Art Mariner, the founder of what is Mariner Construction, Inc. today began farming, digging basements, water lines, and sewers in the 1960’s in Woodworth, North Dakota and surrounding areas. Looking for a greater challenge, Art went to work for Morrison Knutson, and Hood Thomas Corporation installing missile sites in various locations around the state. 

Art moved to Bismarck in 1974, with wife Dorothy, and sons Steve and Greg. They started Mariner Excavating with 1 backhoe. Determined to succeed, Art would dig from sunrise to sunset and would not turn down any type of work that would keep his backhoe moving. Dorothy handled the majority of the paperwork. Steve and Greg worked on the job sites laying pipe and checking grade. Word of mouth from quality and timely jobs soon spread. Mariner Excavating then bought scrapers, a blade and a dozer to start doing dirt projects such as building county roads, site work, stock dams, lagoons, reclaiming large mine projects, rip rap, demolition of old building, landscaping and snow removal.

The three factors that led to an expansion of the company were safety, high quality work and completing every job early or on time. In 1984, the company purchased its first hot bituminous asphalt plant and expanded their focus on bituminous paving and maintenance, such as patching, crack sealing and chip sealing services. In 1990, Mariner Excavating changed its name to Mariner Construction Inc. The company began performing major city street and county road projects. This included repairing and resurfacing existing streets and roads along with building and paving new streets and roads.

In 2005, Mariner Construction purchased Mack Super 18 Dump Trucks with a Strong Arm to increase tonnage and improve efficiency. The bigger payloads have enabled the company to reduce man hours and truck usage time in half.

A motivation to succeed has caused the company to constantly strive to improve working conditions and keep abreast of the latest processes and equipment in the construction industry. Good old fashioned hard work and a reputation for quality have and will continue to bring us success.