Threadlines of Geotechnical and Engineering Geology firms in Northern California

Compiled by

J. David Rogers, PE, CEG, CHG and Alan L. Kropp, PE, GE

Posted at http://web.mst.edu/~rogersda/Geotechnical-Practice/

Last edited 3-29-2018

Soil Testing Companies

Background on soil testing companies

Compaction tests using California Test Method 216 have been required for public roads since 1929 (see descriptions under “Notable Legislation and Associations that influenced development of the Geotechnical Standard of Practice”), but were not required for private sector work. In 1950 the California Legislature enacted California Administrative Code Title 21 (Public Works: Department of Public Works, Architecture, Highways, Toll Bridge Authority), which required materials testing, including soil compaction tests, for public buildings, streets, and trench backfill of buried utilities in public rights-of-way. Materials and soil testing firms sprang up overnight because of this legislation.

In the late 1950s several Bay Area agencies also enacted excavation and grading codes, similar to those developed in the Los Angeles Basin (see note on “Adoption of Excavation & Grading ordinances in the Bay Area (1956-65)” below, in section titled “Notable Legislation and Associations that influenced development of the Geotechnical Standard of Practice”).

Pacific Chemical Works (1866-86); Abbot A. Hanks, Inc., Engineers, Assayers, Metallurgists, Chemists, and Soils and Foundations, and Construction Testing (1896-onward): Abbot A. Hanks Testing Laboratory (into the late 1970s)

Abbot A. Hanks, Inc., Engineers, Assayers, Metallurgists, and Chemists, and Soils and Foundations, and Construction Testing was originally founded as the Pacific Chemical Works in 1866 by Henry G. Hanks (1826-1907) in San Francisco. Hanks then served as State Mineralogist, directing the California State Mining Bureau in San Francisco from its establishment in 1880 until 1886, when he re-opened his assaying business. His son Abbot A. Hanks (1869-1939) assumed ownership of the operations in 1896, and changed the firm’s name to Abbot A. Hanks, Chemist, Assayer, and Metallurgist, based at 531 California Street in SF. The company prospered under his guidance, expanding into allied markets, such as materials testing, and in the early 1950s, grew to include soils and foundation testing. During the post-war years the firm was based at 1142 Howard Street in San Francisco. Leonard O. Long, PE (1917-2010) supervising the firm’s soils and foundations work from about 1949 until his departure in 1964 (described under Berlogar-Long, in the Dames & Moore Threadline). John de Becker, PE (1914-2007) joined the firm in 1957, assisting Long in the soil mechanics and testing group, until affiliating with the Naval Facilities Engineering Command in San Bruno in 1969.

Smith-Emery Co. (1904-present); Smith-Emery GeoServices (1972-c. 2009)

Smith-Emery Co. was originally founded in 1904 in San Francisco, and began performing inspection and testing of commercial structures, following the San Francisco earthquake and fire of April 1906. The firm gradually developed into a materials testing and construction inspection services operation, with graduate engineers supervising most of the overall activities. The firm now includes three subsidiaries: Smith-Emery-Laboratories, Positive Lab Service, and Smith-Emery GeoServices, established in 1972. The GeoServices arm provides environmental and geotechnical testing and inspection services, employing geotechnical engineers, engineering geologists, and environmental specialists.

In the 1990s Keith Gilliam (formerly of Lee & Praszker) supervised the geotechnical lab in San Francisco. Patrick Morrison, PG, Anthony Argyriou, PE, and Miles Grant, CEG (BS Geol ’86 USC) also worked for the San Francisco office in the 1990s, as Bill Wood, GE. Lutz “Yogi” Kunze, GE was the firm’s principal geotechnical engineer in Los Angeles, who directed the operations of Smith-Emery Geoservices between 1994-2001. Around 2009 the firm closed its San Francisco Bay Area office and now operates only out of Los Angeles and Orange Counties. James E. Partridge, PE is the current President and Owner, while Patrick Morrison, CEG is the GeoServices Division Manager.

