Within 48 hours of a fire that damaged the 10 Freeway south of downtown earlier this month, two local firms were already at work shoring up abutments and removing hazardous materials from the site.
Crews with Westlake Village-based Security Paving Co. Inc. were busy shoring up the freeway abutments that had been damaged in the fire. Brea-based construction contractor Griffith Co. was also helping to shore up one freeway abutment and remove hazardous debris from the site.
According to a spokesman for the California Department of Transportation, or Caltrans, which administers the freeway, both companies are on the agency’s list of contractors able to handle emergency highway repair work and responded to calls that went out within hours of the fire being extinguished on Nov. 11.
A message left for Security Paving owner and Chief Executive Mike Mattivi was not returned.
According to the company’s website, Security Paving was founded in 1949 in the San Fernando Valley and has grown to four regional offices in California and Nevada. From 2014 to 2020, it claims to have been the largest contractor by volume for Caltrans.
This is not the first time that the company has worked to repair the 10 Freeway; it was part of the contractor team that rebuilt a portion of the freeway that collapsed during the 1994 Northridge earthquake. The prime contractor on that project was the now-defunct C.C. Myers Inc., which received nearly $15 million in total bonuses for finishing that rehabilitation project in 66 days, some 74 days ahead of the state-imposed deadline.
Griffith Co., meanwhile, got its start around 1902 in downtown Los Angeles, formally incorporating in 1922. The company has since added four regional offices throughout Southern Califorrnia and now has its headquarters in the north Orange County city of Brea. About 800 employees work at the company.
In a brief interview, Jaimie Angus, the company’s chief executive, said the company has a long history of working with Caltrans, including on emergency repair work. Just this past winter, he said, Griffith was called on to repair sinkholes on state highways that had been damaged in the soaking rains this past winter.
For this project, Angus said the company’s experience in removing hazardous materials was a major reason Caltrans selected it from its roster of companies able to handle emergency work. He said that as of last week, about 15 workers had been assigned to the project.
