2008 Economic Impact Awards Finalist, Engineering Firms: GeoEngineers Inc.

Employment also grew to 16 from six since the company’s inception in 2005.

Jim Kleppe, vice president of business development for GeoEngineers corporate headquarters in Seattle, lightheartedly speculates on how the company has impacted Springfield’s economy: “We had a very nice financial year, so our employees probably increased spending in the area.”

GeoEngineers is a geotechnical engineering firm with headquarters in Seattle and 15 offices besides Springfield. The Springfield office, housed in 6,200 square feet at 3050 S. Delaware Ave., ranks midway in office size by employees, but climbs higher on the scale when it comes to revenues.

GeoEngineers expanded to the Springfield market when it merged with Advantage Professional Services Inc. owned by Alan Snider.

Snider, who is now GeoEngineers Gulf South regional manager, says he was working in the Northwest or GeoEngineers “backyard” when the company approached him.

“They were buying a bigger entrance into the oil and natural gas pipeline industry with us,” Snider says.

Snider and his team specialize in the engineering design and construction observation of horizontal directional drilling.

“If a company has a pipeline project, they get to the Mississippi River and need to cross it,” Snider explains. “We evaluate the sub-surface conditions and make a tunnel under the river without affecting the river.”

Andy Mueller, assistant district engineer with the Missouri Department of Transportation Springfield district, says, “They are experts in a field in which we could find no experts.”

GeoEngineers took on the construction inspection of a directional bore under a four-lane highway near Bolivar for Mueller after two contractors had failed. The $250,000 project took six months.

“I asked them to help control cost, and they pleased me,” Mueller adds. “They are very customer-budget oriented, and I had a sense of trust from the first project meeting.”

GeoEngineers Springfield office has worked on horizontal directional drilling projects nationwide as well as in Africa, Brazil, the Republic of Georgia and recently in Trinidad.

“We bring in a significant amount of revenue from outside areas to the local economy,” says professional engineer Jon Robison, managing associate of GeoEngineers Springfield office.

Robison left another area consulting firm, SCI Engineering, in February to join GeoEngineers and help the Springfield office focus locally. According to Snider, prior to Robison’s arrival, the office only had one local client in Bolivar.

Now it has several transportation projects in Missouri with clients such as MoDOT and area counties. National accounts serviced out of the Springfield office include big names ExxonMobile and ConocoPhillips.

GeoEngineers’ larger projects – with fees up to $1.5 million – can last 12 months to 18 months, while smaller local projects – as little as $2,500 – may only take six to eight weeks.

According to Snider, more than 90 percent of the Springfield office’s revenues come from the pipeline market and only five percent from local projects.

GeoEngineers Springfield officials hope to grow it to 20 to 25 employees in the next two years. “Springfield could be an interesting hub for us in the whole Midwest,” Kleppe adds.

GeoEngineers Inc.

Address: 3050 S. Delaware Ave., Springfield, MO 65804

Web: www.geoengineers.com

Employees: 16

2007 Revenues: $45 million total; $6.5 million local

Information accurate at the time of the honor.[[In-content Ad]]