Good morning. My name is Renan, and I will be your conference facilitator for today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Granite Construction investor relations third quarter 2022 conference call. This call is being recorded. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question-and-answer session.
To ask a question, please press star one. Please note we will take one question and one follow-up question from each participant today. It is now my pleasure to turn the floor over to your host, Granite Construction Incorporated Vice President of Investor Relations, Mike Barker. Please go ahead, sir.
Good morning, and thank you for joining us. I'm pleased to be here today with President and Chief Executive Officer, Kyle Larkin, and Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Lisa Curtis. Please note that today's earnings presentation will be available on the Events and Presentations page of our investor relations website. We begin today with a brief discussion regarding forward-looking statements and non-GAAP measures.
Some of the discussion today may include forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are estimates reflecting the current expectations and best judgment of senior management regarding future events, occurrences, opportunities, targets, growth, demand, strategic plans, circumstances, activities, performance, shareholder value, outcomes, outlook, guidance, objectives, committed and awarded projects or CAP, and results. Actual results could differ materially from statements made today.
Please refer to Granite's most recent 10-K and 10-Q filings for a more complete description of risk factors that could affect these forward-looking statements. The company assumes no obligation to update forward-looking statements, except as required by law. Certain non-GAAP measures may be discussed during today's call and from time to time by the company's executives.
These include, but are not limited to adjusted EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA margin, adjusted net income or loss, and adjusted earnings or loss per share. The required disclosures regarding our non-GAAP measures are included as part of our earnings press releases and in company presentations, which are available on our investor relations website. Now, I would like to turn the call over to Kyle Larkin.
Good morning and welcome to our third quarter call. We'll start this call with an update on our efforts to drive improved gross profit margin across our portfolio of projects. I'm pleased to report that excluding the ORP, our construction gross margin improved to 14.8% in the quarter. I want to congratulate our teams on this accomplishment.
This margin improvement validates all the hard work we have been performing across the company to improve profitability. I will talk more about this improved performance later in the call. Before we dive into performance, I also want to mention an update to our divestiture plan that occurred this quarter. As we announced in September, we are retaining the Water Resources and Mineral Services businesses. These businesses will report into the Mountain Group in the construction segment.
Both businesses have performed very well this year and have market outlooks to support future growth. We are confident the decision to retain these businesses is in the best interest of our shareholders, and we intend to invest in and grow these businesses to their full potential.
As a reminder, Water Resources provides full lifecycle water management from supply to treatment to delivery and maintenance for government agencies, commercial and municipal water suppliers, industrial facilities, and agricultural and energy companies.
Through water well drilling, installation and rehabilitation of wells, pumps and water treatment technology, our teams identify and develop water sources, recharge aquifers, and deliver potable water. Mineral Services provides mineral exploration services for the largest mine operators in North America, particularly copper and gold operations.
While the business is cyclical and there has been recent weakness in copper and gold prices, we believe the push from fossil fuels to electrification will support a strong cycle of growth in the mining industry. We are well positioned to support our mining partners in this growth, not only in mineral exploration, but also through civil construction services on their mine sites.
Now, turning to the broader view of our three operating groups. We remain laser focused on achieving our 2024 strategic plan targets of construction segment gross profit margin of 14%-16% and consolidated EBITDA margin of 9%-11%. As I mentioned at the start of this call, we are seeing progress in this area, with third quarter gross profit margin excluding the ORP of 14.8%, which is an improvement quarter-over-quarter from 14.1%.
The improvements we are experiencing are a credit to the steps we have been taking to implement our strategic plan throughout the project life cycle. We have been focusing on two primary areas of the project life cycle across our groups.
Project selection is one area of emphasis. We are pursuing projects suited to our strengths and we are being selected with the clients that we choose to work with. Disciplined project pursuit focuses on jobs where we have a competitive advantage based on our knowledge of the project and home market.
On bid day, we are disciplined on margin expectations and our project portfolio consists of higher quality work than Granite Construction has had in years. The second area of the project lifecycle focus has been project execution. We are raising the bar by driving consistency and performance through further standardization of processes and communication of best practices across the company.
