Basalt excavator with tiltrotator loading a dump truck on a residential street

About Basalt

Owner-run, public-works habits

Basalt Site Services was formed in 2024 by two Central Washington University construction management graduates who believed that with complementary skill sets and the right equipment, Basalt could manage and build high-quality work efficiently — from preconstruction through final completion.

The company

Built around doing the work ourselves

Jackson Schorno and Landon Carney both graduated from CWU with construction management degrees, and started Basalt in 2024 with complementary skill sets: management and estimating on one side, field production on the other.

The strategy is deliberately narrow: pursue work where the right equipment and professional management make all the difference. In two years that has produced eleven completed contracts, four as prime for public agencies. The same planning discipline applies whether the job is a data center campus, a federal-aid city street, or a private driveway.

Basalt excavators on a job site at sunset

Equipment strategy

Tiltrotators instead of a bigger yard

Our excavators are equipped with Steelwrist tiltrotators, giving the attachment a full 360° of rotation and 40° of tilt each way at the coupler. It is the single biggest reason we hold schedules that conventionally take several more machines and hands.

Practically, one machine grades a slope, sets pipe on alignment, trims a footing, and finishes a ditch without repositioning or bringing in a second piece. That means lower mobilization cost on your job, a smaller footprint inside the work limits, less restoration afterward, and shorter cycle times — which is how we compete against conventional crews on schedule.

Fewer machines to mobilize and demobilize
Reduced disturbance outside the work limits
Finish grading without a dedicated dozer or blade
Tight-quarters work near existing structures and live utilities

Steelwrist tiltrotator with grading beam attached to a Basalt excavator

Leadership

Who you are dealing with

Co-Owner

Jackson Schorno — General Manager

BS Construction Management, Central Washington University. Four years in management and estimating on public works, substation, data center, and private commercial projects before starting Basalt. United States Marine Corps Sergeant, five years, honorably discharged in 2017 — the basis for Basalt’s VOSB certification.

Responsible for estimating, contracts and subcontracts, submittals, prevailing wage compliance, scheduling, and project management. Signs the proposals and answers the phone.

(509) 306-1881 · admin@basaltss.com

Co-Owner

Landon Carney — Field Operations

BS Construction Management, Central Washington University. Worked as an independent site contractor before Basalt, completing sitework including EV charging stations and telecommunications sites with a Steelwrist-equipped excavator.

Responsible for field production, equipment operation and maintenance, hauling and mobilization, and the quality of finished work. Basalt’s principal operator on the majority of projects.

Standards

How we operate

Veteran-owned and certified

Basalt is an SBA-certified Veteran-Owned Small Business and HUBZone firm, and holds Washington OMWBE SBE and PWSBE certifications. Documentation is current and available the same day for your compliance file.

Local and staying local

Ellensburg based, Central Washington focused. Keeping work close keeps mobilization honest and response times short. Residential and rural work in the Kittitas Valley is a deliberate part of what we do, held to the same standard as our public contracts.

Documented, not improvised

Bid schedules, submittals, safety plans, daily quantities, and record drawings. If a condition differs from the documents, it gets written up and priced, not absorbed and argued about later.

Blue HDPE water main with a tapped service saddle in an open trench

Excavator with tiltrotator at a street corner with the curb removed

Completed EV charging stall with accessibility striping and bollards

Drainfield distribution manifold with PVC laterals and a surveyor

Wide view of a data center campus with pipe staged and machines working

Excavator backfilling around a newly set precast septic tank

Crew and equipment working on a downtown street under traffic control

Finished gravel drive leading to a shop building

Work with a contractor who answers the phone.

Call and you will reach an owner. Send documents and you will get an itemized proposal back, built from real production rates rather than padded allowances.

Contact Basalt