Company Profile
Michael Baker Engineering Corp.
Company Overview
Baker (NYSE Amex: BKR), founded in 1940, provides professional engineering and consulting expertise for public and private sector clients worldwide.
The Company’s markets of focus include Aviation, Defense, Environmental, Facilities, Geospatial Information Technologies, Homeland Security, Municipal & Civil, Pipelines & Utilities, Transportation, and Water. Services span the complete life cycle of infrastructure and managed asset projects, including planning, design, construction services, asset management, and asset renewal.
With more than 2,300 employees in over 40 offices across the United States and internationally, Baker is consistently ranked by Engineering News Record among the top 10% of the 500 largest U.S. design firms
Company History
Company History
Michael Baker Corporation (Baker) was founded in 1940 by Michael Baker Jr., and quickly attained recognition as a premiere engineering design and survey firm through superior project performance for the U.S. military, preceding World War II.
From the 1950s through the mid-1970s, Baker’s reputation as a premiere provider of professional engineering services continued to grow along with the size of the business. The Company became publicly traded on the American Stock Exchange in 1968. Following the death of the founder in 1977 and a corporate restructuring in 1984, Company ownership shifted to an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP). The 1980s and early-1990s saw Baker once again proactively expanding its range of services primarily through the acquisition of construction and operations and maintenance services firms.
By the late-1990s, Baker had overcome a number of adversities that had impacted its profitability and focus on its core businesses. A series of divestitures during this period and a consolidation of core competencies helped the Company resurrect its position in both the engineering and energy markets it served. Since 2000, the Company has continued to perform well in its core markets. Its ENR rankings continue to be measured in the top 10% of all U.S. engineering design firms. Baker has endured its share of challenges, but has also continued to grow and prosper, without losing site of its primary purpose: Creating value by delivering innovative and sustainable solutions for infrastructure and the environment.
Notable Accomplishments / Recognition
Historical Projects
Trans-Alaska Pipeline Considered by many to be one of the great engineering and construction feats in recent history, the Trans- Alaska Pipeline was a crowning achievement for Baker during the late 1960's and into 1977, when the project became operational. Upon completion, the project was the largest privately funded venture in humankind's history, requiring $7.7 billion to design and build. The 48-inch oil pipeline was designed to bring two million barrels of crude from Prudhoe Bay, on Alaska's North Slope, 789 miles south to the port of Valdez, where it will continue to do so, well into the 21st century. Between 1969 and startup of the project, Baker personnel had put nearly 2.5 million manhours in engineering civil, structural, and transportation related infrastructure for the project, including mile-by-mile pipeline design, north of the Yukon.
KHMR-American Friendship Highway In July of 1956, Michael Baker Corporation completed one of the most aggressive and demanding engineering feats in its 56 year history. The 135-mile Khmr-American Friendship Highway in Cambodia, South East Asia, was engineered and constructed in 42 months. Some 40 concrete slab bridges and one "poured-in-place" bridge were also part of the demanding project. The staff requirements for the project well surpassed the 21 Baker engineers, inspectors, and surveyors assigned to the job. Because of the tremendous rainfall of the area (some 30 inches per month), an extensive amount of drainage structures had to be designed and built to exceed normal standards encountered in the United States. The project required construction of 44 concrete box culverts and 379 pipe culverts, averaging 48 inches in diameter. Final construction costs for the project totaled $32 million.
New River Gorge Bridge It takes 38 seconds to drive, at the legal speed limit, across the New River Gorge Bridge, along the Mountain State Appalachian Corridor, in Fayetteville, West Virginia. The bridge, hailed as an engineering and construction marvel, stretches some 3,030 feet, from one end to the other. With a main arch span of 1,700 feet, the bridge entered the record books as the longest single arch steel bridge in the world and at 876 feet above the gorge's rocky bottom, it is the second highest bridge in the United States. Michael Baker Corporation was responsible for the engineering design and construction management for the project and continues to provide inspection services for the massive structure. The project was completed in the fall of 1977 and final construction costs totaled $35 million.
Pittsburgh International Airport (Midfield Terminal Complex) Anyone flying into Pittsburgh these days is in for a pleasant surprise. The new Midfield Terminal Complex welcomes visitors with a wealth of features not normally associated with airports; all are geared towards making time spent in the terminal a more enjoyable, relaxing experience. Michael Baker Corporation's involvement with the project included Program Management Services, Full Design Services for 3.2 million square feet of building space, engineering design of parking lots, people movers, bagcart tunnels, roadways, bridge structures, aprons and taxiways, hydrant fuel system and fuel farm facilities. All of Baker's operational units were involved in the completion of this most original and complex project. In January 1993, the Midfield Terminal Complex was awarded the National Society of Professional Engineers' Outstanding Engineering Achievement Award for 1992. It was also the recipient of the Grand Conceptor Award for 1992, given by the Consulting Engineering Council of Pennsylvania.
Cross-Country Fiber Optic Telecommunications - Mexico In January 1995, Baker was commissioned by AT&T to conduct a feasibility study for the design and construction of a historic telecommunications network that would link Mexico's major cities with the United States. The network included fiber optic cable and microwave transmission. The study was completed in about three months, which included the location of the fiber optic cable routes and radio towers and the estimated cost for construction, material and property acquisition. In November 1995, Baker was invited along with Lucent Technologies and ALCATEL to form a team to provide design-build services for the installation of the 4,200 kilometer (2600 miles) fiber optic telecommunication system. In 1996, Baker, ALCATEL and Lucent officially formed a consortium to design and build the network. Baker was responsible for the design, permitting and right-of-way, and construction management and inspection. The design included the preparation of topographic maps to show the location of the fiber optic cable. The cable was generally located in existing highway right-of-ways to minimize interference with above and below ground obstructions and constraints and was proved to be cost effective. Baker's construction management and inspection services ensured that the work was constructed in accordance with the design which was based on AT&T standards. Baker also provided a complete set of record drawings showing the as-constructed conditions. This information was shown on topographic maps prepared from aerial photography taken during the construction phase.