During the third quarter, we saw our focus on bid day margin and project execution gain momentum as demonstrated by our non-ORP construction gross margin. We are pleased with this progress, and we believe we are positioned to build upon these results as we work to achieve our 2024 strategic plan gross profit margins of 14%-16%. Through the third quarter, we continue to see positive funding levels and project opportunities across our footprint.
Although there have been instances where inflation has caused low bids to be above owner estimates, delays or project cancellations have been limited. Public markets and project opportunities continue to be strong despite minimal benefit to date from the federal infrastructure bill or IIJA. In the private market, which accounts for around 25% of our business, inflation is causing some uncertainty.
We are still seeing a number of clients pushing forward with planned work. Fortunately, Granite does not have significant exposure to the residential market, which is showing signs of significant slowing. Turning to the ORP, we continue to burn through the remaining work on these projects.
There's $150 million of CAP remaining on the ORP projects at the end of Q3, and we expect approximately $90 million to carry into 2023. As a reminder, $35 million of the ORP CAP expected to carry into 2023 relates to one small profitable project that is included in the ORP because it is a non-sponsor joint venture. Excluding this profitable project, there's $55 million of ORP CAP expected to carry into 2023 related to challenging projects.
Of the four current active challenging ORP projects, two are in the closeout or punch list phase and two are completing construction. During the third quarter, losses in the ORP, primarily from one project on the East Coast, negatively impacted our results. The losses arose out of the schedule delays, which drove increased costs with remaining paving work.
We expected the paving to be completed this year, but it is now pushing into 2023. This one project represents more than half of the $55 million in challenging ORP project CAP, which is expected to be completed in early 2023. We believe our forecasts have captured the cost that will arise out of the delays, and our teams are diligently working to complete the project as quickly and efficiently as possible.
As we move from 2022 to 2023, we believe the remaining risk of the ORP has greatly decreased, and our focus will be on the construction segment performance as a whole. As I have said before, we cannot finish this work soon enough. I'm excited to see that the end is in sight for the challenging ORP. Now, I'd like to discuss the transformation of our Central Group, another area of our strategic plan where we are making significant progress.
As previously discussed, having well-developed home markets is key to our strategy. Our vertically integrated California and Mountain Groups model the structure and portfolio that we are working toward across the company. In our home markets, we have trust relationships with stakeholders and employees, market intelligence, and access to resources. These attributes result in us winning more projects at higher margins and higher levels of customer satisfaction.
Texas region of our Central Group has historically pursued and constructed large projects across Southeastern and Midwestern states. Last year, the region was asked to do two things. First, de-risk its portfolio by changing the types of projects it pursued from complex design build projects to smaller bid build or best value projects. Second, build a home market within Texas.
One focus of this effort has been to solidify our presence in the rapidly growing Houston metro area. Although Granite has been in the Houston market for over 15 years and has good relationships with the Texas DOT, the labor pool, subcontractors and vendors, we have missed opportunities to strengthen those relationships as we chase work across the country. The Houston area is a growth market with healthy funding levels and a resilient pipeline of job opportunities and end markets from transportation to water to private site development.
We've applied a targeted and selected bid strategy, where we believe we have a competitive advantage and can leverage our strengths through our expertise in roads and highways, as well as our experience in solar, water, airport site work, and structures. In the third quarter, we had three highway project wins in Southwest Houston, totaling $145 million. The projects are in close proximity to each other and should allow us to leverage existing teams and resources we have built in the market.
Our Central Group has done a great job building the foundation for future profitable growth and will be a key component of Granite reaching the targets set out in our strategic plan. Now, turning to backlog. We enter Q4 with $4.1 billion in backlog, a sequential decrease of $135 million following what is traditionally our busiest quarter of the year.
