(Photo: Deschutes River Pedestrian Bridge | courtesy of PBS)
PBS Engineering and Environmental Inc. (PBS) with an office in Bend and HDJ Design Group (HDJ) are combining forces to offer clients a greater scale of capabilities and reinvestment in the engineering communities of both Oregon and Washington.
The Portland-headquartered consulting firm is officially acquiring southwest Washington-based HDJ, effective April 1. This acquisition allows PBS to expand its geographic reach and provide a more extensive range of services to its clients.
“Because we complement each other’s expertise and our cultures are compatible, combining our talented teams makes perfect sense,” said Guy Neal, president of PBS. “We’re building upon 15 years of collaboration between our firms, most recently working together on the major Vancouver Waterfront Development.”
Principal and former CEO Ron Petti is based in Bend. Both Guy Neal and Petti own residences in the Bend area and are deeply invested in the local community.
PBS has supported several projects in Bend in recent years, including Deschutes River Pedestrian Bridge (Geotechnical Engineering), Deschutes River Trail (Geotechnical Engineering), Riley Ranch Nature Reserve Bridge (Geotechnical Engineering) and Rock Ridge Park Master Plan (Geotechnical Engineering and Natural Resource Services).
Currently, while PBS specializes in geotechnical, environmental, and industrial hygiene services, HDJ mainly provides civil engineering, planning, and land surveying services. Combining these two exemplary firms, which offer 60 years of experience together, allows both to expand their market share within the engineering industry.
“We’re particularly excited about positive impacts this will have on both existing and prospective clients,” said Mark Leece, principal of Engineering at PBS. “Bringing our firms together allows both companies to offer a wider range of comprehensive services, deepens our engineering capabilities, gives us better geographic coverage, increased manpower, and the ability to service more client needs in-house.”
Besides offering more services to its client base, the merger will also allow for better opportunities to invest in the local community.
“We will continue to strengthen relationships with STEM programs regionally, as well as our engineering internship programs in Oregon and Washington. We believe these efforts are critical to fostering the development of engineers from grade school, on,” Neal said. “Science and engineering play a critical role in U.S. competitiveness. Education and industry need to work together to create a new generation of engineers; this merger will allow PBS to support this effort on a greater scale.”
In 2016, the firm will begin offering a shadow program for young engineers, increasing the number of interns they are able to accommodate in both states.
“We are proud to be a part of the engineering community,” Neal said. “We are excited about the new opportunities to engage with the industry as a whole during this exciting new chapter in our company’s history.”
Since 1982, PBS’ multi-discipline teams have provided engineered solutions that balance compliance, sustainability and practical design. PBS’ core service areas include engineering, environmental, industrial hygiene, planning and natural resource consulting for public and private clients.
