Steve Sandquist met several of his co-workers at United Contractors Inc. before he was even old enough to drive. As a youngster, the Johnston native spent a lot of time around the United Contractors office, where his father worked. Sandquist decided at an early age that he would follow his father’s footsteps and work for the heavy construction company as well. After receiving a bachelor’s degree from Grinnell College and a law degree from the University of Iowa, Sandquist began working full time at United Contractors seven years ago, and now serves as its vice president. His father, Gary, is the company’s president, and his older brother, Dave, is a vice president in charge of safety.

Did you start working here at a young age?

I worked during the summers here starting in high school. I did construction work on a crew, but I would say that I’m not as capable of that as my brother, Dave, who worked even more extensively in the field. But I saw it as a necessity to get that experience.

What attracted you to this company for a career?

First, the people. My dad started working here over 40 years ago and grew up in the business. We have a number of employees who have been here for several decades. If you come here, you usually end up staying here, which is a good thing. It makes it feel kind of like a big family. I have known some of these people since I was a little kid. Plus I love the construction industry.

What kind of work does United Contractors do?

We specialize in bridges, and we also do concrete sawing and retaining walls, temporary shoring, and we are also branching out a little bit by getting into the pipe relining business. Our projects are mostly in the Midwest, but also in North Carolina. It really depends on where the road moneys are going. If a certain state is getting a lot of state or federal funds, then we go there and send our crews there to pick up work.

What are your work responsibilities?

I do a lot of bidding and estimating projects. And some project management. Being a small company, you handle whatever comes up during the day.

What do you like about the industry?

You’re doing something tangible. At the end of the day, you can see bridges and roads and you can see how it benefits the public. And I like the challenge. It’s a challenge because you are always competing for work and bidding on projects. So that’s a challenging aspect of it. You have the challenges of living up to the expectations of the owner, who in our case are usually cities and departments of transportation. And you have the challenge of trying to coordinate subcontractors and materials to get the work done in a timely manner. But if you work out far enough, you can usually plan these things.

How does your law background help you?

A lot of day-to-day issues are driven by law. Our business is governed by contracts. You have contractors or subcontractors for each job, and you have to abide by those. My background has given me a broad understanding of how things work from the contractual side.

What has been the most complicated project you’ve been part of?

Interstate 235, without a doubt. You have a lot of contractors working on the same project; you co-ordinate with them, the public and the DOT. It’s a challenge, but a fun challenge.

What is it like working with your family?

It’s been great. I love it. A lot of times, Dave will be traveling or I’ll be traveling, so you might not even see each other as much as you want. But we’ll take time to golf or do things that brothers do.

Does it make you work harder?

Well, of course you don’t want to let down your brother or your dad, so you work hard. But you extend that to everyone. You don’t want to let down anyone in the company. Everyone in the office works hard. And I think that’s just kind of the nature of the work we do. In construction, it’s a little bit different than other businesses because there are certain expectations you have in the business that require you to work longer hours to get a job done.