With a strong start in 2017, CDG has continued to win projects in all of our market segments. In the first quarter of this year, we’ve already said goodbye to some longtime employees and welcomed some new ones.

Below is a summary of what has been keeping us busy over the last few of months.

Stormwater Management and Planning Services

Stormwater management and planning is a key component of many of the projects we work on at CDG. From large scale public works projects to industrial development projects, our mission is to provide high quality engineering designs to address the many facets ofstormwater. We have a great deal of comprehensive stormwater solutions that speak to everything from the most basic stormwater planning and drainage design to flood control, hydraulic analysis and more sophisticated site design.

CDG not only has the technical expertise to handle stormwater projects, we also know and understand the regulations surrounding water quality. We work very closely with local governing agencies to determine what requirements exist and mutually identify agreeable BMPs. At CDG we are committed to providing our clients with solutions-oriented stormwater management and design.

Mentoring at Gateway STEM High School
The Gateway STEM High School is a magnet school located in St. Louis City. The school incorporates a strong STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) curriculum emphasizing rigorous mathematics and science coursework, with career preparation programs in high tech fields that incorporate real-life applications.

For the past few years, CDG employees have volunteered with Gateway students on a weekly basis through Project Lead the Way. Rick Lodewyck,  Pat McEvo and Paul Lodewyck regularly mentor teams of students on engineering projects that the teams work on over several months. After the planning and design, and construction phases, the teams present their innovations to an audience. This year the teams mentored by CDG employees are working on a noise canceling device for a bicycle helmet and a light for a refrigerator drawer that extends the shelf-life of produce.

Another way CDG is involved in mentorship at Gateway is through hosting information sessions at the school’s annual ‘career fair’.Lyle Hardin, Manager of Design Technologies, volunteers his time by providing presentations and demonstrations on the latest and greatest in technology as it relates to the engineering industry. Lyle has recently held demonstrations on CDG’s virtual reality capabilities and drone services.

For more information on how you can get involved, contact Rick Lodewyck. 

Fare Thee Well
On March 1st, after more than 36 years with CDG, Mark Birchler, P.E., R.L.S., CFM and manager of the Civil Department embarked on his next journey – retirement.

Mark was an integral part of projects that consisted of land development and infrastructure improvements. Throughout his long career with CDG, he was involved in design work for municipal projects, industrial plants, mining site and equipment improvements, power plant upgrades, and major land developments. He was also a leader in helping our clients along the river acquire difficult permits.

Mark’s wealth of knowledge, colorful story-telling and jokes will be missed by all. We wish him the best retirement has to offer. 

New Employees
CDG’s expanding workload has necessitated additional staff members joining our team. We are happy to welcome Lucas Suarez, E.I., and Evan Wilson, E.I., to our Structural Department, and Laura Ryterski to the Ameren crew. Both Lucas and Evan have prior professional engineering experience and have worked for  the  USACE, and Laura has extensive industrial engineering and facility management experience .

Lucas is a graduate of North Carolina A&T State University. He has both a Bachelor and Master of Science degree in Civil Engineering and specializes in bridges, industrial structures and underground electric utility structures.

Evan graduated from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville with both a Bachelor and Master’s degree in Civil Engineering with a Structural emphasis. Evan’s experience includes seismic design for new construction and renovation/retrofit projects, dynamic finite element modeling, analysis of structures subjected to extreme loads and development of construction drawings and specifications.

Laura has a B.S. in Engineering Management from the  University of Missouri – Rolla and an M.S. in Engineering Management from Washington University. Her specialties include bidding and oversight of jobs, purchasing, production reporting and industrial project management.

Welcome Lucas, Evan and Laura!