Parametrix
Specialty: Infrastructure planning and development and environmental sciences
Management: CEO Gerry Jones and executive vice presidents Jeff Peacock and Mel Sears
Founded: 1969
Headquarters: Sumner
2005 revenues: $60 million
Projected 2006 revenues: $67 million
Current projects: Planning and environmental work for the new state Route 520 bridge across Lake Washington; a Region 10 Environmental Protection Agency contract for environmental planning, remediation and design
Photo courtesy Parametrix Parametrix designed the transformation of a contaminated industrial site that fronts Bremerton’s Smith Cove into a public space with a waterfront trail, amphitheater, restrooms and picnic shelters.
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Jeff Peacock, Parametrix executive vice president, said there are great opportunities for his industry. One is the Puget Sound recovery work he envisions ramping up over the next several years. Another is the growing trend of public agencies — under increasing taxpayer pressure to keep costs down — looking to the private sector. Specifically, the agencies are hiring private firms to manage capital road, wastewater treatment and water system programs instead of bringing on extra staff.
Mitigation banking
In terms of trends, Parametrix is involved in mitigation banking in which the private or public sector develop large mitigation sites and then sell back mitigation credits to individual project developers. For instance, Parametrix is working with Oregon’s transportation department to improve the quality of habitat and restore wetlands at a 1,000-acre site. Instead of spending money on piecemeal mitigation efforts for various projects, the transportation department can now invest in the 1,000-acre site. This is a more comprehensive approach to mitigation with a much higher ecological value than comes from piecemeal projects, Peacock said.
“It’s a relatively new approach that is being approved by the feds and it’s pretty exciting,” he said.
Voters shun taxes
While that approach holds potential, Peacock is concerned about other areas of his industry. For instance, he said, infrastructure financing is becoming more vulnerable to voter initiatives. Some such campaigns focusing on claims of government inefficiency and lack of accountability entice people to vote against increased taxes for public projects or in some cases roll back already-approved financing for major infrastructure, he said.
“It just makes it extremely difficult from a public policy standpoint to plan what our future looks like,” he said.
Another big picture issue is that rising interest rates will cause a slowdown in private sector development, he said.
Another is the industry-wide shortage of engineers and environmental scientists.