good jobs, and they go home to their families at the end of their day,” Williamson said.
Granite’s headquarters are in Watsonville, Calif., and focuses on infrastructure needs in the public and private sectors in various markets in mining, commercial projects, transportation and water or wastewater. As of March this year, it had worked on 87 best value projects with a total project value of more than $5.7 billion throughout the past 15 years.
Granite purchased its Brunswick Canyon Mine in 2023, which has produced aggregate, asphalt and landscape materials for more than 50 years in Carson City. It offers a 400-ton-per-hour asphalt plant serving Carson, South Reno, Tahoe and areas along the Interstate 580 corridor.
Chris Burke, regional vice president for Granite, said there are about 10 employees working daily at Brunswick Canyon but there are between 300 to 400 employees in the region working inside a mine, helping to create concrete or asphalt products. The material becomes the foundation for local communities, he said.
“It goes in trenches where we put pipes, water that services our community, and then obviously the roads we draw in here, on the airport runways and lands and all of the above,” Burke said.
Union workers and Granite employees said the need to attract and retain new talent is always a priority, but keeping the current workforce is equally important. Apprenticeships can vary between 6,000 and 8,000 hours, depending on the branch, and students or graduates can go into the construction field out of high school if they choose, according to the workers, and begin making between $60,000 and $80,000 without taking on college debt or making payments upfront.
While some enter the profession for the first time in their families, others are second- or third-generation workers who continue the legacy because they appreciate its importance. They also find the industry’s retirement benefits appealing and have enjoyed the lifestyle either in Nevada or the West in general.
“My family pretty much has anything they need (with) great benefits, good pay,” said Jimmy Humphries, plant foreman, who’s worked in the industry for 20 years.
One of Granite’s current initiatives as construction manager at risk is the Arlington Avenue Bridges replacement project in Reno. The undertaking is to address the deterioration of the bridge structures and improve connectivity in downtown Reno by improving pedestrian and bike safety, transit for riders and drivers and upgrade hydraulic capacity to manage Truckee River flood events.
The Regional Transportation Commission received $32 million for the project. Construction begins May 2025 and will be completed in 2026. Granite will provide granular and structural backfill materials from its Lockwood facility and work will include roadway reconstruction.
The federal dollars from the bridge replacement helps send a powerful message to the community about how important these infrastructure projects are, Burke said. U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg visited Reno in August to help celebrate the project’s groundbreaking.
“It's exciting for the companies that win it, for their businesses, but then the employees that work for them,” Burke said. “I mean, there's no greater day than when we send out messages that we want a job and oftentimes in this state, federal dollars are attached to it, so it's important, so important.”
It also has helped to see Northern Nevada’s influx of tech and data companies in need of the infrastructure, mobility and supply to send goods in and out of the state that supports the work and services mining companies like Granite provides.
Williamson said it’s for reasons like this it’s important to be able to provide the level of federal protections to miners and construction workers.
“For me, coming from a mining family and a mining background and a mining community, the idea that, you know, the folks that we talked to today that they don't have at least the same level of protection that every other worker or maybe even some of their operating engine, their colleagues that are working on the OSHA side, the idea is that they don't have at least the same level of protection, it was just a travesty to me,” he said.
“So we’re trying to get good information out there, so we can make it safer and healthier,” he said. “I’m really proud of that work and we're going to continue to have those conversations and try to get everybody ready for when the compliance kicks in on the rule, but as far as the implementation of it, we’ve been full steam ahead.”