50 Years of Diversification

I joined Sain 29 years ago to fulfill Hack’s vision of diversifying the company with traffic engineering services. At the time, Sain was primarily working on private sector work, including Wal-Mart projects in the Eastern United States and large shopping malls. After joining the team in 1993, I was tasked with leading a traffic engineering group and pursuing public work. Fast forward to 1994, and Sain was selected for the very first ALDOT on-call contract. In 1996, we were selected for our first TDOT Statewide Planning Contract, and we continue to provide survey, planning, and design services for TDOT across the state. We also offer diverse services to many city and county clients. 

Diversification has contributed greatly to the success of our company. We wouldn’t have survived the great recession if we did not diversify services as private work slowed down and public work increased. 

Being a full-service consulting engineering firm gives us the ability to be part of a project from start to finish. For example, it’s not unusual for Sain to provide surveying, planning, traffic engineering, transportation infrastructure design, and civil engineering on the same project. As we’ve evolved as a business, we offer various services to clients: 

  • Civil Engineering: Sain is well known in Alabama and throughout the southeast for its expertise in site development. Sain has provided planning and design services on many industrial park developments across Alabama, including Jeff Met McCalla and Prattville South Industrial Park. With the addition of our Huntsville branch, Sain now offers airport design and planning expertise. 

  • Traffic Engineering: Sain is widely recognized as a top traffic engineering firm in Alabama. Our team has provided transportation planning and engineering services to numerous municipalities, counties, Metropolitan Planning Organizations, and state agencies. Under the ALDOT Statewide Traffic Signal Design Services Contract, we have provided services for over 80 projects over the past three decades, with design plan development for over 500 traffic signals and 35 signal systems. With the acquisition of Vision Engineering and Planning, Sain expanded its traffic modeling capabilities.

  • Surveying: Our survey practice serves public and private external clients from our Birmingham and Huntsville offices and also provides surveying support to our in-house engineering projects. We’ve expanded our services to include construction staking and drone capabilities.

  • Construction Engineering and Inspection (CE&I): Sain can provide CE&I on any roadway project – resurfacing, widening, bridges, signals, drainage, and sidewalks. Sain has provided CE&I to multiple municipalities and ALDOT on various projects, including capacity improvements, new location roadways, subdivisions, bridge installations/replacements, and paving projects.

  • GIS: As with surveying, our GIS practice serves our internal project needs and external clients. Sain recently expanded its GIS services by offering broadband planning consulting, which has helped many government agencies address gaps in internet connectivity.

As we look back on our 50 years in business, I invite you to join us in celebrating some of our greatest achievements as a company. I am proud of our diverse services, thankful for our clients, and blessed with a wonderful leadership team and staff. We have much to celebrate, and I hope you follow along on our blog and social media.