My name is Robert Patterson.  My professional experience in the construction industry began in 1978, when Phillips Crane & Rigging, Inc. (PCR), parent company of Southwest Precast, Inc. (SWP) in San Antonio, TX, hired me as their corporate controller.  Within two years, however, the company moved me from the controller's position into operations, managing and dispatching the crane and erection divisions of the business.  

During this time, I  also began supervising rigging crews and operating cranes.  Because PCR/SWP was a relatively small, one plant operation, I was often assigned to work wherever the greatest need was at any given time.  I enjoyed that operating environment, and learned a lot through my exposure to the wide variety of work.

In 1981, I was the assistant project manager (backing up the owner of the company) for the financing (via an Industrial Revenue Bond), design, and construction of our new plant facility in Schertz, TX.  It took us about eighteen months to build the facility and move our operations from San Antonio to Schertz.  This facility is still in operation today, though it now belongs to Manco Prestress, which bought out Southwest Precast's successor, Precast Services, Inc. (PSI), in 2003. 

Many of the "old crew" from the SWP days still work at the plant, only now as Manco employees.

In June of 1984, due to a large amount of field work in SWP's backlog, I was assigned to supervise an erection project, the Texian Inn at University Ave. in College Station, TX.  This was a fairly large sitecast wall and hollowcore plank job.  Before the job was complete, in addition to supervising the erection, I had also inherited the operator's seat on an LS218 Link Belt (my operator abruptly quit, and we had no replacement), so I erected that first job mostly from the seat of a crane.  This job included placing and post-tensioning the walls, and erecting and grouting the hollowcore plank on all room levels, on the exterior walkways, and on the roof (4/12).

From mid-1984 until 1988 I worked on a number of projects, from very small (private residences) to very large (Wal-Mart Distribution Center in New Braunfels, TX, 3-M Southern HQ in Austin, TX, high rises, a number of prisons), as either the jobsite erection superintendent or as Project Manager, supervising other erection superintendents.  This work was done primarily in Central and South Texas, though we occasionally worked in the Dallas area.

Many of our jobs were small, requiring only a few days, or sometimes only a few hours to erect.  We were often working in the plant for part of the week, and then out in the field for the rest of the week.

During this time period, I also worked for for a short time as a Plant Manager and Project Manager for Heldenfels Brothers, Inc.

Frequently I was also assigned to work in the plant, as Production Manager and as Plant Manager during this time at PSI.  I supervised our operations in hollowcore production (Span Crete, Span Deck, Dyna Span [at HB]), production of structural components (ITs, LBs, RBs, many DT sections, columns, highway beams, piling, and other products), as well as architectural wall panel and spandrel production.  I was also occasionally assigned as superintendent on large rigging jobs (punch presses at Pearl Brewery, AC engine removals and replacements at San Antonio International Airport, equipment installations at refineries, a number of antenna erection projects, demolitions and salvage of old precast structures, etc.).

I concluded my time at PSI, in 1988, as General Manager of the precast operations.

In September of 1988, I went to work for Con-Fab Corporation, a California central valley precast concrete manufacturer.  I worked as the plant manager in California, supervising work on architectural wall panels, structural frames, and prestressed highway girders.  In March of 1991, the company transferred me to Hawaii, to backup the General Manager, in anticipation of his pending retirement. 

As it worked out, the GM did not retire for a number of years, and I was eventually assigned the project management responsibility for O'ahu, and for our "outer island" work, setting up and managing mobile precasting facilities on Kauai'i, and Maui, and managing work on the Big Island as well.  We provided precast products for a number of parking structures (Lawai Beach, Lahaina Center, Sheraton Lahaina, Gentry Homes, and others), schools (Kehei Elementary), a large observatory (AEOS on Haleakala) , condominium projects, and other structures out of these mobile plants.  

Between outer island jobs, I was assigned as Project Manager on a number of O'ahu jobs, including parking structures, condos, wharfs and other marine work, hotels, downtown highrises, etc.  I was also the Project Manager for our largest project in the Islands, a portion of the H-3 Interstate Highway, which runs between Pearl Harbor and Kaneohe MCAS.

By mid-1996, work in the islands had virtually ground to a halt, and the company sent me back to California as General Manager of the central valley operation.  Due to the slow construction market, the company was struggling to keep the doors open during this time, and in mid-1997, I resigned my position at Con-Fab and did contract erection work for a number of years, working on numerous CalTrans and local bridge structures, large parking garages (Intel, Yahoo, GAP, Cache Creek Casino, Kaiser Hospital, Stockton Arena, Petaluma Towne Centre, County of Shasta, Jackson Casino Phase I & III, and many others), and a number of commercial building projects.  This work took me all over California, from San Diego in the southland, to Crescent City in the far north of the state, from the coast to the Sierra, and almost everywhere in between. 

I also did technical contract work as a network engineer in the central valley area during this time, achieving certification in a number of networking, database, and programming environments.  Interestingly, Con-Fab contracted with me for their network services for a number of years.  There were times when I would work on their network during the day, and on one of their bridge projects (often far removed from the plant site) during the night of the same day.

By 2005, our children had all grown and were no longer living in our home.  We moved back to Texas, and I went to work for Heldenfels Enterprises, Inc., as Plant manager in their Corpus Plant for about 6 months, and then was transferred to their San Marcos plant as Plant Manager.  I worked in that position until early 2006, when the company assigned me to build a prestressed wall panel production facility for casting walls using the "Carbon Cast™" wall panel system. 

We completed that facility in July of 2006, and immediately began producing wall panels for our first job, a middle school in Austin.  Almost without exception, the workers in this new division were new to the business.  Training, mentoring, and long hours were the "order of the day".  To their credit, this team completed the job with only two panels, out of over 200, rejected due to plant issues, and produced the Gus Garcia Middle School in Austin, TX, a structure that was complimented and well received by contractor, architect, owner, and the other trades as well.  This project won the 2007 AGC Award for Outstanding Construction. ( http://www.bartlett-cocke.com/ms.html )

In September, before production of the middle school was complete, I and a "green" crew of workers went to Austin and erected the school, finishing our work, less punchout, in December, 2006.

After we completed this project, I accepted an offer to join a local non-profit homebuilding concern (providing affordable housing to low-income home buyers in the San Antonio, TX area), as their construction and operations manager.   We built 32 homes in 2007 and 2008.  Unfortunately, the "sub-prime" crash took our market away, and the company effectively ceased operations in mid-2008, pending improvement in the affordable housing market.

Soon after the affordable housing market crash, I moved on from the San Antonio Area in 2008 under contract with Hennessee Construction (www.hcibuilders.com) in Katy, TX to build a professional office facility known as the Seven Meadows Office complex.  This project, along with associated tennant build-out work, ran for about nine months.