O.J. Porter & Co. (1942-55); Porter, Urquhart, McCreary & O’Brien (1955-60); Porter, O’Brien & Armstrong (1962-65); Porter, Armstrong, Ripa & Associates (1962-67)

In addition to the original office in Sacramento, branch firms/offices were established in San Francisco and Los Angeles, as well as overseas field offices, mostly associated with defense contracts. A separate firm, Porter & O’Brien, was incorporated in New Jersey and California in 1952, between Porter and civil engineer Kenneth O’Brien. O’Brien later moved to Los Angeles to manage the branch office of Porter, Urquhart, McCreary & O’Brien in 1952, which became Porter, O’Brien & Armstrong in 1962, and continued operating through 1968.

In the fall of 1955 Porter formed another partnership with Bruce D. McCreary and Ken O’Brien called Porter, Urquhart, McCreary & O’Brien (PUMO), operating offices in Newark, New Jersey, Sacramento, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. The Sacramento, LA, and SF offices engaged primarily in west coast public works projects (transportation and water resources). In 1962 Porter brought in Ellis Leroy Armstrong, PE as a partner in Porter, O’Brien & Armstrong incorporated in California, with Porter listed as “managing partner.”

The San Francisco office operated as Porter, O’Brien and Armstrong (POA) between 1962-68. Their work focused primarily on highways, and this office continued operating in San Francisco until about 1965. The Sacramento office operated under the name Porter, O'Brien, Consulting Engineers until February 1966. That year the name of the Sacramento operation was changed to Porter, Armstrong, Ripa & Associates. Pappy Porter's son, James Porter (1928-1987), was the Vice President of the firm and managed the Sacramento office. On December 18, 1967 Pappy Porter died in Madison, New Jersey. A few months later Jim Kleinfelder purchased the assets of Porter, Armstrong & Ripa’s office in Sacramento. These firms are described in more detail in the Caltrans Threadline, below.

Hersey Inspection Bureau (1946-64)

Around 1946 James H. Dunn, PE established the Hersey Inspection Bureau in Oakland, offering inspection and testing services, mostly in soil and subgrade compaction, pavement and materials testing. One of their first engineers was Barney Vallerga, PE. The business grew to include basic soils and foundation engineering and pavement design.

In April 1958, William F. Jones, PE, along with Al Gribaldo, PE (BSCE ’49 Berkeley), Alvin Rathbun, and George R. Thenn, Jr., purchased Hersey Inspection Bureau to establish themselves in the East Bay market. Rathbun oversaw the business side of the various testing firms. Shortly afterward, they established a branch office in Concord, managed by Gery Anderson.

Testing & Controls (1954-75)

Around 1954 Testing and Controls of Mountain View was founded by L. Cedric Macabee, PE (1903-83), who owned Macabee Engineering in Palo Alto, a firm that specialized in water resources and sanitary engineering in northern California. He hired Albert C. Gribaldo, PE from the California Division of Highways to run this office. Al was a 1949 graduate of Cal Berkeley in civil engineering, who had been working on the construction of the Nimitz Freeway (State Route 17) in the East Bay, and was an expert engineering draftsman. He was assisted by Chuck Sillkock, a surveyor from Macabee Engineering, who supervised the testing lab. The lab included a moist curing room for stoarage of concrete cylinders before testing. The on-call engineers who worked part-time for the firm were Myron Jacobs at Santa Clara University and Jorge Barringa at San Jose State. The soils technicians were John P. Nielsen and Loren Saliday. Nielson was a CE student at San Jose State who departed for graduate school in the fall of 1957, earning his MS at Wyoming and PhD in geotechnical engineering at Colorado before returning to the peninsula in 1961 to work for Al Gribaldo.

Testing and Controls rented space in the building on San Antonio Road in Mountain View owned by Peninsula Laboratories, a full service commercial assay (minerals and petroleum) and testing firm, which also provided medical, chemical, botanical, and pharmacutical testing. In February 1958 William F. Jones, PE (MSCE ‘50 Caltech) resigned his position with Skidmore, Owings and Merrill and became a principal at Testing & Controls. In 1959 Alvin A. Rathbun (MBA ’57 Stanford) joined the firm as its business manager, and the company moved to larger quarters in a building near Moffett Field.

