One truck, then forty-eight crews.
Rock Ridge Investments started in 2009 with a used backhoe, a service truck, and one utility that needed services replaced faster than anybody else would do it.
- Founded
- 2009
- Employees
- 640
- Crews
- 48
- States
- 09
- Avg. crew tenure
- 6.4 yr
01 The company
The company grew the way this industry actually rewards: one owner at a time, by finishing what we started and telling the truth when something went sideways. Nobody handed us a national master agreement in year two. We earned a small one, kept it, and were still there when it doubled.
We stayed self-perform on purpose. It would have been easier to grow as a broker — win the work, sub it out, manage the margin. But the crew on the ground is the product. When that crew is somebody else's, the safety record is somebody else's, the quality is somebody else's, and the owner's phone call at 7 p.m. goes to somebody else's voicemail.
Today Rock Ridge runs seven divisions across nine states from three regional yards, with 640 employees and roughly three quarters of revenue under multi-year master service agreements. The newest division builds the underground for hyperscale data center campuses, which turns out to be the same work we have always done, on a schedule that does not forgive anybody. The backhoe is retired. The habit of showing up is not.
How we are held
Privately held and employee-heavy at the top — every operating officer came up through the field. There is no private equity clock running on this company, which is why we can turn down work that does not fit.
How we grow
Crew by crew, behind the training. We add a crew when we have a foreman ready to run it, not when the backlog says we should have one.
02 Record, by year
How the divisions got here.
Each division was added because an owner asked us to stop subcontracting something. That is the whole growth strategy.
- 2009
Founded
One backhoe, one service truck, and a gas service replacement contract in a single county.
- 2012
First master service agreement
A three-year unit-price agreement with a gas LDC. It is still in place, four renewals later.
- 2014
Heavy civil & HDD division
Bought the first two directional drills after subcontracted bores put a crossing four weeks behind.
- 2016
Power delivery division
First distribution line crews, and the first mutual-aid storm deployment three months later.
- 2019
Broadband & fiber division
Aerial and splice crews stood up ahead of the rural build-out wave, with make-ready engineering brought in house the same year.
- 2021
Survey, SUE & damage prevention division
Locating pulled in house after a subcontracted mislocate. Damage rate has dropped every year since.
- 2023
Water & wastewater division
Added at the request of two municipal owners already using us for joint-trench work.
- 2025
Data centers — hyperscale division
Stood up after an EPC asked whether the crews running our medium-voltage duct bank could do it on a campus. Same duct bank, same locate discipline, a far less forgiving schedule.
- 2026
Seven divisions, nine states
640 employees, 48 crews, three regional yards, and a backlog that runs eighteen months out.
03 Footprint
Where the crews actually are.
Nine states worked from three regional yards, plus wherever a storm sends us. Crews are counted by home yard, not by where they happen to be parked this week.
| Yard | Serves | Divisions housed |
|---|---|---|
| Southeast — headquarters | 4 states | All seven |
| Gulf Coast | 3 states | Power, gas, civil, survey |
| Mid-Atlantic | 2 states | Broadband, water, civil, survey |
Travel work
We take out-of-footprint work when it is worth doing: a large crossing, a grant-funded build with a real schedule, or a storm. Per diem, lodging, and a rotation home every other weekend are standard, not a negotiation.
04 Leadership
Everyone here has been rained on.
It shows in what gets approved and what gets refused.
D. Hollis
President
Started the company in 2009 running the backhoe. Still walks major routes before they are priced.
M. Reyes
Vice President, Operations
Eighteen years in distribution line work before moving to the office. Runs the storm program.
T. Adeyemi
Director of Safety & Compliance
Former gas operations inspector. Holds the stop-work policy and answers to nobody on it.
K. Lindqvist
Director of Engineering & Survey
Licensed surveyor. Built the SUE and as-built program the other five divisions depend on.
05 How we work
Four things we do not trade away.
The stop is free
Anyone can stop any job. We eat the cost of a bad call every single time rather than teach a crew to hesitate.
Bad news travels first
Owners hear about a problem from us, on the day it happens, with a plan attached. Nobody enjoys that call. Everybody prefers it.
The number is the number
We do not buy work and change-order our way back to profit. If the scope is wrong, we say so at bid time.
Leave it better than found
Restoration is not a punch item. The homeowner whose yard we crossed is the reference the next owner actually calls.
06 Next step
Come see the yard.
Owners are welcome to walk our equipment, meet the superintendents, and read the safety file before they ever send us a bid package.
- CGA
- Common Ground Alliance — damage prevention program written to CGA Best Practices; every damage reported to DIRT.
- NUCA
- Trench safety curriculum and the annual Trench Safety Stand Down.
- Also
- Power & Communication Contractors Association, Distribution Contractors Association, ISNetworld, Avetta, and Veriforce operator qualification.