Specialty Engineering involves innovative and alternative solutions that can save clients hundreds of thousands of dollars on projects, improve construction efficiency, and ultimately be the key factor in the success of a construction project.

DRMP is one of a few engineering firms that offer expertise in this niche market with an expert on staff.  I’m a Senior Structural Engineer and a Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) approved Specialty Engineer for DRMP.

DRMP has served as a successful lead designer for more than 18 Alternative Delivery projects across Florida and offers Specialty Engineering services to assist contractors on projects for whatever they need – whether it’s for a redesign, a design repair, or anything that requires engineering during construction.

For contractors, we can perform value engineering or construction savings initiatives. This entails reviewing project plans and coming up with quality alternatives that can save contractors and their clients money and cut construction time.  

A Specialty Engineer when hired becomes a contractor’s engineer of record. We assist contractors on anything that requires engineering services. By supporting the contractor, we are indirectly assisting the project owner whether it’s for a department of transportation or a local government. By having a reliable consultant, the client can rest assured no matter what the contractor is putting forward it’s being done by someone who is qualified, understands their processes, and is looking out for everyone’s best interests.  

Safety is No. 1 Priority

Our main goal anytime we provide Specialty Engineering services is to make sure whatever is built gets built safely and is designed in a way that will not endanger the public. We are often faced with as-built conditions that we need to come up with innovative engineering to analyze elements to ensure they behave the way they are supposed to behave. And, we have to provide those services in a fast-paced scenario because there are claims involved and milestones to be hit.

Once projects are in construction, any day and any hour are extremely valuable to the contractor and client. So, we help contractors overcome these issues and come up with ideas that will improve the project. We are also indirectly helping clients, such as FDOT.  Even though we’re working for a contractor, we are indirectly helping FDOT come up with an acceptable solution that’s going to meet its criteria and  last 75 years.

Re-engineering for Efficiency  

Real-world examples of our specialty engineering expertise are featured in our most recent bridge, roadway, and rail projects.

The work we performed for two pedestrian bridge projects in Seminole and Pinellas counties in Florida involved specialty engineering. We were able to save the contractor and the county governments hundreds of thousands of dollars through our alternative designs for the pedestrian bridges. These are two examples of value engineering for construction savings.

The EE Williamson Road Trail pedestrian bridge we redesigned for Seminole County through our innovative alternative concept made it more efficient and allowed the contractor to save on time and costs. That contractor recognized the savings and gave half of it back to the County.

Similarly, DRMP provides Specialty Engineering for roadway projects.  A contractor hired DRMP for another project in Seminole County, and we were able to develop a roadway design that improved drainage and minimized Maintenance of Traffic (MOT). 

We also provided Specialty Engineering services for Brightline – the privately owned, new high-speed passenger rail service that will connect South Florida to Central Florida. For that project, we were able to perform Specialty Engineering services for various contractors for new structural elements, emergency response services, repair, and rehabilitation.

We are also providing Specialty Engineering Services for Orion Marine Group for the new NASA Causeway Bridge in Brevard County, Fla. We have designed temporary beam bracing, seal slabs, and performed engineering analyses on as-built conditions.

Specialty Engineering Builds Relationships and Expertise

Specialty Engineering is also about building relationships. We’ve been growing this service, and because of our good and timely work, we’re getting an overwhelming number of inquiries.

Our goal is to build stronger relationships with contractors for future work and open the door to discussions on larger projects. 

In this niche market, our competition is smaller firms. What differentiates DRMP is our resources and ability. DRMP has one of the largest structures and roadway groups in Florida. Clients don’t have to wait for months to get something done, and that’s an issue a lot of contractors complain about. It’s worth going with us because DRMP can get the work done faster than smaller firms.

Specialty Engineering has many benefits.  It is not only a beneficial service to contractors and clients, it also enhances the skills of our staff and expands our knowledge of constructability. When you are working directly with contractors, you are being exposed to real-time construction and conditions and getting invaluable feedback.