Specialty: Engineering solutions for project conceptualization to construction management and administration
President: Rick Harbert
1999 revenues: $5 million
2000 projected revenues: $5.8 million
Location: Bothell
RH2 Engineering provides a wide range of services, including utility design, site and facility design, biological assessments, water quality monitoring, project permitting and capital facilities planning. RH2 President Rick Harbert said most of his clients are municipalities. The Endangered Species Act and the Growth Management Act, he said, are major factors affecting business.
"The ESA has affected all of the municipalities in Washington state, which is where we do most of our business," Harbert said. "The permitting time and costs have increased to save the salmon -- that's one of the clear indicators of how sensitive we need to be regarding the environment."
Increasingly, Harbert said design and construction techniques in environmentally sensitive areas require greater levels of mitigation.
"Conventional construction techniques can do a lot of damage to the environment," he said. "Advanced construction techniques, such as minimizing the footprint of an excavation, are integral to complying with federal and state environmental mandates."
At Pangborn Airport Business Park in Douglas County, RH2 designed a stormwater runoff system that introduces runoff into infiltration swales or ponds via drainage swales, stormdrains or channels.
The difficult side to his firm's work, Harbert said, is watching the bottom line. "A hard part is trying to control the project cost when using advanced techniques and when mitigating for environmental compliance," he said. "One of the most difficult challenges a designer faces these days is to improve the environmental conditions as part of your work and still meet budget and schedule constraints. We do a good job of accomplishing that."