Underground Utility Superintendent – Excavation & Trenching

JOB OVERVIEW

We are seeking an experienced Underground Utility Superintendent to lead excavation, trenching, bedding, backfill, compaction, and underground structure-setting operations on a commercial/federal construction project in Brownsville, Texas.

This is an onsite leadership position responsible for directing multiple underground crews working across several active areas. The Superintendent will plan daily operations, coordinate manpower and equipment, maintain production, enforce safety requirements, verify quality, and ensure all required field documentation is completed accurately.

The ideal candidate is a hands-on underground professional with strong experience in grade control, excavation safety, equipment utilization, setting precast concrete structures, crew leadership, and construction documentation. This person must be capable of independently managing field operations while maintaining safety, quality, schedule, and production requirements.

RESPONSIBILITIES

• Direct and supervise multiple underground crews working across separate work fronts.
• Plan and communicate daily manpower, equipment, materials, trucking, and production requirements.
• Assign qualified foremen, operators, and laborers to each crew and monitor their performance.
• Hold documented daily safety meetings before work begins.
• Ensure a complete daily Job Safety Analysis is prepared, reviewed, understood, and signed by every crew member.
• Update the JSA whenever work conditions, equipment, hazards, locations, or tasks change.
• Ensure daily excavation inspections are completed and documented by a qualified competent person.
• Review utility plans, profiles, details, elevations, structure schedules, and specifications before beginning work.
• Verify trench alignment, width, depth, slope, elevations, and required bottom grade.
• Use construction lasers, grade rods, receivers, or machine grade-control systems to maintain accurate excavation.
• Prevent unnecessary over-excavation, excessive trench width, and damage to existing utilities or completed work.
• Supervise trench-bottom preparation, bedding placement, pipe-zone backfill, final backfill, moisture conditioning, controlled lifts, and compaction.
• Plan and supervise excavations and base preparation for precast underground structures.
• Coordinate the delivery, unloading, lifting, setting, leveling, and alignment of manholes, vaults, pull boxes, interceptors, tanks, basins, and other underground structures.
• Verify structure dimensions, weights, approved lifting points, rigging requirements, equipment capacity, access, and ground conditions before each lift.
• Ensure qualified riggers and signal persons are used when required and establish appropriate lifting and exclusion zones.
• Verify structure base elevations, final elevations, orientation, openings, connections, level, and alignment against the plans.
• Supervise controlled and balanced backfill and compaction around structures to prevent movement, damage, or uneven loading.
• Ensure work is not covered until required testing, inspection, and authorization are complete.
• Coordinate material deliveries, spoil haul-off, equipment rentals, maintenance, fueling, and mobilization.
• Maintain competent-person coverage for every active excavation area.
• Identify and address changing soil, groundwater, weather, surcharge-load, access, and excavation conditions.
• Maintain safe access and egress, spoil setbacks, barricades, equipment clearances, and OSHA excavation compliance.
• Conduct equipment and work-area inspections and ensure deficiencies are corrected before operations continue.
• Attend required coordination, progress, quality, and safety meetings.
• Prepare accurate daily reports documenting manpower, hours, equipment, completed quantities, locations, deliveries, photographs, delays, and jobsite conditions.
• Track daily production by crew and make timely adjustments without compromising safety or quality.
• Verify employee time, equipment hours, material tickets, trucking tickets, and completed quantities.
• Immediately communicate schedule conflicts, differing conditions, delays, safety concerns, and potential change-order work.
• Maintain professional working relationships with project management, inspectors, employees, and other trades.
• Enforce company safety policies, quality standards, attendance requirements, and jobsite conduct.
• Stop work when unsafe conditions exist and ensure corrective actions are completed before work resumes.

REQUIRED SKILLS AND QUALIFICATIONS

• Proven experience supervising underground utility excavation, trenching, bedding, backfill, and compaction work.
• Demonstrated experience setting precast concrete underground structures, including manholes, vaults, pull boxes, interceptors, tanks, or basins.
• Ability to organize and manage multiple crews and active work areas simultaneously.
• Strong understanding of utility plans, profiles, elevations, inverts, slopes, trench details, and structure schedules.
• Demonstrated ability to establish and maintain grade using lasers, grade rods, receivers, or machine-control systems.
• Working knowledge of excavators, skid steers, loaders, water trucks, trench compactors, plate compactors, cranes, and other civil equipment.
• Practical knowledge of structure weights, equipment load charts, lifting capacities, approved lifting points, rigging limitations, and safe lifting procedures.
• Knowledge of soil conditions, trench hazards, safe excavation practices, and OSHA excavation requirements.
• Ability to recognize soft bottoms, unsuitable material, groundwater, utility conflicts, unstable excavations, and differing site conditions.
• Experience conducting daily safety meetings and completing JSAs and excavation inspection documentation.
• Strong leadership, communication, organization, and problem-solving abilities.
• Ability to maintain accurate electronic daily reports, photographs, time records, and production quantities.
• Ability to work independently and make responsible field decisions.
• Valid driver’s license.
• Ability to obtain and maintain all required federal jobsite access authorization.
• Excavation and Trenching Competent Person Training.
• OSHA 30 certification.
• First Aid/CPR.
• Bilingual English/Spanish communication is a plus.

Pay: $23.00 - $33.00 per hour

Work Location: In person