Year-over-year, excluding Granite Inliner's CapEx of $205 million in the prior year, CapEx decreased $45 million. This, again, results from our efforts to de-risk our project portfolio as we move away from large complex projects to smaller projects that fit within our refined risk criteria. While we have seen resilience in our private market work and continued strength in public market opportunities, it appears that the additional funding from the IIJA is taking longer to turn into lettings than originally expected.
State DOTs are still working through the process of prioritizing and advertising the projects. We expect a ramp up of opportunities over a period of several years, similar to what we experienced in California when SB 1 was first passed. We hope to see more meaningful impact on the project opportunities over the next 6-9 months.
The good news is that the IIJA will build upon the current positive market. We believe we are well-positioned to capitalize on the increased funding through our home markets in large and high-growth states that receive the bulk of the funding as the projects are released. I'm excited as I look at the quality of CAP across our groups and the opportunities ahead of us in the fourth quarter. We believe the quality of our CAP has never been better and will support our strategic plan and profitable growth.
Our successful strategy to target best value opportunities has changed the risk profile of our CAP and should lead to more consistent profitability and cash generation for years to come. Shifting to the materials segment, aggregate volumes remained strong during the quarter, increasing year-over-year across our operating groups.
Activity in the markets during the quarter and aggregate orders as of the end of the quarter continue to suggest that the general economy remains healthy despite inflationary pressure and interest rate increases. This strength is demonstrated by 16% year-over-year improvement in the volume of aggregate orders as of the end of the third quarter.
Asphalt volumes during the quarter increased year-over-year in the Mountain and Central Groups, but was more than offset by decline in the California Group. The decline in California is primarily due to a decrease in asphalt paving projects compared to the prior year. Despite this decline in volumes in the quarter, we are encouraged that pending orders are now ahead of the prior year as we move into the fourth quarter.
During the quarter, we saw revenue and gross profit increase over the same period in the prior year and saw a decrease in gross profit margin as lower asphalt volumes and inflationary costs continued to impact segment profitability. We expect that the energy surcharges introduced during the second quarter will continue to offset inflationary pressures and boost revenue and gross profit in the materials segment. Now, I'll turn it over to Lisa to discuss our financial results.
Thank you, Kyle. In the third quarter, revenue decreased 5% from the prior year. Comparable revenue, which excludes Granite Inliner's $65 million of revenue in the prior year, increased 1%. Third quarter gross profit increased slightly, resulting in a gross profit margin of 12%. In the construction segment, quarterly comparable revenue declined $16 million year-over-year to $848 million.
This decline was primarily due to a $73 million decrease in the Central Group as ORP projects approached completion and as our teams mobilized to recently awarded projects. Revenue in the California Group increased 8% year-over-year as the group executed on record CAP that it carried into the third quarter. Mountain Group, which is now home to Water Resources and Mineral Services, saw its comparable construction revenue increase 12% to $362 million.
This increase was primarily driven by strong performance in our solar power business and Washington region and was supported by the continued strength of the Utah region. The construction segment's gross profit for the quarter was slightly down from the prior year. Comparable gross profit, which excludes Granite Inliner's gross profit of $5.4 million, increased 5% with an overall improved gross profit margin of 12% for the quarter.
The ORP ended the quarter with a remaining CAP of $150 million, a decrease of $45 million from the prior quarter. Challenged ORP CAP, which excludes a profitable California Group ORP project, totaled $115 million at the end of the quarter. The amount of challenged ORP CAP expected to carry into 2023 is approximately $55 million, with the majority remaining on a single project that our teams are working to complete.
Third quarter net ORP losses to Granite, which excludes non-controlling interest, totaled $13 million on revenue of $44 million, compared to a loss of $5 million on revenue of $99 million in the same prior year period. The losses during the quarter were primarily from one project on the East Coast. Construction segment margin, excluding the ORP, was 14.8%, a sequential improvement from gross margin of 14.1% in the second quarter.
Materials segment revenue increased $24 million or 17% compared to the same period in the prior year. Comparable materials revenue, which excludes Granite Inliner's $5 million of materials revenue, increased 22%. This increase was driven by strong aggregate sales volumes from each group and price increases implemented in April that more than offset the volume decreases in asphalt sales compared to the same prior year period.
