2019 was an outstanding year, and I’m grateful for our excellent clients and great staff. The most important item of the year was adding Alicia Bailey, P.E., as a shareholder.
It was an award-winning year at Sain. Awards included:
- Civil Engineering Awards from ABC Alabama Chapter’s Excellence in Construction – 1st Place for 2200 Magnolia Avenue South Project for Capstone Real Estate Investments and 2nd Place for the Mobile Veterans Affairs Health Care Clinic
- American Council of Engineering Companies of Alabama 2nd Place State Award for Dunnavant Pedestrial Tunnel (this project also won a national recognition from ACEC)
- Southern District ITE Marble Hensley Outstanding Individual Activity Award to Jeff Stephenson
- Jerry Miles Service Above Self Award to Erin Curry
- Engineering Council of Birmingham Distinguished Service Award to Joe Meads
Other highlights included:
- We added seven staff members this year.
- We gave the 3rd annual Spirit of Lauren Award to Jake Balentine.
- Our staff was very involved in community and professional organizations. We donated time and/or money to over 40 charities.
- Jim Meads was the Past Chair of ACEC Alabama.
- I was the Past Chair of the Greater Shelby Chamber and served on the Executive Committee for FCA of North Central Alabama.
- Erin Curry, from our Pulaski, Tennessee office, continued to serve on the Giles County Commission.
- Our annual Client Appreciation Fish Fry was a great success with over 225 in attendance.
In 2019, we continued to expand our work for municipalities, counties, and DOT’s with new projects in Auburn, Dothan, Opelika, Prattville, Huntsville, Birmingham, Hoover, Mountain Brook, and other cities/counties.
The Industrial Economic Development market continued to be a bright spot for us in 2019. This included work with Jefferson County Economic & Industrial Development Authority (JCEIDA), City of Prattville, Central Alabama Electric Cooperative, and design/build projects with Dunn Building, Hoar Construction, B.L. Harbert, Cooper, and D.F. Chase. Other great projects included the Redstone Gateway project in Huntsville with COPT, traffic consulting with BJCC and ALDOT related to the I-59/20 bridge project in downtown Birmingham, and the Protective Stadium in downtown Birmingham.
We were awarded several government projects in 2019, including the Chattanooga VA, the Birmingham VA, and the GSA Federal Courthouse in Anniston with B.L. Harbert.
We are continuing to grow and diversify our transportation planning and design services in Alabama and Tennessee with new project assignments from TDOT, ALDOT and municipalities.
While we are optimistic heading into 2020, some of the biggest challenges for our industry going forward are hiring/retaining great employees and the uncertainty of an election year. We recently completed key client interviews with many of our clients in preparation for this year. A few market observations are as follows:
- There is no sign of a slowdown in our industry.
- Most of our clients are expecting a similar or improved outlook in 2020 over 2019.
- Other Southeastern states are doing better than Alabama.
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 2020.