Fruhling Inc

Ed Fruhling started working in the earthwork business as a teenager, living in the Northgate area in 1950.  His father, Ed Sr., was a heavy equipment operator and his uncles ran Fruhling Bros. Construction in Seattle.. By 1954, at age 19, Ed decided to put his skill to work for himself and started Ed’s Bulldozing. 

As a result of his skill for operating heavy equipment and his ability to understand the workflow on a jobsite, the business prospered. While housing construction was expanding rapidly on the east of Lake Washington during the late 1950’s and into 1960’s, Ed decided to concentrate on the commercial side of the industry. The downtown structures were getting larger and the earthwork requirements were more technical, resulting in fewer firms that could do the work correctly. General contractors in the area knew that the earthwork on their projects would be done quickly and correctly if Ed was on the site, so Ed’s Bulldozing grew steadily.

Long term relationships with Seattle’s commercial builders were developed that carried the company through the downturn of the early 70’s, so when Seattle started growing again in the mid-70’s, Ed’s Bulldozing was growing too.  DanJer Trucking was created in 1979 to ensure the availability of trucks to move material on and off jobsites when the demand for trucking was overpowering the supply of rental trucks available. Ed’s son, Dan Fruhling, was president of the new company. DanJer was renamed Fruhling, Inc. in 1989, and took over the contracting business, with Ed’s Bulldozing remaining as the union operating company that worked only for Fruhling Inc.  This change allowed the Fruhlings to take advantage of the union requirement on downtown jobsites and have a non-union trucking company to ensure transportation availability at a lower cost.

At this same time, Dan and Ed began looking at the availability of gravel pit/dumpsite facilities in the area.  Disposing of excavated dirt had become on of the largest costs of an excavation project.  As the value of land in the area increased, there was less available for dumping excess material.  Fruhling Sand & Topsoil Inc., a sand mine, soil dumpsite, and natural material recycling center, was started to ensure control over dirt disposal costs and thus give Fruhling Inc. a competative advantage in bidding.  This facility is the closest disposal site for natural material to the Seattle metro area.  It now accepts natural wood waste that is recycled into wood chips for fuel, makes topsoil from the dirt, sand, and organic material dumped, recycles the dumped asphalt and concrete into aggregate products, and replaces the sand mined with dirt from jobsites.

It has been through insight into the construction industry, hard work and long hours that Ed and Dan Fruhling have built solid, profitable, business operations.  With Dan as president and his sister Julie as secretary-treasurer of the Fruhling companies, the long term operational stability of the businesses Ed Fruhling has spent a lifetime building is assured.