Materials gross profit increased $1 million compared to the same period in the prior year, with gross profit margin of 13.6%. This is up sequentially from 12.7%, but down from 15% in the same prior year period. While we are seeing gross profit margin improvement, margins are down compared to the prior year due to lower asphalt volumes and inflationary costs.
Turning now to our non-GAAP financial metrics. Adjusted EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA margin for the third quarter was $97 million and 9.6% compared to $81 million and 8% in the same period in the prior year. Adjusted net income for the quarter increased $20 million year-over-year to $63 million and adjusted diluted income per share of $1.41.
This compares to adjusted net income of $43 million and adjusted diluted income per share of $0.93 in the same period in the prior year. The increases in adjusted EBITDA and adjusted net income were driven by strong performances from our California Group and Mountain Group, as well as lower SG&A, resulting from the sale of Granite Inliner and decreased incentive compensation expense.
Our third quarter results reflect the progress we are making toward consistent profitability across our portfolio of projects as we work to meet our targets within our 2024 strategic plan. Now on to our cash and financial position. For the nine months ended September 2022, our operating cash outflow was $15 million compared to a cash inflow of $60 million in the prior year.
During the third quarter, operating cash inflow was $89 million as projects that were starting in the first half of the year generated cash. We expect strong cash flows to continue in the fourth quarter. Our cash and marketable securities balance rose sequentially to $317 million as of the end of the third quarter.
On a year-over-year basis, cash and marketable securities are lower, reflecting year-to-date share buybacks of approximately $71 million, net debt repayments of $75 million, investment in our materials business, and a decrease in operating cash flow. Revolver availability stands at $267 million, and our debt at the end of the quarter is $288 million, down from $340 million in the prior year. Now I'd like to discuss our 2022 guidance.
This guidance update reflects the addition of the Water Resources and Mineral Services businesses, which were not included in the continuing operations guidance provided earlier this year. We expect our full year revenue to be in the range of $3.2 billion-$3.3 billion. Both California and Mountain have strong backlog heading into the fourth quarter, and weather permitting, we expect both groups to have a busy quarter to close the year.
Our guidance for SG&A as a percent of revenue is unchanged at a range of 8%-8.5% for the year. Regarding the annual effective tax rate, during the year, we recognized two significant discrete items with the SEC investigation settlement charge and the deferred tax effect of no longer classifying Water Resources and Mineral Services as held for sale.
Excluding these two discrete items, our adjusted effective tax rate range remains in the low to mid-20s. With the inclusion of Water Resources and Mineral Services, we are increasing guidance for adjusted EBITDA margin to a range of 6%-7%. With ORP projects nearing completion, we believe that they will not pose a significant drag on our profitability in 2023.
While we have not yet completed our budgeting process for 2023, we expect that the midpoint of our 2023 adjusted EBITDA range will be at least 8% as we continue to work to improve our profitability in alignment with our 2024 targets. Finally, we continue to invest in our vertically integrated business with a current focus on investing in our materials operations.
We expect that full-year capital expenditures for 2022 will be between $120 million and $130 million, up $10 million from our previous guidance. We will continue to be opportunistic in investing in automation, materials reserves, and strategic assets that will further strengthen our business. Now I'll turn it back to Kyle for closing remarks.
Thanks, Lisa. I'll close with the following points. As we complete the fourth quarter and move into 2023, we believe that we will no longer need to talk about the challenged ORP, and we'll instead be focused on what we expect to be improved, consistent performance in our construction segment. Outside of the ORP, I'm pleased with our performance across the company.
We are making the incremental improvements that we believe are necessary to reach our 2024 target of 9%-11% EBITDA margin, and the third quarter's non-ORP gross margin of 14.8% demonstrates the progress we have made. In the materials segment, we continue to see strong volumes in aggregate sales and are encouraged with asphalt orders ahead of last year at the end of the quarter.
