When Kyle Kopp decided to start his own business six years ago, he wasn’t sure what to call it.

“My wife and I were trying to come up with a name, and we wanted something short and sweet,” recalled Kopp. “I love to fish, so my wife suggested Hook. It just stuck.”

Tuttle-based Hook Construction LLC has been reeling in business by providing turnkey civil construction services throughout Oklahoma and into northern Texas. Kopp is Hook Construction’s director of operations and his partner, Bill Estell, is the director of estimating. Together, they have decades of experience in the construction industry.

“Bill and I actually worked for the same company about five years ago, which is how we met,” stated Kopp. “I headed up the concrete division, and he oversaw the earthwork side. When he joined Hook Construction a few years ago, we decided to put that expertise together and really focus on civil work.”

“I am mainly in the office crunching numbers for estimating and bidding, and Kyle does a lot of the field operations,” explained Estell. “That’s worked really well for us. When it comes down to it, though, we both are willing to do whatever it takes to make the business successful.”

Kopp added, “That attitude has helped us grow to about 30 employees who are working on four to eight jobs at any one time.”

Comprehensive offerings

Most of Hook Construction’s projects now involve complete site preparation, including clearing and stripping, mass earthwork, underground utility installation, fine grading, subbase placement, and maintaining erosion control. The company also performs structural concrete work such as drainage flumes, meter boxes and retaining walls.

“About the only thing we don’t do at this time is large paving,” said Kopp. “We will take responsibility for it as part of a package, but we’ll subcontract that portion. We’re really geared toward getting the site ready to be built on and paved. It’s our preference to do comprehensive jobs that involve everything we offer, but we do break out our services and do just earthwork, utility, drainage and concrete.”

Recently, Hook Construction prepared a site for two new dorms on the University of Oklahoma’s main campus in Norman. After the existing seven-story building was demoed, Hook Construction filled in the old basement area with 15,000 yards of imported select fill. Once the new basement was done, the crew backfilled around it and completed the pads.

While that project was in the works, another Hook Construction crew was doing drainage improvement work for the Oklahoma Military Department at one of its locations in the Oklahoma City area. The crew put in approximately 1,500 feet of 18-inch to 54-inch concrete pipe, as well as associated structures.

Saving with IMC machines from KSM

Estell has a long history with Kirby-Smith Machinery Inc. (KSM) and Komatsu equipment, including Intelligent Machine Control (IMC) dozers and excavators equipped with factory-integrated GPS grade control. He knew Hook Construction would benefit from them, so he contacted KSM and started working with Territory Manager Kyle Cloyd.

“I went to work for my dad right out of high school in the early 1980s and met Ed Kirby and our sales rep at the time, so I knew how Kirby-Smith operated and valued customers,” Estell recalled. “After my dad passed away, I went to work for another company that uses Komatsu IMC machines. When I joined Kyle at Hook Construction, I told him we needed them to help increase our productivity, so we added dozers for the first big job we did together. That was about three years ago.”

Kyle Cloyd assisted Hook Construction with the addition of Komatsu D51EXi-24 and D51PXi-24 IMC dozers. Kopp said they paid off right away and continue to provide savings in several ways, as does the Komatsu PC210LCi-11 IMC excavator the company has since acquired.

“You can take any level of operator and make them more productive,” stated Kopp. “The ability to sit in the machine and have little to no reliance on staking and surveying or someone constantly monitoring grade saves so much time and expense. The machines always know where they are in relation to final elevation. Once you hit the target elevation, the IMC excavator won’t let you dig any further, so there is no overcutting. It eliminates unnecessary cutting and filling, so you save on fuel by not having to redo anything. There are no masts or cable to replace, so that expense is eliminated.”

Estell builds models that are uploaded to the machines.

“Once they are uploaded, it’s a matter of letting the machines do the work,” said Estell. “They have definitely sped up our projects. I would say, on average, we are 25% to 30% faster than using traditional methods.”

Kopp added, “We haven’t had any issues at all with the machines. For us, they perform perfectly.”

Hook Construction still uses standard Komatsu equipment as well and works with Cloyd and KSM on purchases and rentals. KSM also performs service on Hook Construction’s machinery through Komatsu Care, a maintenance program.

“Like Bill, I have a long history with Kirby-Smith,” said Kopp. “Kirby-Smith has always been good to work with. Our relationship with them really expanded when Bill came on board and recommended the IMC machines. Kirby-Smith takes care of us. If we need something, they respond. It’s become a good partnership.”

Almost there

Moving forward, Kopp hopes to expand Hook Construction slightly.

“We are not looking to be a huge company,” Kopp emphasized. “We’re almost where we want to be. We do really want to develop a utility division and possibly add a couple of crews for that, but, otherwise, we are pretty good with how things stand.”

*The opinions expressed here are from the end user as quoted. The results described herein are those of these end users under certain conditions. Individual results may vary.