58.9 F
San Diego
Monday, Mar 18, 2024
-Advertisement-

Overcoming Obstacles Part of Engineering

The 36 firms on the San Diego Business Journal’s Engineering Firms list embody the history and the future of San Diego County. The history stretches back to the vision and execution of Mission Bay. The future is in sight at the airport, on the freeways, in state-of-the-art medical facilities and new housing communities.

The criterion used to rank the list is the number of local full-time licensed engineers as of Jan. 1, 2012.

Parsons, No. 1 on the list, increased its staff of local full-time licensed engineers by 64. Richard Trembath, senior vice president, attributes the increase in local engineers to the ongoing Capital Improvement Project for the Naval Facilities Engineering Command, or NAVFAC, at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton and Coronado, the San Vicente Dam raise for the San Diego County Water Authority, and Parsons Transportation’s work on the Interstate 15/French Valley Parkway in Temecula.

The San Vicente Dam raise is notable in that it is the tallest roller-compacted concrete dam raise in the country, along with the tallest of its type in the world.

Parsons, a global engineering, construction, technical and management services firm with 11,500 employees around the world, began work in San Diego in 1962 on a pumping station for the City of San Diego. Trembath, a veteran of 32 years with the company, has witnessed many economic cycles in San Diego during his tenure.

Dealing With Downturn

“Usually we see cycles of 18 months to two years, this (downturn) has been going on five years,” Trembath said. “I’m optimistic that things are improving. There are signs the economy is getting better, but it’s been slow in coming — I hope we’re in the last quarter of it.”

The highest ranking engineering firm with headquarters in San Diego is Rick Engineering Co. at No. 4 on the list. Rick increased its local full-time licensed engineers by 12. Kai Ramer, vice president and principal, is also seeing signs the economy is improving.

“The increase is primarily due to the fact that we have stabilized out of the worst economic times our industry has seen in a lot of years, maybe ever,” Ramer said. “Rick is benefiting from the diversity of services we offer to private and public entities, including projects in the design-build arena.”

The company was founded in 1955 in San Diego by Glenn A. Rick, after he left the City of San Diego’s planning department, where he had served from 1928. The San Diego Historical Society website refers to Rick as “the father of Mission Bay,” because of his foresight in envisioning and creating one of San Diego’s greatest recreation areas out of tidelands and mudflats. Ramer noted that during the next several decades Rick developed some of San Diego’s finest communities such as La Jolla Farms, Scripps Ranch, Rancho Penasquitos and Rancho Bernardo, in addition to the Fashion Valley and University Towne Center malls — now a seamless part of the San Diego landscape.

Among the projects in process for Rick are the preliminary engineering plans for the Plaza de Panama project in Balboa Park and the planning and engineering work at the master planned community of Del Sur at Black Mountain Ranch.

Aecom Technical Services, No. 2 on the list, increased its full-time engineering staff by 14. ATS is part of publicly traded Aecom Technology Corp., which has four offices in San Diego. Richard Leja, vice president, says that the increase in staff was a result of reclassifying transient assignments from the previous year.

Evaluation Mode

“There really hasn’t been a significant shift in our total personnel,” Leja said. “What I am seeing, though, is a change in the nature of the work; there are generally more high-level studies and evaluations where a client is in an exploratory mode, considering, but not quite ready to make a move.”

The current projects for ATS include the San Diego International Airport Program Management and the I-15 Managed Corridor Project where they are working on the Mira Mesa Direct Access lanes or DAR (direct access ramp). This ramp will provide a seamless connection for buses and car pools to the I-15 express lanes.

Leja added that there are generally signs of improvement, especially among clients in the public sector. “They’re seeing great prices now and they’re looking to get more for their money. If you have the resources, it’s a good move.”

-Advertisement-

Featured Articles

Oberon Eyes Europe for Renewable DME

Leaders of Influence in Law 2024

-Advertisement-
-Advertisement-

Related Articles

-Advertisement-
-Advertisement-
-Advertisement-