The market environment remains strong across our home markets, as demonstrated by the strength of our CAP and the opportunities that we see ahead of us in the fourth quarter and into 2023. While the impact from the infrastructure bill has been slower than anticipated by the industry, we know the funding is there. It's only a matter of time until we receive the benefits from this generational investment in the country's infrastructure. Finally, we are executing on our strategic plan.
I believe Granite is better positioned to take advantage of the opportunities ahead of us than the company has been in many years. We are positioned to drive consistent profitability and sustainable growth for years into the future. Operator, I'll now turn it back to you for questions.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the question-and-answer session. To ask a question, please press star one. Please limit yourself to one question and one follow-up question, and feel free to jump back in the queue if you have any additional questions. Please hold while we assemble our roster. Our first question comes from Michael Dudas with Vertical Research Partners. Please go ahead, sir.
Good morning, gentlemen, Lisa.
Good morning.
Good morning.
First question for Kyle. So yes, we can't wait not to hear ORP ever mentioned again, so that's certainly. You're making some great progress there. How do you look, you see, you show you're encouraged about bid day, what you're putting into the backlog. Could you maybe reflect on the risk and margin profile of what's going into the backlog amongst your divisions and relative to what you're executing off that backlog and as to how that gap has narrowed?
Are the type of opportunities you're putting in the backlog from a margin today kinda fit with what you anticipate could be generated in 2024? Or is there still a margin target or execution issues that need to be addressed to achieve those targets?
Yeah. Thanks, Mike. Well, we feel really good about the cap that we have in place today. We've been working on our cap over the last couple of years, as you know, transforming our cap, de-risking our company, really working hard to shift away from those really large design-build projects that we had had in the past. That's really across the board.
The donut chart that we share really highlights the fact that we reduced that design-build portion going back two years in Q3 at 20% of our cap. It's now down to 5%. That's a big evolution for us, and really speaks to the de-risking of our portfolio.
It also shows that about 43% of our CAP today is this best value, these projects that are really negotiated, we're hired for the value we bring to the client, that we do fairly well on, relative to certainly the design-build projects as the projects get larger. The teams have been working really hard. We've been getting more money on bid day, as we've indicated, and that's in our CAP today. We're gonna burn through some of the work that's been on the CAP for a while, and we've been adding new work that has a higher margin profile than what we've had, say, a year ago.
The last three quarters now, including Q3, I can say we've picked up more work with higher margins, and so we're right where we wanna be, and I think that's really pointing in the right direction. That's how we're bridging to the 2024 on growth profit targets.
The execution from the margin bid to executed is narrowed better, still needs more room for improvement?
It's better, yeah. Our execution, even outside the ORP, there was an opportunity for us to do what we're already really good at and become what we say is the best at it, and we've made progress. We think there's still opportunities for us to continue focusing on our execution and get even stronger outside the ORP. Yeah, our execution is getting stronger across the board.
My follow-up is just the, could you remind us in Q4 2021 what the weather impacts were and how we start in 2022? Just to get a sense of I can't recall whether it was dry, wet or in between among your important regions.
It was wet out in the West. We didn't have the strongest Q4 as a company. We didn't have the strongest Q4 necessarily in California. I can tell you the numbers that I've already seen and we've seen in October indicate that they were already way ahead of where we were last year in the month, certainly out in the West.
Thank you, Kyle.
Thank you.
Thank you. Our next question comes from Steven Ramsey with Thompson Research Group.
Good morning. Can you talk about how much of the EBITDA margin raise was due to keeping WMS versus the other previous core segments? Does the FY 2023 and 2024 margin commentary include WMS in it?
Yeah. Hey, good morning, Steven. I'll take that, and if Kyle has any comments, he can add to it. For the increase, yeah, the majority of that is the benefit from adding Water Resources and Mineral Services into our continuing operations. You know, we did have some ORP fade in the quarter, but this more than offset the increases from adding in water and minerals. For our guidance, you know, looking out what we provided for 2023 and still our 2024 outlook, it is inclusive of the Water Resources and Mineral Services businesses. It is all in.
