In the last year, Peratrovich, Nottingham & Drage expanded its services in transportation and civil engineering. However, "The waterfront is still our beat," said PND vice president Jeff Gilman.

The 70-person firm has offices in Seattle, Anchorage, Juneau and Astoria. The Seattle office grew from 16 to 21 this year, and will bill about $2 million. PND is involved in the Russian Far East at Sakhalin and Kamchatka in fisheries and oil industry-related work. It has ongoing projects with clients in the bulk storage and transfer industries along the Mississippi.

The firm recently won a national award from the NOVA foundation for its open-cell dock, an unconventional bulkhead design that follows on a list of inventions such as pilings with screw-like ends, an easily deployable system for containing and mopping up oil spills, and a berm breakwater.

Last year at this time, said Gilman, the expanding firm was finding a shortage of seasoned professionals to hire. But there has been a dramatic change in the last two weeks as a result of the passage of I-695 and resulting slowdown in transportation projects. The resumes are now piling up, he said.

Although the Washington State Ferries is a PND client, Gilman downplays the effects of I-695 on the future of the firm. More daunting, he said, is the effect of the Endangered Species Act on design and construction projects - in or out of the water. The biological assessments that go along with the permit process are slowing projects dramatically in many markets, he said.