Published June 2003

Crane gives
American Construction
a big lift

Snohomish County Business Journal/JOHN WOLCOTT In May, owner Steve Brannon celebrated American Construction Co.’s 101st year in business by unveiling the Patriot, dressed up in the company’s new red, white and blue colors. The Patriot recently left for Alaska to dredge Anchorage harbor’s dock area.

By John Wolcott
SCBJ Editor

Steve Brannon is celebrating American Construction Co.’s 101st anniversary in a big way — with a huge floating crane capable of lifting 100-ton loads.

In May, Brannon, president of the West Coast marine services business and the second generation to own the Everett waterfront company, painted the giant new crane he bought on Sept. 11, 2001, with a bright red, white and blue colorscape — naming it the Patriot.

“It just seemed to fit,” Brannon said.

The name not only fit with the patriotic fervor that followed the terrorist attack on America, it also fit with the company’s name. Now, American Construction Co. plans to repaint all of its traditionally orange-and-black cranes in the red, white and blue motif.

Most marine companies name their cranes, and American Construction is no different. But until now the names have all been linked to Pacific Northwest Indian tribes, from Tulalip and Skykomish to Stillaguamish and Snohomish.

Purchased nearly two years ago from the U.S. Army, the Tacoma-based crane arrived in Everett with sea-gray colors, then worked a dredging job at Neah Bay and a harbor project in Bellingham. But that work just tested the crane’s operation, giving Brannon an idea of what needed to be done to upgrade it to handle bigger jobs.

“When we got it, it took three minutes to rotate it completely around,” Brannon said. “It was slow. Now we’ve installed all new equipment inside so it turns one revolution in 30 seconds. We upgraded the steel cable from 1-inch diameter to 2.5 inches, increasing the strength about eight times. A computer controls the barge-mounted crane’s hydraulic operation for the three-man crew.”

But what really impresses people is the size of the crane’s bucket, he said. The company’s largest crane — before the Patriot arrived — used a 5-cubic-yard bucket. The Patriot operates with a 20-cubic-yard scoop.

“We bought it to expand our work in the Northwest and landed a contract for it that we never would have been able to bid on without it,” Brannon said, noting that the dredging of the downtown Anchorage dock area will keep the crane busy for five months. He expects to move 700,000 cubic yards in the process.

The company was founded in 1902 by Capt. Harry Ramwell in Port Townsend, but it soon moved to Everett. Surviving two world wars and the Great Depression of the 1930s, the company expanded in the 1950s and ’60s, then changed its name from American Pile Driving Co. to American Construction Co. in 1974.

Today, Brannon and his wife, Sandy, own the company. His father, Dick, bought into the company in the early 1950s. Other stockholders were bought out in 1986. In 1991, Steve Brannon and his wife bought his father’s share of the business.

The company provides dredging and crane services from the California-Oregon border to Alaska, serving clients that range from the Tulalip Tribes and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to the Port of Everett and Port of Edmonds, among many others.

Back to the top/June 2003 Main Menu