DRIVING SUCCESS: Pacific Grading & Erosion Control’s Rental Equipment Strategy with Hawthorne Rentals and Its Impact on the Bottom Line
By Brian Hoover, Senior Editor / Photos contributed by: Kerry Hoover, CMS, LLC, and Pacific Grading & Erosion Control
Left: Eric Provience, Owner, Pacific Grading & Erosion Control.
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ric Provience started working in construction at the age of 16 for RLF, Inc., a company his father and uncle started in the 1970s. He worked on weekends and during breaks from school, learning everything he could in the process. His first official full-time job was for Superior Ready Mix located in Escondido, where he worked as a laborer. Provience moved on to work for his father and uncle once again when they started Southwestern Equipment in 1996. Again, he started out as a laborer and moved on to become an operator, and eventually earned the right to serve as the operations manager for the 14
large family paving and general construction enterprise. When his father decided to retire in 2008, Provience made the move to start his own company, Pacific Grading & Erosion Control, Inc. Pacific Grading & Erosion Control started out taking on just what the name suggests: grading and erosion control projects. Additionally, the company performed stormwater management, treating polluted water systems through Best Management Practices (BMP). This work included the construction of bioretention fields, designed to remove contaminants and sedimentation from stormwater runoff. Pacific Grading & Erosion
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Control continues to do this work today on a limited basis, but the bulk of their contracts are now focused more heavily on the grading of roads, retention basins, parks, slopes, and other earthmoving projects. “We maintain a diverse customer base and much of our work today is for developers and home builders. We focus on the projects for the smaller developers who are building 25 to 50 homes, and this is keeping us very busy,” says Provience. “We are currently working for Tri Ponte Homes on a large grading project in Fallbrook, along with several other projects.” It has been 10 years since CalContractor Magazine last interviewed Eric Provience from Pacific Grading & Erosion Control. When asked what has changed the most over the past 10 years, Provience immediately pointed to the ongoing labor shortage in the civil general engineering construction industry. “You know I really love what I do and I am going to keep doing it for a good while longer. However, C A LCO N T R AC TO R .CO M