Michael Castro

At the beginning of my 10 year welding journey, I was put in charge of the Tulare FFA welding team at the age of 15 for 3 years, where I gained experience with learning to read structural welding plans/terms. Not too long after graduating high school I joined the pile drivers union in Oakland in 2017 of August. As a first period apprentice, I was hired by Golden State bridge where I prepped out all welding material needed for welding panels in place for the Bay Bridge. From then on I was transferred to an emergency job near Truckee CA where we built a girder bridge. From there, I moved on to Meyers and Sons Construction where we built 3 water treatment plants for the city of Tulare over a span of 2 and a half years where I also learned more plan reading for underground pipe, rebar, concrete structures, and structural welding. During my time at Meyers, I had also built 2 water treatment plants in the Bay area. In Nov. of 2019 I moved onto my current company Dragados Flatiron Jv where I gained experienced in more bridge building and working around the railroad. After building water canal structures and bridges as an apprentice in Hanford I was then transferred to Corcoran where I spent the next 3 years working around the railroad and BNSF breaking ground at the Tule Viaduct building footings/columns. From then I journeyed out in Feb. of 2022 where I was tasked with the responsibility of managing welding and other hot work for building falsework for the Tule Viaduct in Corcoran.Then I was promoted to Foreman 2 years later where I am gaining even more experience with reading plans, managing operations while enforcing safety protocol from DFJV & BNSF.