Sain Expands with Acquisition of Two-State Planning Firm

Business  Council of Alabama member Sain Associates of Birmingham has acquired Vision Engineering and Planning, a transportation planning and engineering firm with locations in Columbia, Md., and Atlanta, the company announced.

With the acquisition, Sain Associates, a full-service consulting engineering firm, adds specialized travel demand forecasting, transit and freight planning, and regional planning to the company’s current comprehensive engineering services and offerings.

“The addition of Vision E&P brings an exciting opportunity to broaden the transportation planning services we already offer our clients” said Jim Meads, Sain Associates’ president and chief executive officer. “Our firm strives to evolve and stay ahead of the ever-changing industry so that we will continue to be recognized as one of the top engineering firms in the Southeast.”

Vision E&P’s president, Paul Gilliam, will join the Sain team to complement the broad knowledge and expertise of Sain’s team. Gilliam has 24 years of experience performing and managing construction engineering, roadway and rail transit design, traffic engineering, and transportation planning projects in more than a dozen states for a variety of public and private sector clients.

He is an expert in Travel Demand Forecasting: particularly the interaction between Traffic Simulation and Travel Demand Modeling, Sain said. Gilliam has extensive experience in intersection safety studies, traffic signal timing, traffic signal design, signal warrant analysis, capacity analysis, and traffic impact studies. Gilliam is also involved in cutting edge research and applications of Dynamic Traffic Assignment (DTA) models and regional ITS planning.

“Sain and Vision E&P have worked together on numerous projects during the last decade,” Gilliam said. “Our complementary skill sets and shared commitment to delivering great client services make our firms a great fit.”

Sain Associates, founded in 1972, is a full-service consulting engineering firm that specializes in civil engineering, transportation planning and engineering, construction engineering and inspection, surveying, and geographic information systems. Sain Associates, headquartered in Birmingham, has branch offices in Pulaski, Tenn., and Mandeville, La.