Okay. Helpful. If you think about the vertical integration of California being kind of the goal for the rest of the country, if I understood that commentary, do you plan to acquire quarries around the country to make the Central Group more like the Western Group? Just any color you can share. To add to that, does the 2024 margin target count on this happening to any degree?
The short answer is no. It's not counting on that vertical integration expansion to get those targets met. That's really using the business that we have in place today. We do anticipate continuing to grow our company. We wanna do deals that are, I guess, less risky to start, and those would be more bolt-on type acquisitions within our home markets today.
That's certainly easier to do out in the West, so we wanna look certainly like California and our mountain groups, and other areas of the country. One area that we would wanna go is certainly down in the markets of Texas and Florida, where we have our business operations already there.
I think that's gonna be to come, but that's certainly on the list of things that we wanna get accomplished over the next two to three years.
Okay. Helpful. One more quick one on IIJA projects. How much can you take on in the central region, and do you expect projects from government funds like this? How much will they align with your operating plan to have a quicker burn, smaller project focus in that region?
Well, I think they align really well. I mean, we haven't seen the IIJA to date. I think that's something that we're looking forward to seeing. I think it's a little bit behind what we originally anticipated in terms of project lettings late this year and start to see an impact in terms of construction early next year in 2023. Our teams across the country are very well-positioned.
I mean, the formula aid portion of that is really based on population. We're in those locations, even in our Central Group. I think the work that we're picking up kind of indicates the fact that we're competitive. The margin profiles that they have in that work is consistent with the targets that we have longer term as a company.
We think we're very well-positioned. I think another highlight that I'll share, the amount of work that we're really bidding in the bid pipeline today, and that's active is well above what we were pursuing at this time last year. The markets are strong, and that's across the board. We feel really good about the opportunities that all of our teams are in front of them today, and that's in advance of the IIJA.
Good color. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. Our next question comes from Brian Russo with Sidoti.
Hi, good morning.
Good morning.
Good morning, Brian.
Hey, just on, you know, the recent contract wins in Texas and California. I'm just trying to get a sense, you know, what's the competitive bidding like or the behavior? You know, what separates you from your competitors, you know? Maybe it's the macro environment, maybe it's the balance sheet, you know, that is enabling you to win these awards, you know, at the margin profile, you know, that you're targeting.
That is really our strategy around these home markets. That's where we do our best. That's where we have local knowledge, local resources. We have the labor. Sometimes we have materials, and we understand the owners, and we understand the regulators in those markets. That’s really the key for us. That's what we do best, and that's really why we changed our strategy as we're really focusing on these home markets.
We've had home markets as a company. We certainly had them out in the West. The real shift for us is on these teams that were historically chasing large projects throughout the United States. We're focused on developing a home market strategy for those states and those markets, and that's gonna allow them to really be successful in the long term.
Okay, got it. I was surprised, maybe you mentioned this earlier, where you could elaborate. I was surprised to see the margins down in the materials despite the energy surcharges implemented in the second quarter. Is there some, you know, contract lag on that? Or, you know, how should we look at the year-over-year quarterly margins going forward?
Yeah. I'd say there was still a little bit of lag on that. The energy surcharge won't completely get us whole until the end of the year. It's been slowly decreasing our amount of exposure. Certainly there was still a little bit of lag in some of the pricing that we had out early on.
Again, that was where we missed the natural gas boom along with everybody that hit at the end of Q1. We did have some pricing out in advance of that. We expect really, as you look, in the comments we spoke about our backlog and really of materials in California is up. It's up versus where we were last year at this time.
As we look forward, we think we're well on our way. Again, I mentioned in October, the numbers that we already saw in October are really encouraging that we're ahead of where we were last year at this time too.
Okay, great. Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Thank you. Our next question comes from Jean Ramirez with D.A. Davidson.
Good morning. This is Jean Ramirez for Brent Thielman. How are you?
Good morning.
Good morning.
