Arctic Directory March 2016: PND Engineers, efficient designs saving time and money for clients

Innovative solutions sets PND apart from the rest

Q. What is the official name of your company?

A: PND Engineers, Inc.

Q. Is your firm a subsidiary or affiliate of other companies? If so, please name those firms and their relationship to your company.

A: PND Engineers Canada, Inc. is our subsidiary company doing business in Canada.

Q. What do you most want people to know about your company?

A. Clients look to PND for our cost-effective and timely engineering for everyday needs, and our innovation and out-of-the-box thinking for unique problems. PND prides itself in being at the forefront of technology and we are known for our adaptability in developing unique solutions to engineering problems.

Q. Where is your company located?

A. PND is headquartered in Anchorage, Alaska, with branch offices in Palmer and Juneau, as well as in Seattle, Wash., and Houston, Texas. Our Canadian subsidiary is located in Vancouver, B.C.

Q. What year was the company founded and by whom?

A. PND was founded in 1979 by Dennis Nottingham and Roy Peratrovich, as Peratrovich and Nottingham, was incorporated in 1981 as Peratrovich, Nottingham & Drage Inc., and currently operates as PND Engineers Inc.

Q. What is the company’s primary business activity/sector?

A. PND is a full-service civil and structural engineering company, working in resource development, arctic engineering, marine structures and coastal engineering, buildings civil and structural, geotechnical, roads and bridges, hydrology, environmental, surveying, and construction engineering and inspection for all types and sizes of clients and a variety of locations including the Lower 48 states and internationally.

Q. Are there important projects the company is currently a part of or has done recently?

A. All of our projects are important. Some of our recent oil and gas-related projects include infrastructure design for ExxonMobil’s Point Thomson development project; ConocoPhillips Alaska, Inc.’s CD-5 (Colville Delta) development project; infrastructure design for the Liberty SDI (satellite drilling island); and Caelus Energy, LLC’s Nuna development, all on the North Slope.

We have also recently been involved in Exxon Neftegas Ltd.’s development of the Sakhalin-1 Project in Sakhalin Island, Russian Federation; design of Umm Qasr Piers 1 and 2 for the Iraqi Navy; the Permanent Canal Closures and Pumps project in New Orleans, Louisiana, which utilized PND’s patented OPEN CELL™ technology for pump station cofferdams; design and construction support for an OPEN CELL bulkhead in Somerset Village, Bermuda, in preparation for the 2017 America’s Cup yacht race; and design and field services for construction of an OPEN CELL pile ore dock at Milne Port on Baffin Island, in Nunavut, Canada.

Q. How many employees does your company have?

A. PND currently has 125 full-time employees throughout all offices.

Q. Is your company expanding any of its operations or locations?

A. PND recently opened an office in Houston, a strategic base for honing our focus on design opportunities in the energy industry and on Gulf Coast and mid-America marine facilities, and started PND Engineers Canada, Inc. to expand our marine and coastal engineering, resource development work, and arctic structural geotechnical and hydrologic engineering.

Another addition to our operations is our AASHTO- and ASTM-accredited Soil Material Laboratory in Anchorage.

Q. What is your company’s main strength or its edge over the competition?

A. PND’s main strength is our pioneering spirit and can-do attitude. We are known for our innovative and cost-effective solutions, such as our patented OPEN CELL SHEET PILE™ technology used in successful projects all over Alaska, nationally, and internationally. The OPEN CELL bulkhead is an earth retaining structure used primarily in docks and similar structures such as bridge abutments, and performs very well under a variety of conditions such as high loads, deep water, soft soils, scour, ice, long-term settlement, minimal embedment, and in highly seismic areas. The OPEN CELL bulkhead system offers rapid construction, adaptability and high capacity, which translates into significant cost savings for our clients.

SPIN FIN™ piles, another patented PND innovation, are steel pipe piles fitted with unique “fins” that allow the pile to anchor itself into the ground, providing superior tension and compression capacity.

PND’s in-house researchers have also developed the technology for partially penetrating wave barriers, allowing less in-water friction, which increases the circulation of water and sediments around a harbor as well as encourages the movement of sea life.

PND regularly investigates and tests a variety of innovative designs to provide our clients with cost-effective solutions and to expand our market. Our research has included: ice mechanics, ice breaking and resisting structures; floating and partially penetrating wave barriers; permafrost research for improvements of roads and foundations; pile driving attenuation in water; and marine and sediment filtration.

Our Strand Bridge system uses epoxy coated or galvanized steel tendons in a unique configuration of horizontal and catenary strands to provide efficient support for spans up to 400 feet. Structural support comes from a combination of beam action of the horizontal and vertical strands connected to back stays and anchored with soil or rock anchors.

Q. What new markets, clients or projects did your company attract in the past year/recently?

A. Alaska and the Pacific Northwest is our historical market, but PND has expanded to Houston, Texas, and Vancouver, B.C. to better serve our Canadian clients, the oil and gas sector, and the U.S. Gulf Coast. In addition, PND serves the cruise ship industry with cruise ship ports development throughout the U.S., Caribbean, and Central America.

Q. What do you see as your company’s biggest challenge in the next five years?

We see opportunity where others see challenge, so the current low energy prices that affect a large segment of Alaska’s economy actually favor an innovative, aggressive company like PND because of our cost-effective engineering solutions.

Q. Does your company have an anniversary or other landmark event coming up?

A. PND recently celebrated its 35-year anniversary in 2014.

Q. What is the average length of time employee’s work for the company?

PND’s average tenure of current, active employees is 10.25 years. By comparison, U.S. Bureau of Labor statistics from January 2014 showed that workers in management, professional, and related occupations had the highest median tenure. Within that group, architecture and engineering professionals averaged 6.4 years.

Q. Has your company received any awards or recognition?

A. In 2015, PND again ranked in ENR’s Top 500 Design Firms, at No. 329. Our recent awards include selection of our NAS Alameda Remediation project for the 2014 Chief of Naval Operations Environmental Award under the Environmental Restoration, Installation category; the Akutan Airport Project on Akun Island for a 2013 Transportation Projects Honor Award from the Design-Build Institute of America; and the Boswell 4 OPEN CELL SHEET PILE™ Bulkhead in Cohasset, Minn., for a 2013 Project of the Year Award from the Pile Driving Contractors of America (PDCA).

Over the years, PND has earned numerous project awards, including several for Anchorage’s Tudor Crossing, most notably First Place in the Special Purpose Category of the National Steel Bridge Alliance/American Institute of Steel Construction competition. PND has also earned 28 Lincoln Arc Welding Awards for various projects.

Q. Has your company been involved in any community projects or charity events?

A. PND supports many charitable organizations as well as the engineering profession through industry educational facilities. Examples from the past year include the Engineers Week Scholarship Fund, Society of Women Engineers, ASCE University of Alaska Student Chapter, Anchorage Citywide Cleanup, Special Olympics, Boy Scouts of America, Catholic Social Services, MathCounts, Anchorage Festival of Music, United Way, Bowman Elementary School Math and Science Night, Girl Scouts of Alaska Women of Science & Technology Day, among others.

Q. What is the address of your company’s website?

A. Please visit www.pndengineers.com.