NTH Consultants, Ltd. (NTH) announced the company was awarded “ESOP Company of the Year” by the Michigan Chapter of the ESOP Association. This year NTH Consultants, and its’ employee owners, are celebrating 50 years in business and 30 as an Employee Stock Ownership Program (ESOP) Company. This is an opportune time to be recognized for our firm’s efforts to promote employee ownership.
 
From the beginning, NTH’s ESOP support has come from the top. NTH was founded in 1968 by Jerry Neyer, Benedict Tiseo, and Kal Hindo. They created a company that has become nationally recognized as a leader in Environmental Services, Facilities, and Geotechnical Engineering. When they began to plan retirement in the late 80s, they determined that, instead of selling the company, they would give employees the ability to own the company by becoming an ESOP corporation. The leadership, now in its second generation, continues to be outspoken supporters of the ESOP and the culture of ownership.
 
“For 30 years, NTH has been committed to ESOP, however it’s been in the past few years that we’ve truly embraced the ESOP culture,” said Jackie Roehl, CFO and ESOP Plan Administrator. “Thanks to our Ownership Communications Committee (OCC), spearheaded by Karyn Rekuc, this year in particular we have really hit our stride in helping our employee owners truly understand what ESOP means, and how we all play a part in our Company’s success.”
 
The OCC’s goal is supporting our employee owners’ overall wellbeing. By strengthening our committee this year, we were better able to plan events, monitor the effectiveness of our programs and streamline communication to our members. Our OCC committee and ESOP Trustees are truly committed to ESOP education and interaction, and to promoting the overall financial, physical and mental health and wellbeing of our employee owners.
 
If you would like to be a part of the vibrant NTH culture, visit our careers page to learn more and search our job openings: http://www.nthconsultants.com/careers
 

NTH Consultants, Ltd. (NTH) announced today that it is part of Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates’ (MVVA) team that was selected to design Detroit's West Riverfront Park. The announcement was made yesterday by the Detroit Riverfront Conservancy at the General Motors Renaissance Center in Detroit, where dignitaries such as Mayor Mike Duggan were in attendance.
 
MVVA is a distinguished, award-winning, landscape architectural firm that designed, among other notable projects, the Brooklyn Bridge Park, for which the firm was awarded the Brendan Gill Prize from the Municipal Art Society of New York. MVVA was also selected as the Firm of the Year by the American Society of Landscape Architects in 2016. Among other partners, MVVA selected Sir David Adjaye, an internationally-recognized architect who was recently named one of TIME Magazine's 100 most influential people and recently designed the Smithsonian Museum of African American History.
 
As one of the City’s previously most underutilized assets, the entire Detroit Riverwalk is now being transformed into an attractive and lively destination. NTH has been involved in the reclamation of the Detroit Riverfront for more than 15 years, including conducting the geotechnical investigations and seawall evaluations for the East Riverfront Riverwalk. Visitors can also see NTH’s footprint on the Riverfront through its work on the Detroit / Wayne County Port Authority Public Dock and Terminal where NTH overcame numerous challenges to develop a deep-water port. NTH was also instrumental in the transformation of the Cobo Arena convention facility that now stands prominently on the Riverwalk. For the West Riverfront project, NTH will provide geotechnical, marine and environmental engineering expertise for the redevelopment team.
 
“It is an incredible opportunity to be part of this team of world-renowned architects and engineers and to work alongside Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, internationally-recognized architect Sir David Adjaye, and our local partners LimnoTech and PEA Inc. We have been dedicated to Detroit’s rebirth for decades and are committed to the redevelopment of the Riverfront,” said Keith Swaffar, Executive Chairman of NTH Consultants, Ltd. “We are ready to take on this new challenge to help connect the Riverwalk and create a beautiful, fun and inviting place for residents and tourists to visit for years to come.”

For the Emerald Parkway Culvert Repair (EPCR) design-build emergency repair project, funded through Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District’s (NEORSD’s) Stormwater utility, NTH teamed with Turn-Key Tunneling, Inc. to provide a design for the replacement of an 11-foot diameter corrugated metal stormwater culvert that had collapsed. From the collapse, a sinkhole was observed at the ground surface, indicating a depression of soil within the zone normally occupied by the culvert pipe. The collapse caused stormwater to backup and create a pond at the upstream, instead of flowing through the culvert, as intended. The project is currently under construction.

