Clinton “CC” Myers, 85, respected in the transportation industry as the the best quick fix bridge repairer died Feb. 14 in Meadow Vista, Calif., according to her family.
Known for a forceful but fair nature, Myers began cultivating a reputation for speedy repair work in 1989, when the Loma Prieta earthquake in California caused the collapse of a two-story section of the 880 Freeway in Oakland . The teams at CC Myers Inc. they worked nearby, so the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) enlisted them in emergency efforts to search for victims and stabilize structures.
In 1994, the Northridge earthquake brought down four bridges along the Santa Monica Freeway in Southern California. The company won the reconstruction contract and used 24-hour shifts to finish the job in just 66 days, 74 days ahead of schedule, and won a $14.8 million bonus, the largest ever by Caltrans granted at that time.
Randall Iwasaki, a former Caltrans manager, remembers asking Myers how he had done it, with the contractor explaining how he incentivized his teams to push themselves with promises of Little League sponsorships and dinners. “He was like Paul Bunyan, larger than life,” says Iwasaki. “At the end of the day, he was a down-to-earth guy and a fair contractor.”
William Casey, a former Caltrans district construction manager, adds, “When the chips were down and things looked dire, he was one of those contractors who rose to the occasion. He would step up and do it really thinking outside the box. He took risks that most contractors wouldn’t. Sometimes it worked and sometimes it didn’t, but California’s infrastructure benefited from him.”
In 2007, Myers’ team repaired a 165-foot-long segment of Interstate-580 burned in a truck crash in Emeryville in 18 days instead of 50. That same year, his crews erected a slab of 6,500 tons of road that connected the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge to Yerba Buena Island and replaced it with a fully constructed deck 11 hours ahead of schedule.
Myers was cited as an ENR Newsmaker that year for these efforts.
Attracted to bridges
Myers was the second oldest of thirteen children, and grew up in a farming family in Highland, California. When he was 16, he moved to Long Beach and found work building houses and schools. On his way to and from those jobs, he often passed a bridge construction project and the contractor eventually hired him. According to his family, he said that after a week, he knew “my life would be building bridges.”
With Jim Carter and his brother Richard Myers, he started MCM Construction, a highway and bridge construction business in North Highlands, a suburb of Sacramento, in the early 1970s. In 1977, he founded CC Myers Inc., based in Rancho Cordova.
The company struggled mainly because of the recession, its officials said. In 2008, Myers filed for personal bankruptcy, but two years later, with his son Clinton, he started a new company in Sacramento called Myers & Sons Construction.
“He’s fair and he treats people well, and that will take you a long way in life,” Carl Douglas, owner of Stinger Welding, a Coolidge, Ariz., steel fabricator at the Emeryville job, told ENR.
Tom Holsman, then CEO of the Associated General Contractors of California, added, “I think growing up in the industry the way he did, starting as a carpenter and working his way up through the ranks, taught him the importance of having care of all. your resources and people. You’ll never wonder where you stand with CC Myers. His directness is something to be respected and feared.”
A celebration of life will be held on February 29 at the Sacramento Scottish Rite, 6151 H Street. In lieu of flowers, the family ask for donations at the AGC Construction Education Foundation.
