| OTIA III State Bridge Delivery Program |
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| Web Brief (Nov 06) |
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Oregon firm flourishes through bridge program work
As it celebrates its 40th year of doing business in Oregon, OBEC Consulting Engineers can point to many milestones of increasing success: It has expanded from its original office in Springfield to four offices in western Oregon, and in the past three years it has grown from 55 employees to 106. Much of that expansion is due to the $17 million in contracts OBEC is earning through work on local agency and state projects, including more than $7 million for six bundles on the Oregon Department of Transportation’s OTIA III State Bridge Delivery Program.
“The Legislature should be patted on the back for getting the OTIA III projects started quickly by allocating funding to local agencies and counties while the statewide bridge program was still in the planning phase,” said Gayle Harley, OBEC president and chief construction engineer, and member of the board of the American Council of Engineering Companies. “That foresight kept contractors and suppliers busy during the ramp-up for the larger-scale, long-term state program.”
In its 40-year history, the firm has designed more than 2,500 bridges, so it was a logical choice as one of 20 prime contractors selected to deliver the bridge program. So far, OBEC has worked on six bridge program bundles, both as prime contractor and subcontractor.
Its projects include the replacement of the Oregon Avenue Interstate 5 overpass near Creswell, which added capacity for pedestrians and bicyclists, and the $23 million Wilsonville to Hayesville Interchange design-build project, which includes two bridge replacements and more than 20 miles of interstate repaving. On the $65 million McKenzie River (Spores) to Goshen Grade design-build project that will repair two and replace five bridges between Coburg and Creswell, OBEC is a subcontractor to David Evans and Associates. For these design-build projects, in which a single team designs and constructs the bridges, OBEC has worked in partnership with Hamilton Construction Co., Oregon Mainline Paving and Wildish Standard Paving Co.
“The size of the program allowed for good partnerships between consultants and contractors,” said Kevin Boyle, OBEC office manager, who currently serves on the ACEC-ODOT Liaison Committee. “The design-build method gets competitors to work together toward a common goal, and OBEC prides itself on its ability to work with contractors to reach a solution that meets everyone’s needs.”
OBEC’s corporate headquarters are in Eugene, but it opened an office in Medford in 1999 and another in Salem in June 2004. The Salem branch, which was established primarily to work on the bridge program, employs 19 people, from bridge and roadway engineers to project managers and CAD technicians. OBEC is also an active participant in training and hiring interns through the Multiple Engineering Cooperative Program and the Civil Engineering Cooperative Program at Oregon State University.
“MECOP and CECOP are excellent examples of cooperation between local and state agencies, industry and OSU to recruit and train talented engineering students,” Harley said. “The two extended six-month internships add a year to their program, but we find they are well-prepared after this hands-on experience.”
Right now, OBEC is busy expanding again. The company is opening a satellite office in Portland to provide roadway engineering, survey and field support to its clients there, and the engineers are eager to begin work as the prime contractor on the Beaver Creek to Marys River project, a $22 million project to repair four bridges and replace four along U.S. 20 between Corvallis and Newport.
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