The NTH and Turn-Key Tunneling Team has been working closely with the NEORSD since May 2017 to design and construct the project to the NEORSD’s needs. The project design will provide a new conduit for the stormwater to drain through and return the site to pre-existing drainage conditions or better. NTH evaluated existing studies including a previous subsurface investigation, closed-circuit televising information, and historical geotechnical data, and determined that the existing culvert collapsed due to excess overburden placed on the pipe over time from development that had occurred over the years. NTH performed the hydraulic analysis to confirm flow capacity and to evaluate the proposed modifications to the project, to verify that all modifications meet the NEORSD’s design criteria, and to identify opportunity for optimizing the stormwater conveyance system. Our design approach is optimized to reduce both risk and cost. As part of this project, NTH is assisting with collaboration of other entities to ensure successful completion of the project in a timely fashion.  When complete, the area will be restored to prior conditions or better.
 
Current Status
Designed and built to date are the following:

• Geotechnical instrumentation, consisting of inclinometers, surface settlement points, and structure monitoring points.
• 24-foot diameter temporary shaft at the interface of the collapsed portion and intact portion of the culvert, for the construction of the tunnel alignment and temporary drainage flumes.
• One of two temporary flumes constructed via 36-inch auger bore that is drilled and cased about 230 feet from the shaft to the retained water.  One flume is strategically placed in the upper tunnel portion, while the other flume will be below the tunnel – this way allowing stepped dewatering of the retained water, in turn allowing for worker safety.

 
An Open face digger shield in combination with hand mined tunneling will be used for the construction of the initial support system towards the upstream of the alignment. Initial support system consists of steel ribs and wood lagging. HOBAS pipe will be used as the final tunnel liner.
 
This project is a unique design-build project – the first ever tunnel design-build project by the NEORSD.  It has involved collaboration with property owners / stakeholders, including ODOT, Cleveland Hopkins International Airport, and two major hotels who have critical adjacent infrastructure. 

At NTH we are very proud of the accomplished women engineers and other female professionals with whom we are fortunate to work. Today is a great time to highlight our appreciation for their contributions, but we also know how important they are to our success every day of the year!

Thank you to all of the women of NTH and to all of the men of NTH who support them!

In November, 2017, I attended an economic conference at University of Michigan and the first question to be asked by an audience member was “When do you expect the next recession to occur?” It seemed to be a question on the minds of many attendees, and I would guess, on the minds of many of our private and public clients. The question makes sense too. As a nation, we are coming up on the ten-year anniversary of the September 29, 2008 stock market crash. Also, we are poised as a country to break the record for the longest economic expansion period (120 months), June of next year. Since so many seem to be asking whether the US economy is headed for a recession, we at NTH monitor several key economic indicators to assess the business risks. Last month, the US stock market experienced a downward correction that made everyone a bit more jittery, so we thought we’d add our perspective.

During the dark days leading up to the crash of 2008, the Federal Reserve dropped interest rates from a relatively normal 4% (January, 2008) to nearly zero by the end of that same year. The Federal Reserve (FED) was responding to an urgent economic crisis and attempting to spur consumer, business, and governmental investment and spending. With historic US interest rates averaging between 4%-7%, the FED always had an important tool at its disposal: the ability to drop interest rates to encourage US spending. For an unprecedented seven years after December, 2008, however, the FED kept interest rates near zero. They considered the economy just too fragile to begin increasing interest rates. But few industrialized economies have ever done well in the long-run with interest rates so low for so long. The FED desperately wanted to return to “normal” interest rate levels again so that one day in the future, when times became tough again, it could be in a position to lower rates to spur US spending. So, in the beginning of 2016, FED Chair Janet Yellen and her board decided to slowly begin raising interest rates, a quarter-percent at a time, with the goal of reaching 2% by the end of 2019. “Slow, steady, and controlled increases” was the plan. By the end of her term, in February, 2018, the FED had managed to increase interest rates to about 1.5%. Still, very low by historic standards.

