Sain Projects

Shelby County Broadband

In recent years, broadband has become a hot topic of conversation. Openly considered an essential infrastructure, providing access to broadband in rural areas is connected to economic development, lower unemployment rates, increased home values, and educational improvements. The first step to determining whether broadband projects in rural areas are viable is to conduct a Broadband…
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10 Years of APPLE

What does a fruit have to do with engineering? Well, in this case, it’s one of the first steps in the preliminary engineering process. The Advanced Planning, Programming, and Logical Engineering (APPLE) program is administered by the Regional Planning Commission of Greater Birmingham (RPCGB). The goal of the program is to assist local governments in…
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Project Spotlight: United States District Courthouse

Sain Associates completed the civil site design and permitting for a 68,000 SF federal courthouse on the former Anniston City Hall site at Gurnee Avenue. The scope of work included boundary and topographic surveys, site layout, grading, stormwater management, erosion control, utilities, and construction services. Sain coordinated with a team led by B.L. Harbert Construction…
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Thanksgiving 2022

Thanksgiving arrives a bit early at Sain Associates! Our Pulaski and Huntsville Branch offices celebrated on November 10th at Mildred’s Restaurant in Ardmore. Last week, our Birmingham office gathered for a potluck style lunch. The food was delicious, but the company was even better. We have so much to be thankful for with such excellent…
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Project Spotlight – Carvana Distribution Center

In April 2020, Carvana, a cutting-edge leader in online automotive sales, contracted Sain Associates to perform surveying, civil, and traffic engineering services for a distribution facility in Bessemer, Alabama.  Although non-disclosure agreements required the project to be known as “Project Otto,” it was later announced as Carvana. Commonly known as an online car dealership and…
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50 Years of Problem-Solving

Sain’s 50th anniversary includes all the qualities of a great American success story – vision, hard work, and collaboration. Charles “Hack” Sain, PE, founded our firm with the vision to transform the relationship between engineers and property developers into one of mutual respect, where the engineer provides leadership and problem-solving on behalf of the client. Mr….
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ACEC Awards through the Years

The American Council of Engineering Companies’ (ACEC) annual Engineering Excellence Awards (EEA) competition recognizes engineering firms for projects that demonstrate an exceptional degree of innovation, complexity, achievement, and value. Award entries are submitted through a statewide competition and can later be entered at the national level. Sain Associates supports ACEC Alabama, ACEC Tennessee, and ACEC…
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Evolution of Civil and Traffic Engineering

When Sain Associates opened its doors in 1972, the business consisted of consulting engineering services and land surveying. Many projects included site engineering for enclosed shopping malls across the southeast. Believe it or not, some of the mall projects from the 1970s are still in operation today, including the Santa Rosa Mall in Mary Esther,…
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Dothan Long Range Transportation Plan

Long Range Transportation Plans (LRTP) are an essential element of an agency’s transportation planning process. A traditional LRTP is a 20-year planning horizon vision document that reflects the application of programmatic transportation goals to project prioritization. Transportation plans are conducted at the National, Regional, and unit level for Federal Land Management Agencies (FLMAs). LRTPs include financial components…
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What is a Metropolitan Planning Organization?

A Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) is a federally designated transportation policy-making body composed of representatives from local governments and transportation agencies in the designated planning region. Federal legislation passed in the 1960s required urbanized areas with a population over 50,000 to establish a metropolitan planning organization to ensure that existing and future transportation expenditures in…
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