Civil-engineering firms find plenty of work

Competition locally not that intense

Civil-engineering firms in Northern Colorado are working at a frenetic pace to keep up with all of the municipal and private development jobs coming up along the Front Range.

And though the number of firms increased substantially in the 1990s, all firms — both the good and the not so good — continue to have their hands full in 2001.

Firms include those that have been around long before the 1990s economic boom in Northern Colorado and others that have opened branches here in recent years in hopes of obtaining a slice of the civil-engineering pie. And, according to civil engineers in the area, there’s plenty of pie for all.

“Everybody’s keeping busy — or too busy,´ said Mohamed Worayeth, president of Advanced Professional Engineering Inc. in Fort Collins.

Competition is friendly, he said. “I think everybody respects everybody else. Sometimes you have somebody new and hungry and they drive the price down. We can’t compete with them as far as lowest price.”

Prices for civil engineers have remained steady with no major rate hikes, he said. At his firm, engineers charge just about $10 more than a decade ago.

More firms expected

If growth continues to occur at a steady rate, Worayeth said he expects even more civil engineers to move into the area. “We have about three companies that started a long time ago. You have engineers that work for those companies, and then after five or six years they split and start their own companies,” he said. “We have a lot of second-generation firms.

“Another reason (for the growing number of firms), is this area is really desirable. Engineering companies from Denver, the East Coast, West Coast and adjacent states also like the market here, so they open a branch office or buy a smaller company. They want their foot in the door.”

One such firm is Denver-based S.A. Miro Consulting Engineers Inc., which opened a Fort Collins branch in January 1999. “We were a little unusual,´ said Ted Borstad, associate principal with the firm. “We started to support our Denver office. They had a lot of work and we had people who wanted to live in Fort Collins. We were slow to market in Northern Colorado; we had plenty of work from existing sources.”

The branch office started with five people and now has 16. Borstad said he expects the office to expand to at least 22, which would fill current office space. “I certainly see us getting there.”

Eventually breaking into the Northern Colorado market took some doing, he said. “Government agencies have a selection process and you have to be on their list and submit proposals and go through an interview process. Private work is more based on relationships, networking, being in the community.”

As more firms move into the area during the good times, however, some will inevitably close up shop during down times.

“We will have a dip,” Borstad said. “I don’t think in the last dip many firms closed up shop. The good firms will stop growing and be stable. That would certainly be our position. In civil engineering, potholes are good for our profession.”

Everybody thriving

The other downside to plenty of work for all is that even the not-so-good firms thrive.

“It’s easy to start up and pick up jobs and fill needs whether or not they can do the job in a good and technical way,´ said Dale Olhausen, president of Landmark Engineering in Loveland. “Because there is such a demand, it’s easy to thrive. When the economy goes the other way, they’ll go away or get swallowed up.”

The proliferation of firms has allowed for partnerships on some jobs. “We have tied in with large firms in the past to provide local service, yet use the expertise of the larger firm. It can work very well. Civil engineering can get complex depending on the type of projects.”

Olhausen said a lot of the work is fueled by both municipal needs for water and waste-water systems and larger land developers moving in and doing large subdivisions. “They do lots by the hundreds rather than the tens. There’s a lot of money there. A lot of the orientation of the larger civil-engineering firms is oriented toward growth. As they expand and grow and add new offices, on paper it picks up their whole structure.”

Olhausen said his firm had 80 people in the 1970s. That number dropped substantially in the 1980s, and now Landmark Engineering has 40 employees. “We’ve not expanded that much. The difficulty is in finding people to come in.”

Being in the neighborhood for three decades gives Landmark an edge in what competition there is. “Having been here a long time, we’re familiar with the complicated permitting process in each of the communities. The large firms moving in take a couple years to get up to speed.”

Little competition

But Olhausen said he doesn’t see much in the way of competition among firms. “We have more work than we can handle.”

And the same goes for the little guys, too. “I can only do so much work, and it doesn’t take as much work to keep me busy,´ said Tom Cope, president of Total Engineering Service in Greeley. “There’s definitely competition, but I’m a real strong believer that in doing the best work you can do, you don’t have to worry about what your competitors do.”

For Cope, one or two small subdivisions (small defined here as 50 to 70 lots), is about all he can handle along with drainage certifications, foundation excavation reviews and septic-system design.

But for both the small and large firm, Cope said the profession has more demands placed on it by regulatory agencies and by clients who want the job done quickly. “We try to give them reasonable schedules, but then you have conflicts with other projects, etc.”

Cope, like the others, said he believes there is room for more civil engineers in Northern Colorado. “There is room for both the big guy and small guy.”

on Facebook on LinkedIn