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CONSTRUCTION
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The Industry’s Newspaper Construct A Kids Christmas
www.constructionnews.net H (210) 308-5800 H Volume 19 H Number 11 H NOVEMBER 2017
Part science, part art
Celebrating 50 years
The Joeris staff outside their San Antonio office.
L
eo Joeris got his foot in the construction door when he went to work for his brother Joe after the war. After getting some valuable experience he became an acoustical ceiling contractor before going back into the general construction side of working for William Matera Construction. Leo and Raymond Klaus along with a handful of people worked for William Matera Construction until Matera was killed in a plane crash. “After his death, Dad finished up all their work and started bidding work as Joeris & Klaus Construction Company,” says Gary Joeris, CEO of Joeris General Contractors. “My dad and Raymond Klaus started the company in 1967 focusing on some private work, but mostly school work, churches and public work.”
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traddling a jet-ski style car, racing out over a man-made lake, then launching 60 ft into the air through banks and turns along 2,600 ft of track sounds like a thrill-seekers dream come true. For Casias Construction LLC and Morganti Texas Inc., the Sea World Wave Breaker Roller Coaster was just that. The Wave Breaker Roller Coaster had an original construction time frame of nine months but given the actual start date of construction, this would have meant a completion date at the end of summer. “In a joint effort with Sea World of Texas, our subcontractors, suppliers, and our staff we successfully completed the project two and one half months early and Sea World was able to open the ride for the summer,” says Frank Casias, Owner of Casias Construction. The Wave Breaker Roller Coaster was designed and created to further the Sea World mission of providing awareness to
L-R: Owners, Trevor Broyles, Jenni Urbanczyk and Scott Anderson at their yard, 137 W. Specht Rd.
Working through the summers during high school and college, Gary worked for the company as a carpenter, helping out in the office, running errands and estimating. He joined the company fulltime in 1978 after graduating college as a project manager. By the early ‘80s, when Klaus decided to go out on their own, Joeris continued on as Joeris General Contractors and Gary was named vice president of the company. He would continue in that capacity until 1990 when he took on the role as president. His father continued to support and guide him until he retired in 2000. “Dad was pretty good about relinquishing control and, of course, I went to him for advice. We were a good team. He continued on Page 21
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cott Anderson and Jenni Urbanczyk owned a tree service and wood shop in Utah before coming back to Texas. Scott would source all the materials by hand from riverbeds, mountains and the deserts that surrounded them. The trees he was asked to remove would supply their sawmill and the sawmill would feed his wood shop. In his wood shop he would create items that people needed from signs to tables to chairs to decorative art. Nothing was wasted. “I was making things and taking trees down for free for all the wood. When all the tree services in the area collapsed, it just made sense to go into the land clearing and soil business. I had the equipment and insurance,” says Anderson.
Two years ago, the two sold their business in Utah to their employees and started a land clearing and soil business here in San Antonio, Urban Land Clearing, Soil & Compost with co-partner Trevor Broyles. Unlike their previous company where they focused on hazard removals in terms of trees and other materials, now they are fully integrated into not just tree protection, but necessary tree removal, tree trimming to full land clearing prior to construction and the recycling of those commodities. All the resources that are removed are then turned into useable by-products. Nothing is wasted. “We make several different kinds of soils and most have to meet certain continued on Page 21
Enjoy the ride!
Aerial view of The Wave Breaker at Sea World
their Animal Rescues and Educational platforms. Each roller coaster train is comprised of eight cars (two riders per car) that mimic a jet ski going down the track side by side. Designed to bring the exhilarating rush of a roller coaster and the educational aspect of animal rescues, the ride traverses through new buildings where people get a visual experience of real animal rescues and culminate in over 2,600 ft of thrills and fun that take the rider over an existing man-made lake. Primary construction materials consisted of 309 ride footings in a variety of sizes and depths with an accuracy requirement of +/- two millimeters to accept the ride columns. Construction of the ride also included a structural steel, two-story main launching facility which contains the ride’s gift shop, an arched metal building where the rescue theme of the ride is enhanced, and a structural steel building with exterior sheathing continued on Page 21