On his first day as the new FED Chair, Jerome Powell was put to the test with the stock market spiraling lower in one of the most violent sell-offs in recent times. It was clear he would have little or no honeymoon period in his new role. The “flash crash” we saw on February 5 is partially blamed on investors being nervous about higher interest rates and inflation moving above the FED’s 2 percent target.
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So the world waits to see how Jerome Powell will proceed. He has inherited an economy on a roll, a booming stock market, and unemployment at a 17-year low. Yellen and other FED officials had hoped to remain on a course of gradual rate hikes. They worried that if inflation started to accelerate, they may be forced to apply the brakes more forcefully by raising interest rates more quickly. Some FED officials are not convinced that inflation is on the verge of picking up steam and want Powell to curtail rate increases. But many expect Powell to follow Yellen’s cautious approach to interest rates. March 20-21, 2018 will be the next opportunity for another interest rate increase. It will be Powell’s first opportunity to show the world whether the FED feels the economy has weakened or is still strong and healthy, able to withstand more regular small rate hikes. We still have a long way to go to get to a “normal” US interest rate, hopefully Powell can get us there.

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​NTH Consultants, Ltd. (NTH) today announced that the company is celebrating its 50th anniversary in business as a professional engineering consulting firm. To celebrate this achievement, the company hosted a kick-off event in January for its employees that included an address from Jerry Neyer, one of the founders of the company. The event was a chance for Jerry and current company leaders, Kevin Hoppe, President and CEO, and Jeff Jaros, Executive Vice-President, to share with employees the challenges and milestones the company has faced in the last 50 years, while looking forward to future opportunities. Pictures of the event can be seen below and a video of images from the event can be seen here.
 
“Successfully staying in business for more than a few years is an achievement in any market. Being in business for 50 years is extraordinary,” said Kevin B. Hoppe, President and CEO. “NTH has a lot to be proud of - we have weathered the ups and downs of the past half century and have always found the leadership and commitment from staff to work through the toughest challenges. Our steadfast focus on providing excellent service to our clients while taking care of staff, has propelled us over the past 50 years.”
 
NTH was founded in 1968 by Jerry Neyer, Benedict Tiseo, and Kal Hindo. They created a company that has become nationally recognized as a leader in Environmental Services, Facilities, and Geotechnical Engineering in the waste management, energy, water resources, public infrastructure, and urban renewal markets. As an employee-owned firm with decades of experience and a proven client service record, NTH has earned the respect of peers and clients by providing innovative, cost-effective solutions for both unusual and routine projects.
 
“As we kick off our 50th year, we want our staff to recognize all that we have achieved together over the last 50 years, but most importantly, we want them to look forward to the opportunities that lay ahead for our company. This is an exciting time to be a part of NTH,” said Jeff Jaros, Executive Vice President.

​About the speaker: Jason R. Edberg, P.E. is the Vice President of Underground Engineering for NTH Consultants in Detroit, Michigan. He specializes in the design of heavy underground civil construction, including tunnels, shafts, and support of deep excavations for both owner and contractor clients throughout the United States. His expertise includes the investigation, rehabilitation, and asset management of aging underground infrastructure.

Jason holds a bachelor’s degree in Civil and Environmental Engineering from the University of Michigan and a Masters of Business Administration from Wayne State University.

NTH participated in the Macomb Sinkhole Opening Day event last week to celebrate the culmination of  nearly a year’s intensive work to repair the failed 15 Mile Interceptor Sewer in Fraser, Michigan. The collapse of this major interceptor originated on Christmas Eve, 2016, and a massive engineering and construction repair effort followed.  Led by prime consultant AEW, NTH joined the team of engineering consultants to assist in the expedited repair of this infrastructure, which concluded with 15 Mile Road being  fully re-opened to traffic on December 5, 2017.

In the image, the lineup of hard hats for the engineers involved with the Macomb County logo in the background (fashioned out of a section of Hobas pipe that was used for the  interceptor repair).

NTH is pleased to announce the recent hire of Senior Project Engineer, Audra Arnold, P.E., working in our Cleveland, Ohio office. Ms. Arnold is a civil engineer with extensive experience in environmental and geotechnical consulting.

Ms. Arnold’s more than nine years of professional experience includes a two-year water and sanitation volunteer assignment with the Peace Corps in Mali, West Africa, as well as working in Chicago, Illinois for almost seven years before returning to her home state of Ohio. Her previous experience includes working with a variety of clients and stakeholders in the private, public, and nonprofit sectors to provide foundation, pavement, and construction recommendations and submittals for the development of single-story to high-rise residential/mixed-use buildings, retail stores, residential subdivisions, commercial and industrial buildings, roadways, and bridges.

​In addition, Ms. Arnold’s experience includes working with clients to obtain formal site closure through local state and federal agencies to facilitate residential, commercial, and/or industrial redevelopment for environmentally impaired properties.