Knife River Construction

Knife River Construction is part of Knife River, a heavy-civil contractor and producer of construction materials with operations in 15 states spread across western, southern and central parts of the United States. This listing covers its Chico, California location. The company sells aggregates, asphalt and ready-mix concrete, and its contracting crews build airport runways, bridges and roads as well as smaller jobs such as parking lots and driveways.

Aggregates sit at the base of the business. Knife River's pits and quarries supply sand, gravel and crushed stone to public and private projects, ranging from high-specification rock for runways, bridges and highways down to sand for a backyard sandbox, and a company trucking fleet delivers the material. Its asphalt is used for parking lots, driveways and roads, and it produces ready-mix concrete in every market where it operates. Some Knife River companies also supply cement, liquid asphalt, and precast and prestressed concrete. A locations tool on the company's website lets customers search plants by product line, including plants that offer EPD generators.

Its heavy-civil crews take a site from demolition and clearing through excavation and grading to a finished build. Projects featured on the website include replacing three bridges over White Rock Creek, close to Malone, Texas; supplying ready-mix for the three-foot-thick walls and roof of the Heimann Cancer Center; precast design, fabrication, delivery and erection of 165 thin-brick cladding panels for the Block 10 building in Vancouver, Washington; and work with Martel Construction on a new terminal at Missoula Montana Airport.

The company traces its start to 1917 in North Dakota, along the Knife River. Montana-Dakota Utilities purchased it in 1945, and it was later folded into MDU Resources Group. Its first aggregates acquisition, in 1992, was in California, and a series of moves into Alaska, Oregon, Hawaii, Montana, Idaho, Minnesota, Texas and other states followed, with Washington added in 2020. In 2023 Knife River separated from MDU Resources and became an independent company traded on the NYSE under the symbol KNF. It reports close to 100 acquisitions since 1992 and more than 5,700 employees.