Terracon

Terracon is an employee-owned engineering and consulting firm headquartered in Olathe, Kansas. Gerald Olson started it in 1965 as Soil Testing Services of Iowa, and the company took the Terracon name in 1980 when it became fully employee-owned. Its four service lines are geotechnical, environmental, materials testing and inspection, and facilities consulting. Growth came partly through a long string of regional acquisitions. By 2017 Terracon reported more than 4,000 employees and over 140 offices serving all 50 states, and it sits on ENR’s Top 500 Design Firms list. On Austin’s Oak Hill Parkway, Terracon worked as a design subconsultant to lead engineer AECOM.

Terracon today is larger than its most-cited figures suggest. The company reports more than 8,000 employees and over 200 locations nationwide, up from the roughly 4,000 staff and 140 offices often quoted from 2017, and a 2023 milestone of 6,000-plus. It remains 100% employee-owned, and Engineering News-Record ranked it number 18 on the 2024 Top 500 Design Firms list.

Beyond the four core service lines, Terracon has built out a set of named products that are sold as tools rather than consulting hours. Select a Site and Stage1 handle site selection, Pivvot covers geospatial risk screening for linear infrastructure, and Compass is its data platform. Pavement Management Services and Sustainability and Resiliency Services sit alongside those as distinct offerings.

Work is organised around a four-stage project lifecycle, which is a useful way to engage the firm: select the site, design and mitigate, construct, then manage assets. The sector list has widened accordingly, with digital infrastructure, power generation and transmission, and federal work now standing alongside commercial, healthcare, industrial and logistics, and transportation and infrastructure.

Safety has a documented turning point. The company became an Incident and Injury-Free organisation in 2010 to 2011, a cultural programme rather than a certification, and it also holds recognition from the Climate Change Business Journal and the Environmental Business Journal, plus a 2023 Most Innovative Acquirer award from Morrissey Goodale that reflects the acquisition-heavy growth path.

Recent published case studies show where the work lands: the Salt Lake City International Airport redevelopment, interchange improvements on Bangerter Highway in Utah, an innovative pavement design on a major Phoenix freeway credited with saving millions, and planning work for a new gathering place in Raleigh.

The firm also runs the Terracon Foundation, a charitable arm, and publishes a Delivering Success newsletter alongside national accounts and request-for-proposal routes for repeat clients.