Dave Zavoral’s first job as an earth mover was at 15 years old, working with his grandmother Lois in her garden. “She was a very hardworking woman,” he says, “and she instilled that in her children and grandchildren.” But he—and the rest of his family—always knew he’d eventually swap the spades for the trades and join the family business. “That’s part of the beauty of a family business,” he says. “I was an equipment operator when I turned 16; I got to run equipment after that summer of pulling weeds.”

Following the garden bed came a major in public relations and a minor in construction from Minnesota State University Moorhead. “When I came back from there,” says Zavoral, “I was put back into a project management role and organically have grown from project management through operations management now into a vice president.” And in 2026, Zavoral will serve as chair of Associated Builders and Contractors’ Minnesota/North Dakota Chapter.

Long before Dave Zavoral could join the family business as a third-generation member, however, there had to be a first generation. R.J. Zavoral and Sons Inc. was founded in 1951 in East Grand Forks, Minnesota, by Robert Zavoral—Dave Zavoral’s grandfather—and joined ABC’s Minnesota/North Dakota chapter in 1994. Today, the company specializes in heavy civil contracting work like excavation, underground utilities and asphalt paving, but it started out with a single dozer.

“My grandfather was a World War II veteran, in the construction battalion,” says Zavoral. “He operated a dozer for the SeaBees in the Navy. He was leveling the jungle for landing planes at Guadalcanal and then spent some time in Newfoundland. He was using the same dozer to move snow off of runaways. He learned his trade there and when he got out, he ended up acquiring a dozer of his own.”

For a while, it was just Robert Zavoral, his wife, Lois, a dozer and their three sons. But soon the business grew, and so too did the family. “For a long period of time,” says Dave Zavoral, “the business was just to provide for the family—then came the sons part of R.J. Zavoral and Sons.” And then the grandsons, and soon the great-grandsons. Today, Dave Zavoral works alongside his two brothers and two cousins—as well as spouses and other extended family—who have helped expand the business from one dozer and simple earth moving jobs to heavier civil contracts for asphalt paving, underground utilities, government contracts and more, all the while maintaining their core family values: “We care for each other deeply, we do great work and we take pride in everything that we’ve done.”

Nearly four generations and 75 years later, the company is home to approximately 230 employees—but that still doesn’t mean there is a job too small. “We live in a community where they call us for a load of clay,” says Zavoral, “and we’re still taking loads of clay one at a time. We’re here to serve.”

Another small—but fun—part of the job? Rock-making. Due to the glacial nature of the soil in the upper Midwest, R.J. Zavoral and Sons doesn’t make rocks from conventional blasting methods, but rather by mining, scooping and crushing. “We mine out the ground, scoop it up and run it through a crushing unit, which has these different screens on it set for different sizes.” The varying size rocks are then sent to various customers for various projects. Some get turned into asphalt; others get shaped and shined for landscaping.

Still, the bedrock of R.J. Zavoral and Sons’ business is earth moving—but what exactly does that entail?

DIRTY JOBS

It starts out like any classic construction project—with a public bidding process, design-plan approval, a schedule, a budget and, finally, execution. But for earth movers, the start is what is key. “Earth moving really just comes down to the very basic level of how a project starts,” says Zavoral. “Typically, we’re the very first group that shows up on a project. We’re moving all of the original soil that’s there and preparing the base to build a new foundation.”

When that foundation gets ripped away, R.J. Zavoral’s work becomes that much more important. In 1997, Dave Zavoral’s hometown of East Grand Forks, Minnesota, suffered a devastating flood, so they were able to work with the Army Corps of Engineers to help erect a levy system. Zavoral says, “We were able to work on at least 70% if not 80% of the projects that protect our current community of East Grand Forks and Grand Forks, and that for us is definitely a badge of honor to wake up every day and know that [these projects] are helping our community.”

Another impactful—and memorable—project took place in 2004, when the company was called to haul dirt from one side of a river—which dissected the backyards of a few neighborhood houses—to the other. “We tried to come up with a way to move that dirt that would be safer and less intrusive,” says Zavoral, “especially during the winter months. So, we constructed an ice bridge over the river, and we hauled 80% of our dirt that needed to go through all those city streets. We took advantage of these brutal Minnesota winters and moved some dirt on some frozen water. It’s definitely one of the more unique projects that we’ve ever worked.”

From driving a single truckload of clay over for a neighbor to making landscape rocks to erecting levies and creating ice bridges, the Zavorals move all types of earth—and they’re moving a lot of it for their latest project: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ FMM Southern Embankment Reach SE-2B, a levy system in Fargo, North Dakota.

R.J. Zavoral and Sons’ role consists of moving four million cubic yards of dirt to build that levy system in order to prevent seasonal flooding. While no budget was officially disclosed, it falls over the $35-million cap for federally funded projects—for which Biden-era legislation would mandate project labor agreements. Being a merit shop business, R.J. Zavoral and Sons was thankful the competition for this project remained fair and open—as they won the bid for general contractor.

“Everything on this project is earth,” says Zavoral. “It is all excavation.” Alongside 12 subcontractors, R.J. Zavoral and Sons oversees all the earth moving and excavation from groundbreaking to completion. “We’re there every day.”
While the budget and other official details of the project remain under wraps, Zavoral can disclose his pride: “It’s been a great thing.”

ON MERIT ALONE

R.J. Zavoral and Sons is not just a family business—it’s a merit shop business, which not only encourages but exemplifies ABC’s core values. The decision to serve as ABC Minnesota/North Dakota’s 2026 Chapter Chair came as easy to Zavoral as the decision to join his family’s company. “It would’ve been hard for me not to be a part of the family business,” he says, “just because it had been so much a part of our upbringing. Some of our family vacations revolved around driving by a job that we were potentially bidding on, or on our way home from a lake trip we would swing by to see how much rain fell on a road job. Being a family business just becomes part of the fabric of your daily life.”

When it came to first serving ABC, Zavoral was asked to be a part of a committee for new member recruitment. “I was happy to,” he says. “I’m a networker by nature, so getting to know a few more businesses was good for us. And then when I understood ABC on a deeper level, I communicated with Adam [Hanson] and expressed that I would like to be more involved.”

ABC Minnesota/North Dakota President Adam Hanson jokes, “I twisted his arm one too many times.” In reality, Zavoral simply “wanted to surround myself with people that understood what our concerns were. And to let them know that they could voice those concerns, that I would fight for those same freedoms. ABC has done that for us. I want the rest of our industry to see how powerful ABC is, not only on a state level, but on a federal level. And that’s part of the reason that I’m involved.”

As Zavoral’s year as chair approaches, he is getting serious about taking his chapter, his company and his family into the latter half of the decade.

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