Pending highway bill ‘significantly higher’ than IIJA: Granite CEO

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Dive Temporary:

• Granite Development President and CEO Kyle Larkin mentioned surface transportation reauthorization amounts being mentioned in Congress are “considerably greater” than these within the $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Funding and Jobs Act of 2021. 
• Larkin made his feedback Thursday on Granite’s fourth-quarter and full-year 2025 earnings name, the place the corporate reported greater income and earnings for the quarter and yr. The agency additionally notched a file backlog of $6.97 billion, up 32% from a yr in the past. 
• With the IIJA expiring in September, Larkin mentioned securing extra public funding for infrastructure was a precedence for lawmakers. “What we hear actually from business at this time is that there’s nonetheless bipartisan assist,” Larkin mentioned on the decision. “There’s nonetheless an enormous give attention to arising with one other funding mechanism and I believe the actually excellent news is the funding quantity is considerably greater.”

Dive Perception:

Larkin’s feedback echoed these from different public building corporations, together with Dallas-based AECOM, which mentioned an expansion of highway funding would additional prolong the present transportation building cycle. Larkin mentioned he expects draft laws to be obtainable in March or April. 

However even earlier than Congress approves any new {dollars}, Larkin mentioned simply half of the unique IIJA cash had truly been spent by means of November. The remainder ought to present stability within the infrastructure marketplace for a while. “There’s nonetheless a very nice runway of spending to go, in order that’ll final, fortunately, for a couple of extra years,” Larkin mentioned. 

Past cash for highways, Larkin mentioned Watsonville, California-based Granite can be amongst 11 companies competing for round $40 billion in border infrastructure work on the southern border. In March, Granite won the first border wall contract of President Donald Trump’s second time period for a $70 million job to construct 7 miles of barrier in Hidalgo County, Texas. 

The Trump administration has accelerated the awards timeline for brand new border work, Larkin mentioned, and he expects new contracts to be introduced in June or July. However that compressed schedule means beforehand smaller segments of labor have been bundled into larger general jobs. 

Since Granite has centered lately on taking over smaller work packages, which supply extra near-term visibility into schedule and value, Larkin mentioned the agency could be picky with any extra work in that space. 

“These contracts are getting bigger than what we initially contemplated, so the chance profile is altering a bit bit on these to 1 that is simply giving us motive to be extra disciplined in our pursuits and guaranteeing that we can’t solely simply win the work however achieve success in delivering it for ourselves and for our purchasers,” Larkin mentioned. “So we’ll see.”

Granite reported $1.17 billion in income and web revenue of $52.03 million for the fourth quarter, an increase of 19% and 25% from a yr in the past. For the yr, income reached $4.42 billion, a ten% acquire from 2024. Earnings of $193 million for the yr have been 53% greater than what the corporate reported in 2024.

Wanting forward, Granite mentioned it will proceed to be on the hunt for extra acquisitions 2026, significantly on the materials side of its business. On its second quarter 2025 convention name, Granite introduced it had bought Hattiesburg, Mississippi-based Warren Paving and Arroyo Grande, California-headquartered Papich Development for a combined price of $710 million. That was adopted in October by a deal to purchase Carson Metropolis, Nevada-based Cinderlite Trucking. 

Executives mentioned to count on extra of the identical this yr, as Granite continues to construct out its “home-market” technique the place it provides supplies from its owned mixture vegetation for infrastructure initiatives within the areas surrounding these amenities. 

“Whereas we’re selective in our pursuits, we count on to attain our aim of finishing a number of strategic acquisitions in 2026,” mentioned Staci Woolsey, Granite’s chief monetary officer, on the decision.