Jake VanBooven is Built for the Daily Grind
Before dawn breaks, Jake VanBooven is already mapping out his day—fine-tuning priorities, lining up resources and getting crews moving.
As a general foreman, he thrives on bustling Castle jobsites.
VanBooven’s current focus is on a large power plant expansion project, where Castle is delivering site grading, mechanical excavation and support for the self-perform concrete crews. “Trying to provide assistance to everybody at the same time can be overwhelming at times,” he notes, “but at the end of the day it’s also rewarding.”
During his 13-year Castle tenure, VanBooven has covered a lot of ground, including water main work, sewer projects, grading and electrical duct bank installations.
That adaptability has served him well. After earning his stripes on a series of small assignments, he started taking on larger, more complicated jobs such as a recent utility upgrade at Bayer CropScience’s biotechnology campus in Chesterfield, Missouri. “I used to despise big jobs,” he admits, “but they’ve become the new normal and I enjoy working on them.”
Carving a Civil Career
Growing up near Hermann, Missouri, VanBooven’s early knack for working with his hands led him to pursue a career as a carpenter. After high school, he joined the carpenters union and spent six years working on everything from a MetroLink station and a pair of MSD wastewater treatment plants to several custom homes at Innsbrook resort.
When carpentry work dried up with the 2007 recession, he pivoted. A family friend offered him a position as a laborer on utility-related jobs, and he learned the skill of directional boring—a trenchless technique for installing underground pipes, conduits or cables with minimal surface disruption. Those skills brought him to a small civil construction firm that Castle acquired a few years later.
VanBooven will always remember his Castle start date—September 18, 2012—because it occurred the same week as his wedding. “My day one at Castle was on a Monday, and that Friday I got married to my wife, Abigail,” he laughs.
He credits Castle’s supportive culture for contributing to his overall job satisfaction. “I feel like it's a big family environment here,” he notes. “If you have a good attitude and want to succeed, Castle will make sure you can. And if I have any problems, there’s always somebody willing to step in and help.”
The VanBooven family lives in Rhineland, Missouri, about 70 miles northwest of St. Louis. Jake and Abigail have two sons: Samuel (10) and Thomas (7), who seems to have inherited his dad’s love for construction. “Whatever I’m doing, Thomas wants to be doing,” VanBooven says. “Anytime I get out a power tool, he’s definitely going to want it in his hands too.”
When VanBooven isn’t managing jobsites, he’s probably busy tending to a 150-head beef cattle farm he co-manages with his father. “It’s something to pass on to the kids and teach them a little bit of work ethic and how life works,” he says.