Good morning. Do you mind recapping the ORP remains and what the burn is expected for the remainder of 2022, and how much is left into 2023?
Yeah, I can cover that. Just to recap even further to show the progress that we've made on CAP, you know, we entered the year with $314 million. At the end of Q3, we're down to total ORP CAP of $150 million. We've earned $44 million of revenue related to CAP, ORP CAP, in the quarter. But to clarify, of the $115 million, and we've talked about this before, we do have one project, it's a profitable project, but we've included it in the ORP because it is a non-sponsored joint venture. We are not entering into those type of projects moving forward. Really, at this point in time, our challenged ORP is $115 million at the end of Q3.
At the end of the year, we anticipate that our challenged ORP CAP will be right at about $55 million. We've really made good progress through the year. You know, if you look at it in totality for our portfolio, the $314 million was about 8% of our total CAP. By the end of the year and entering into 2023, the challenged ORP will only be about 1%-2% of our overall CAP. That's why, as Kyle has said earlier, that we really don't anticipate to be talking about the ORP, entering into 2023.
You said that's $115 million at the end of 3Q?
At the end of Q3?
Yeah.
$115 million of our challenged ORP.
Perfect. I just wanted to know, given the funding and bidding environment, when do you expect to see more meaningful growth in CAP? I know you talked a little bit about that, you know, moving into 2023, but can you provide some color in terms of the projects and, you know, and how it aligns with the smaller projects and faster burn?
Yeah. I mean, we've had these big projects as part of our CAP historically, so it's kept our CAP high. As we start shifting to our smaller projects, we are gonna start turning those projects quicker than our historical large projects. So there will be a little bit of shift in CAP. But in general, our teams does a really nice job picking up work and offsetting that decline that we saw in the ORP.
Again, our bid schedule today is really strong, and we feel really good about our opportunities out in front of us. Even that's in advance of the IIJA. I expect, if we continue to pick up work at the pace that we've seen, and we see the opportunities continue, I expect Q4 to be a really strong quarter for us.
Great. Thank you so much. I'll hop back in the queue.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. Our next question comes from Jerry Revich with Goldman Sachs.
Hi, this is Adam Bubes on for Jerry today. Thanks for taking my question.
Yeah.
I was wondering if you could elaborate on the decision to retain the Water Resources and Mineral Services business. You know, is this more a reflection of the current environment we're in for M&A, or should we expect this business to remain as part of the portfolio on an ongoing basis for the long term?
The quick answer is you should expect it to be part of the portfolio for the long term, but the decision was really based on valuation. We were in exclusivity with two buyers for those businesses. The credit market changed over the last, say, month or two. They were looking to retrade and it was to a level that we didn't think was in the best interest of our shareholders or the company.
That was really the change. I can tell you these businesses have been performing well. The markets are very strong. We got great leadership, and we have great teams in those businesses. We're excited to have them as part of the Granite portfolio.
Our balance sheet is strong too, so we don't see this having any sort of providing a hindrance on our ability to grow the company, either. Hopefully that answers your question.
Great. Someone asked about the margin guidance earlier. I have a similar question on revenues. Is the entirety of the revenue guidance increase from the inclusion of Water Resources and Mineral Services, or is there any contribution from better performance in your core civil and materials business?
You know, we did the adding in Water Resources and Mineral Services obviously does impact our revenue guidance. You know, at this point in time for 2023, you know, we were really just providing a little bit of insight for what we're seeing for next year for our adjusted EBITDA margin. But definitely, you know, even with the update that I provided this morning for the rest of the year, we increased revenue to the range of $3.2 billion-$3.3 billion. Yeah, definitely there's improvement there for adding in those businesses back into our continuing operations.
Great. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, this is the end of our question-and-answer session. I would now like to turn the call back over to Mr. Larkin for his final remarks.
Okay. Well, thank you for joining the call today. As always, we wanna thank all of our employees for the work they do every day. Thank you for your interest in Granite. We look forward to speaking with you all soon.
The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.