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Construction Joint Ventures - Narrative (Details) - USD ($) $ in Thousands	Sep. 30, 2017	Dec. 31, 2016
Joint Ventures
Schedule of Equity Method Investments [Line Items]
Sterling’s noncontrolling interest in backlog	$ 26,659	$ 52,992
Granite Construction Corporation
Schedule of Equity Method Investments [Line Items]
Equity method investment, ownership percentage	50.00%

X

- Definition

Represents the amount of non-controlling interest in backlog as of the balance sheet date.

+ References

No definition available.

+ Details

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X

- Definition

The percentage of ownership of common stock or equity participation in the investee accounted for under the equity method of accounting.

+ References

Reference 1: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 323
-SubTopic 10
-Section 50
-Paragraph 3
-Subparagraph (a)(1)
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=66011266&loc=d3e33918-111571

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- Definition

Line items represent financial concepts included in a table. These concepts are used to disclose reportable information associated with domain members defined in one or many axes to the table.

+ References

No definition available.

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