Granite Construction - 10-Q quarterly report FY

In June 2009, the FASB issued SFAS No. 167, Amendments to FASB Interpretation No. 46R (“SFAS 167”). SFAS 167 amends FIN 46R to require ongoing analysis to determine whether a company holds a controlling financial interest in a variable interest entity (“VIE”). The amendments include a new approach for determining who should consolidate a VIE, requiring a qualitative rather than a quantitative analysis. SFAS 167 also changes when it is necessary to reassess who should consolidate a VIE. Previously an enterprise was required to reconsider whether it was the primary beneficiary of a VIE only when specific events had occurred.  The new standard requires continuous reassessment of an enterprise's interest in the VIE to determine its primary beneficiary. This statement will be effective for us in 2010. We are currently evaluating the impact of adopting this standard on our consolidated financial statements.

In June 2009, the FASB issued SFAS No. 168, The FASB Accounting Standards Codification and the Hierarchy of Generally Accepted Accounting Principles(“SFAS 168”). SFAS 168 establishes the FASB Accounting Standards Codification (“Codification”), which officially launched July 1, 2009, to become the source of authoritative U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (“GAAP”) recognized by the FASB to be applied by nongovernmental entities. Rules and interpretive releases of the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) under authority of federal securities laws are also sources of authoritative U.S. GAAP for SEC registrants. Subsequent issuances of new standards will be in the form of Accounting Standards Updates that will be included in the Codification. Generally, the Codification is not expected to change U.S. GAAP. All other accounting literature excluded from the Codification will be considered nonauthoritative. SFAS 168 is effective for financial statements issued for interim and annual periods ending after September 15, 2009 and will be effective for us in the third quarter of 2009. Adoption of this standard will change future authoritative accounting literature references included in our financial statements to be in accordance with the Codification.

The net impact of significant changes in the estimates of profitability on Granite East gross profit was to increase gross profit for the three and six months ended June 30, 2009 and 2008 as follows:

 

 

The increasedprofitability estimates during the three and six months ended June 30, 2009 and 2008 included resolution of project uncertainties, the settlement of outstanding revenue issues with various contract owners and improved productivity on certain projects. Specifically included in gross profit in the six months ended June 30, 2009 and 2008 is the results of negotiated claims settlements with contract owners of $16.0 million and $28.6 million, respectively.

Line Item Joint Ventures

 

The revenue for each line item joint venture partner’s discrete items of work is defined in the contract with the project owner and each venture partner bearing the profitability risk associated with its own work. There is not a single set of books and records for a line item joint venture. Each partner accounts for its items of work individually as it would for any self-performed contract. We account for our portion of these contracts as project revenues and costs in our accounting system and include receivables and payables associated with our work in our condensed consolidated financial statements.

 

At June 30, 2009, approximately $409.0 million of work representing our partners’ share of unconsolidated construction joint ventures and line item joint venture contracts in progress had yet to be completed.

 

The Hiawatha Light Rail Transit (“HLRT”) project was performed by Minnesota Transit Constructors (“MnTC”), a joint venture that consisted of GCCO and other unrelated companies. GCCO was the managing partner of the joint venture, with a 56.5% interest. The Minnesota Department of Transportation (“MnDOT”) is the contracting agency for this federally funded project. The Metropolitan Council is the local agency conduit for providing federal funds to MnDOT for the HLRT project. MnDOT and the U.S. Department of Transportation Office of Inspector General (“OIG”) each conducted a review of the Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (“DBE”) program maintained by MnTC for the HLRT project. In addition, the U.S. Department of Justice (“USDOJ”) is conducting an investigation into compliance issues with respect to MnTC’s DBE Program for the HLRT project. MnDOT and the OIG (collectively, the “Agencies”) have initially identified certain compliance issues in connection with MnTC’s DBE Program and, as a result, have determined that MnTC failed to meet the DBE utilization criteria as represented by MnTC. Although there has been no formal administrative subpoena issued, nor has a civil complaint been filed in connection with the administrative reviews or the investigation, MnDOT has proposed a monetary sanction of $4.3 million against MnTC and specified DBE training for personnel from the members of the MnTC joint venture as a condition of awarding future projects to joint venture members of MnTC on MnDOT and Metropolitan Council work. MnTC is fully cooperating with the Agencies and the USDOJ and, on July 2, 2007, presented its detailed written response to the initial determinations of the Agencies as well as the investigation by the USDOJ. We have yet to receive a formal reply from the Agencies or the USDOJ, those entities instead preferring to engage in informal discussions in an attempt to resolve the matter. We cannot, however, rule out the possibility of a civil or criminal actions being brought against MnTC or one or more of its members which could result in civil and criminal penalties.

GCCO and our wholly-owned subsidiary, Granite Northwest, Inc. are the members of a joint venture known as Yaquina River Constructors (“YRC”) which is currently constructing a new road alignment of US Highway 20 near Eddyville, Oregon under contract with the Oregon Department of Transportation (“ODOT”). The project involves constructing seven miles of new road through steep and forested terrain in the Coast Range Mountains. During the fall and winter of 2006, extraordinary rain events produced runoff that overwhelmed erosion control measures installed at the project and resulted in discharges to surface water in alleged violations of YRC’sstormwater permit. In June 2009, YRC was informed that the USDOJ had assumed the criminal investigation that the Oregon Department of Justice had previously been conducting in connection with stormwater runoff from the project. YRC and its members are fully cooperating in the investigation, but we do not know whether criminal charges or civil lawsuits, if any, will be brought or against whom, as a result of the investigation. Therefore, we cannot estimate what if any criminal or civil penalty or conditional assessment may result from this investigation.