When Geneva Rock Products opened its doors in 1954, Utah’s population was just under 700,000 people. The Salt Lake City skyline was void of tall buildings, I-15 was being built to replace U.S. Route 91 and the Beehive State was entering a stage of unprecedented growth.
Since that time, Geneva Rock has been at the center of development throughout Northern and Central Utah. Even many prominent projects that weren’t built by Geneva Rock’s construction division have used sand, gravel, concrete or asphalt from one of our facilities.
While important, it’s not our products and services alone that have elevated us to become the company we are today; it’s our employee culture and core values that have become Geneva Rock’s hallmark.
It all began when our founder, W.W. Clyde, became dissatisfied with the delivery and level of service provided by the ready-mix concrete company with whom he’d been working. Ever a visionary, he saw that by supplying his own concrete he could reduce his own expenses while providing better service and value to other contractors facing the same frustrations. Geneva Rock was formed following a joint-venture with Jacobsen Construction in which Clyde had bought equipment to procure his own concrete. Some of our earliest jobs were providing concrete to contractors on I-15, Geneva Steel, Brigham Young University and Provo High School.
In the 1960s, a construction boom in Salt Lake City created opportunities for plenty of expanding infrastructure projects. In response, we opened a new facility on 39th South where we were able to supply concrete for footings at the Church Office Building. During this time, we expanded our services to include asphalt supply to better meet demands on road projects.
More opportunities were presented when Geneva Rock became involved with the University of Utah and BYU expansions, supplying and pouring concrete on dozens of buildings. In the late 70s, one of our construction division’s first site work jobs was grading and moving earth for Utah Valley University’s main campus.
When the Olympics came to Salt Lake City, we were ready. Some of our more notable contributions included working on the Rice-Eccles Stadium expansion, the Trax light rail lines, the luge in Park City, the speed skating oval in Kearns and subcontracting on the I-15 rebuild and expansion.
When the games started, all regular Geneva Rock operations were halted in Salt Lake City, and our employees volunteered, cleared snow and drove shuttles for the games.
Today, our crews work at our facilities throughout Utah to keep up with the infrastructure and building needs of our state. We continue to work at the Salt Lake International Airport as we have since the early ‘80s. We pave and resurface roads using new techniques and technology, like our work on I-80 from Silver Creek to Wanship using cement treated asphalt base.
These projects, and many more, have been incredibly successful because of the caliber of people employed at Geneva Rock. We live the values of our organization and believe in working together to deliver outstanding results. Not only that, but we have a great time doing it.
I personally have enjoyed working at Geneva Rock for 35 years. The reasons I have stayed so long are the great people I work with and the values that we hold as a company. It’s satisfying to know that we make positive impacts in building our communities and work for a company that cares for us and our families.