2018 was a very good year for Sain Associates on many fronts. If we used a baseball analogy, we hit some singles and some doubles during the year and a home run at the end of the year. It always feels great to finish well and it sets us up to be successful in 2019.
Highlights included:
- Sain acquired Vision Engineering and Planning, a transportation planning and engineering DBE firm with locations in Columbia, Maryland and Atlanta, Georgia
- We added new staff and welcomed back Jeremy Greer
- Sain celebrated some big employee anniversaries
- We gave the 2nd Annual Spirit of Lauren Award to Alicia Bailey
- Our staff were very involved in community and professional organizations
- Jim Meads was Chair of ACEC Alabama
- Diane Hammonds, from our Louisiana office, led Gulf Region ITS
- Becky White was named A Woman to Watch by BBJ and was appointed to the Executive Board of Young Business Leaders
- Dan Mellott received a service award from URISA
- I chaired the Greater Shelby Chamber and served on the Executive Committee for FCA of North Central AL
- Erin Curry, from our Pulaski, TN office, was elected to the Giles County Commission
- Our Annual Client Appreciation Fish Fry was a great success with over 225 in attendance
In 2018, we continued to expand our work for municipalities, counties and DOT’s with new projects in Dothan, Auburn, Hayden, Prattville and Oxford.
The Industrial Economic Development market continued to be a bright spot for us in 2018. This included work with Jefferson County Economic & Industrial Development Authority (JCEIDA), City of Jasper, City of Prattville and design/build projects with Dunn Building, Hoar Construction, B.L. Harbert, D.F.Chase and Turner. Other great projects included the Redstone Gateway project in Huntsville with COPT and traffic consulting with BJCC and ALDOT related to the I-59/20 bridge project in downtown Birmingham.
We are continuing to grow and diversify our transportation planning and design services in AL, TN and LA. TDOT awarded us several on-call contracts and we worked on many projects throughout AL with ALDOT.
While we are optimistic heading into 2019, one of the biggest challenges for our industry going forward is the need for state and federal funding to support infrastructure. My brother Jim and I were pleased to represent ACEC and ASCE on several Alabama Transportation Infrastructure Study work groups led by the University of Alabama. We are hopeful that this will lead to long term solutions to address infrastructure needs in Alabama.
According to Drew Harrell with Business Council of Alabama and Executive Director of Alabama Alliance for Infrastructure:
- Investing in infrastructure is an industry attractor and a job creator.
- In a 2017 survey of corporate executives, highway accessibility was ranked as the #1 factor when selecting a new site for business operations. If Alabama is going to continue to attract new industry to our state, enhancing and expanding our infrastructure network is critical.
- Infrastructure enhancement is just as vital to supporting and expanding existing industry in our state. Over $436 billion in goods are shipped to and from Alabama businesses each year using the state’s road and bridge system.
- The Federal Highway Administration has projected that every additional $500 million invested in transportation infrastructure annually supports 14,000 new jobs
We appreciate all of our friends and clients who have helped to make our business successful this past year and going forward. We wish all of you a healthy and prosperous 2019.