Business Spotlight: From Paper to Reality

Fred Mathews is right at home in his corner office at Crawford, Murphy & Tilly Inc.

After all, Mathews built the 1631 W. Elfindale St. building when he was operating Mathews & Associates Inc.

In January, Mathews merged his 27-year-old engineering firm with Springfield, Ill.-based CMT, a consulting engineer in aviation, highways and bridges, water and wastewater, and land development with 10 Midwestern offices that recorded $44.4 million in 2011 revenues.

The two firms had worked together for almost a decade on several complex area projects, including civil work for an airport terminal at Fort Leonard Wood, the Springfield-Branson National Airport terminal and access road, and Interstate 44 improvements.

“It just made sense for us to finally get married after dating a number of years,” says Mathews, pointing to the upside of now having access to such specialties as mechanical, electrical and environmental engineering among the broader CMT staff. “It gives us an advantage here to have those staff available so we can offer those services with a local perspective.”

Though Mathews’ wife, Kay, who handled the firm’s personnel and financial matters, retired in the merger, Mathews & Associates’ staff of 13 remained on board during the transition, and CMT professional engineer Steve Prange stepped in as co-office manager with Fred Mathews.

“The cultures are so similar between our company and what Fred has worked hard to develop here,” says Prange, who has worked for CMT since his sophomore year at Bradley University and relocated from the firm’s Aurora, Ill., office.

Among the roughly 50 active projects in CMT’s Springfield office are engineering services on retainer for Joplin Regional Airport and a feasibility study for Springfield-Branson National Airport’s security inspection facility for international passenger and cargo travel.

Last week, the city of Branson’s capital improvements committee selected CMT among three finalists to perform engineering work for a nearly $5 million downtown streetscape project.

Branson Economic Development Director Garrett Anderson says CMT rose to the top, in part, due to its local office presence. The other finalists were Vireo, which operates offices in Kansas City and Omaha, Neb., and St. Louis-based Peckham Guyton Albers & Viets Inc.

“(CMT) seemed to put a lot of research into it ahead of time,” Anderson says. “They were visiting with downtown business owners and community leaders months in advance of submitting their proposal.”

The project is in the negotiating phase with Branson’s Engineering Department, and Anderson expects the aldermen board could vote on a contract within two months. Mathews says the process formally started in April, and the city received more than 20 proposals.

Branson has budgeted $400,000 this year for the project, and $800,000 in each of the next five years. Anderson says the core of the project is to improve pedestrian and traffic flow with the use of sidewalk and intersection improvements and aesthetic features such as landscaping and park benches.“It’s not a shot in the arm into a dying downtown,” Anderson says. “We just want to make sure it stays vibrant and healthy for the future.”

A component to CMT’s plan is connecting guests at Branson Landing and Lake Taneycomo to the downtown area, a five-minute walk to the west. “A link is needed to guide them to downtown with walk-able sidewalks, informative signing and a memorable experience,” CMT’s presentation states.

Prange says CMT’s plan for the five-year project attempts to embrace the area’s historical values. “Branson is America’s downtown, America’s Main Street,” he says.

Previous streetscape projects by CMT include East Trafficway improvements along Jordan Valley Park and Hammons Field in Springfield; a revitalization plan for downtown Indianapolis, connecting the Indiana Convention Center and Bankers Life Fieldhouse, home of the Indiana Pacers; and a $30 million, 500-foot bridge replacement in Rockford, Ill., for a community revitalization plan.

“We listen to the community and let the community tell us what they want,” says Prange, whose personal project experience includes work on the Illinois Tollway’s $110 million open-road tolling conversion on Interstate 90 near O’Hare Airport, a corridor that serves 3 million vehicle miles of travel per day.

“In school, you want to be an engineer because what you draw on paper turns into reality.”

CMT was founded by Leonard Crawford, James “Pat” Murphy and Ray Tilly, and today is owned by 70 stockholders. The firm’s Springfield office, which works as far as Joplin, Kansas City and Lebanon, recorded $1.5 million in 2011 revenues, and Mathews says it’s on pace for the same amount this year.