A. Maurice Ortega, President and Owner
Lakeside, California
In 1974, I started the company that would become A.M. Ortega Construction, Inc., with one backhoe and the desire to work for myself in the industry I knew, working to build Southern California’s infrastructure. Today, more than 44 years later, we remain a family owned company with a growing force of over 300 craft workers and professional staff, multiple offices, and operations throughout the southwest. Our crews install underground facilities for all of the major power, telecommunication, and gas utility companies in Southern California, Arizona, and Nevada, as well as for private property owners, general contractors, and developers, and we also complete grading, right of way development, and paving projects in the same service area. Every day, I am proud to continue to lend my name to the company that I built with the help of my family and my dedicated employees and partners.
There have been many changes over the last four decades as the company has grown from a one man operation to our present size and corporate structure. We incorporated in 1985, adding additional layers of organization to our operations and increasing the number of projects we worked on at any given time. We have expanded our operations from our Lakeside headquarters north and east, serving new clients in different markets as we expanded. As we grew, our operations transitioned from providing operated equipment to performing complete installations of underground facilities, and we began to work directly for the utility companies, including San Diego Gas and Electric, Southern California Gas Company, Southern California Edison, Pacific Gas and Electric, Southwest Gas, AT&T, COX Communications, and others, as well as major developers, and municipal agencies. As a part of our expansion into working directly for the utility companies, our workforce unionized. Today, our craft workers are represented by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and the United Association of Plumbers and Pipefitters. Our professional, supervisory, and administrative staff have changed as well during this period. Many longtime colleagues and friends have passed through our company, moving on to retirement and other opportunities with our gratitude for a job well done. Today, we have a fully staffed accounting, payroll, safety, operations management, project management, and fleet maintenance departments to support our construction work.
As we look towards the future, we must work continuously to perform our work in a safe and accurate manner as we grow and expand our services into new markets and areas of work. For over 40 years, our core values have been safety and quality workmanship – these will continue to be our watchwords as we move into the next four decades and the next generation of workers and leadership here at A.M. Ortega. As infrastructure components which were installed decades ago begin to reach the end of their useful life in the next few years, our industry will continue to increase in importance and workload, and, as we have in the past, A.M. Ortega will adapt to the market and work diligently to build our infrastructure for the future.