About Pacific Foundation
Built Through the Work
Pacific Foundation is a family-owned geotechnical construction company built by people who care deeply about drilling, difficult ground, and doing right by the client.
Since 2012, Pacific has grown from a small Vancouver, Washington drilling team into a regional contractor with more than 100 craft employees, three offices, and over 750 completed projects across the Pacific Northwest, Hawaii, and the Mountain West. That growth has come through steady investment in capable people, specialized equipment, and the relationships earned one project at a time.
Built Through the Work
Pacific Foundation began in 2012, when Michael Zeman and Chris Wrench started a small company around a shared passion for drilling. The early team was lean, close to the work, and focused on a straightforward promise: understand what the client needs and follow through in the field.
The company grew by taking on increasingly difficult foundation, shoring, ground improvement, and groundwater-control work—and by continuing to invest in the people and equipment needed to perform it well. Pacific established Hawaii operations in 2019 and opened its Mountain Division in 2024, extending the company's reach without changing the client-first approach that shaped its beginning.
Today, Pacific remains family owned and operated. The company is larger, its capabilities are broader, and its projects are more complex, but the work is still personal. Clients know the people responsible for planning and delivering their projects, and Pacific's teams remain accountable to one another from the first conversation through field execution.
How Pacific Works
Good geotechnical construction depends on judgment. Ground conditions change, access tightens, sequences move, and the best plan on paper still has to work safely in the field. Pacific connects estimating, project management, safety, field leadership, operators, craft employees, and maintenance around the same jobsite realities.
Client Focus
Start with what the client and project need to accomplish.
Field Judgment
Match equipment, methods, and sequencing to the realities of the site.
Safe Execution
Plan the work carefully and keep crews aligned as conditions change.
Quality in the Details
Build quality through preparation, maintained equipment, and disciplined execution.
Straightforward Collaboration
Communicate clearly with clients, engineers, general contractors, and partner trades.
Capabilities Under One Team
Pacific brings deep foundations, earth retention, ground improvement, and groundwater control together under one experienced construction team. That range allows the company to look beyond a single method and help project teams find an approach that fits the structure, the ground, and the realities of construction.
Deep Foundations
Foundation systems that transfer structural loads through difficult soils and into competent material.
Earth Retention
Temporary and permanent systems that support excavations, protect adjacent structures, and make below-grade construction possible.
Ground Improvement
Methods that strengthen, stabilize, or modify the ground so sites can support the work planned above them.
Groundwater Control
Construction systems that manage water where excavation, uplift, seepage, or below-grade work demands it.
Proof in the Field
Pacific's growth can be seen in the work: larger responsibilities, more varied ground conditions, and projects that asked the team to combine technical planning with dependable execution.
Public Water Infrastructure
Washington Park Reservoir
A major Portland water-infrastructure project that brought together extensive shoring, tieback anchors, drilled shafts, groundwater work, and long-term coordination around a seismically reinforced underground reservoir.
Hawaii Ground Improvement
Sand Island WWTP
A defining Hawaii project where Pacific used large-scale deep cement mixing and close design-build collaboration to construct a bottom seal in challenging ground more than 20 feet below the water table.
Mountain West Deep Foundations
Exyte Micron Facility — Triton ID1
Deep-foundation work for an advanced industrial facility in Boise that reflects Pacific's growing Mountain West capacity and ability to support large, schedule-driven construction programs.
People Behind the Work
Equipment creates options. Experienced people know which option fits and how to execute it. Pacific's field leaders, operators, craft employees, project teams, safety staff, maintenance crews, and office teams each play a part in keeping the work connected.
Many Pacific employees have been with the company for ten years or more, including most of its field leadership. That continuity carries hard-earned knowledge from one project and one generation of employees to the next. It also gives clients a team that understands Pacific's standards, knows the equipment, and has worked through difficult conditions together.
One Company. Three Regional Teams.
Pacific began in Vancouver, Washington, and built its reputation across the Pacific Northwest. Pacific established its Hawaii operations in 2019 and opened its Mountain Division in 2024. Each permanent regional team brings local experience to the work while drawing on the same field leadership, equipment support, and client-first standards across the company.
Pacific Northwest
The company's home region and the foundation of its public, commercial, industrial, transportation, and infrastructure experience.
Hawaii
Established in 2019, with island-based experience in difficult groundwater, coral, ground improvement, deep foundations, and active-facility work.
Mountain West
Established in 2024, supporting advanced industrial, transportation, infrastructure, and commercial construction across the region.
Prepared for Difficult Work
Pacific has consistently invested in specialized drill rigs, tooling, cranes, grout plants, pumps, support equipment, maintenance, and the people trained to use them. The value of that fleet is not its size alone. It gives experienced teams more ways to match the approach to the ground, access, production needs, and construction sequence.
The same practical collaboration extends to design-build work. Pacific Structural Solutions is a separate associated engineering company that shares Pacific's Vancouver office and works closely with Pacific Foundation when a project benefits from coordinated engineering and construction input. The companies remain separate entities while providing project teams a direct path for collaboration.
Start With the Right Conversation
Whether you are planning difficult foundation work, looking for relevant project experience, or interested in joining the team, there is a direct next step.