Springfield Business Journal_2019-03-25

10 · SBJ.NET MARCH 25-31, 2019 Springfield Business Journal Editor Eric Olson discusses the engineering industry with Neil Brady, president/CEO of Anderson Engineer- ing Inc.; Brandon Freeman, associate partner at Trekk Design Group LLC; Jared Rasmussen, land development leader at Olsson Inc.; and Adam Toth, president of Toth and Associates Inc. Eric Olson: What’s the state of the indus- try in a single word? Adam Toth: Very strong. Brandon Freeman: Poised for growth. Jared Rasmussen: Growth. Neil Brady: Growth. But there’s some cautiousness there. Olson: Is that a recession? Brady: We’ll see some type of slow down at some point. Rasmussen: It is not a memory easy to get rid of. When you knew that there was nothing coming in, it was just dead. There is a lot of activity now, proposal ac- tivity. Projects are slowly starting to slow down to a degree where people aren’t as aggressively starting them as soon as the proposal is finalized. It’s always that cau- tious, optimistic feeling going forward. Being an engineer, by nature you’re some- what conservative and risk averse. Project load Olson: At what level are project volumes now? Brady: We’re busier than we’ve ever been. Toth: It’s a little different for our company. I’d say 60 to 70 percent of our work is in the electric utility business. The electric utility business didn’t see the recession. We grew double-digit growth during the recession. The recession was the best hiring plan our company could have ever had. We were able to get people from other companies when their companies were laying off. Now, we’ve branched into civil engineering and structural engineer- ing, and they definitely see that more. Olson: Any others have kind of niche seg- ments? Freeman: Everybody flushes the toilet and it rains, so stormwater pipe and people need water. I’d say 70 percent of our company is (geographic information system) data collection, really heavy into the sewer industry. We’ve had years where we just try to rely on southwest Missouri to support our team; it doesn’t work. We have to branch out. Brady: We’ve grown in a way that we’re trying to branch out and get more geo- graphic diverse. Also, adding services that we didn’t have to help us when that downturn comes, we’re not relying totally on southwest Missouri or one geographic area. Rasmussen: Our growth, too, is somewhat geographic, but it’s also service lines. We try to set up a model where a portion of it is public, some of it’s private, some of it is institutional, and we try to work across all those different service lines. Brady: We want that electric. Something like that. Top jobs Olson: What are your current biggest projects? Rasmussen: I lead the general civil group within our office in southwest Missouri. That’s primarily right now a mixed-use development, The Ridge. For the region, we’ve been doing all the (Community Development Block Grant) work out of our Joplin office across the town of Joplin, and we’ve been replacing the infrastructure that was impacted by the tornado. That project has been going on now for almost seven years. Brady: We’ve been doing a lot of that, as well, out of our Joplin office. That’s one of our concerns, though, because that’s going to drop off here in about a year. Olson: What about closer to home? Brady: Some of the stuff we’ve gotten into is some of what you guys do, that data collection and GIS-type of stuff. We’ve gotten into the mobile LiDAR, where we’re doing asset inventory for cities and towns, whether it be streets or sidewalks. We’re also doing one for the [Missouri] Department of Conservation all over the state, where we’re going in and looking at all their assets and evalu- ating those. Toth: In our structural division, they’re wrapping up a big hospital tower down in northwest Arkansas for Mercy. In our electrical division, I’m working on a big transmission line to connect a large wind farm to the grid out in Oregon. Our biggest growth potential is in the Pacific Northwest. Missouri is not growing as much as other states. The utilities that are growing really fast are in Texas, Washington, Oregon and Florida. We recently opened two offices in Oregon. Freeman: Our biggest right now is Springfield, a condition assessment of the stormwater system in downtown Springfield’s Jordan Creek basin. Es- sentially, we’re kind of going in and creating what’s almost like Google Maps, a Google street view of underground utilities. The stormwater [department] is tasked with a huge need, and that’s pipes that are deteriorating underneath, like a high-traffic area of town, but they really don’t have good condition assessment data. One of our biggest opportunities is in California, Oakland, the East Bay Mu- nicipal Utility District. We’re looking at a project in London. Our growth plan is always to get back to our roots of staying in the Midwest and not growing as fast. Part of what we’re doing is the likeli- hood of failure. What does the asset look like, but then you tie in the consequence of failure. We may have really bad pipes that are underneath buildings. We may have bad pipes that are underneath sidewalks. It’s the monster that lurks beneath that nobody knows about. Federal funds Olson: On the infrastructure side, I’m sure you all have been following the federal infrastructure spending bill talks. Presi- dent Donald Trump has long touted a $1 billion spending package. What’s your take on it? Brady: It needs to happen, but whether it does or not. Even at the state level, as well. [Gov. Mike] Parson has been talk- ing about the bridges and those types of things, that’s good. It’s so overwhelm- ing now because the true dollar amount that needs to be thrown out at it is just astronomical. So, anything we throw is a Band-Aid, really. Rasmussen: Your average water system is probably 60-plus years old; your road network systems is that, if not older, and sewer systems, storm systems are all extremely old and aging. It’s maybe not on the fringes of your community where new development has happened, but in your urban cores, those systems are old. Making the grade Olson: How would you rate our area’s infrastructure? Freeman: I wouldn’t say it’s the worst in the country, but also with all the rain we get that happens so quick, it does a num- ber on stormwater pipes and sanitary sewer pipes. Rasmussen: Average. Our community, at least leadership at the city, has recog- nized that there’s a need there, and they’re trying to do their best. We went ENGINEERING WES HAMILTON Neil Brady, Anderson Engineering Inc.; Brandon Freeman, Trekk Design Group LLC; and Christine Temple, Springfield Business Journal