In 1971, Dan Rhoades, PE was a principal of GJA when he was also named President of Testing & Controls, who established a branch office in Concord to serve the Contra Costa County market. The other principals were Robert D. Dewell, PE, SE (1910-95), son of Henry D. Dewell, PE, as Vice President and Chief Engineer, Richard L. McKillip as Manager of Business Development, and Donald Peard Kay, PE as Staff Engineer. In 1975 Rhoades departed to start Purcell-Rhoades & Associates in Pleasant Hill, and the Concord office of Testing & Controls was closed.

Testing Engineers, Inc. (1954-93); TEI (1994-present)

Testing Engineers, Inc (TEI) of 2811 Adeline St. in Oakland was an independent construction materials testing firm spun off from Woodward-Clyde Consultants in 1954. By 1970 it was being managed by Merlyn Isaak, PE and F. Robert Preece, PE. In the 1980-90s Isaak was Chairman of ACI Committee 506 on Shotcreting. The firm was reorganized in 1993-94 as TEI and is now based in San Leandro and operated by Gary Snyder.

Peninsula Testing & Controls (1959-69)

Peninsula Testing & Controls was founded by Albert C. Gribaldo and Alvin A. Rathbun, (1922-2011) around 1959. Rathbun had undergraduate degrees from Middlebury College in Vermont and Stanford (Class of 1950). After earning his MBA from Stanford he assumed the role of Secretary-Treasurer of Testing & Controls, Peninsula Testing & Controls, GJJ, and later, the Earth Systems firms. David M. Wilson was the senior engineering geologist with Peninsula Testing & Controls in 1962.

In July 1966 Peninsula Testing and Controls opened up a branch office in Pajaro to oversee the construction observation and testing work they were performing for Cabrillo Community College. This office was managed by Jo K. Crosby, PE and was the first business offering soil mechanics and foundation engineering services in Monterey County.

Stockton Testing & Controls (1961-66)

James H. Kleinfelder, GE (1934-2017) received his BSCE degree from U.C. Berkeley in 1956, and worked for the California Division of Highways and the City of Stockton. While working as a resident engineer for the City of Stockton in the early 60s, he experienced difficulty hiring soils and testing firms based in Sacramento, who were so busy they weren’t available for the testing required by Title 21. In 1961 Jim and his brother Ed started Stockton Testing & Controls to serve the growing market in San Joaquin County. In 1963 he bought out his brother’s share and established the firm’s first branch office in Merced. Jim also returned to Berkeley to secure a master’s degree in soil mechanics, in 1963-64. In 1966 he changed the name of the firm to J.H. Kleinfelder & Associates. In 1968 they purchased the assets of Porter, Armstrong & Ripa in Sacramento, and opend their second branch office. The firm’s history and development is described in more detail below, under the Kleinfelder Threadline.

Geo-Testing, Inc. (1967-77); Earl B. Hall, Inc (1977-93)

Geo-Testing of San Rafael was founded by Dennis Long, PE, who served as Chief Engineer, and Herbert J. Dix, PE (BSCE ‘56; MS ‘59 Northwestern) as a principal engineer, from 1967-77. Dix had been a graduate student of Jorj Osterberg at Northwestern in the late 1950s, where he learned about geotechnical instrumentation. Dix had previously worked for Woodward Clyde and Porter, O’Brien & Armstrong. From June 1977 onward Dix continued geotechnical instrumentation work through Earl B. Hall, Inc. of San Rafael while also working for VHS Associates, Construction Management Services (profiled below). In 1988 Charles C. Swensen, PE (profiled below) assumed ownership of Earl B. Hall., Inc., who provided geotechnical instrumentation services until the firm was dissolved in 1993.

Geolabs-California, Inc. (1968-73); Geolabs-Northern California (1973-80): Geolabs, Inc. (1999 - present)

This branch office evolved from the Geolabs office founded by engineering geologist Sheldon Medall in 1965, in the Los Angeles area. Delmar D. Yoakum, PE (BSCE ’62 Washington; MS ’63 Harvard) was their Principal Engineer who ran the branch office in Palo Alto from 1968 through Sept 1971, when he went down to Los Angeles to become one of the founding partners of Geosoils in Van Nuys. Frank Berlogar, PE (BSCE ’67 Berkeley) succeeded him as manager of Geolabs office in Palo Alto, until he left to start up Berlogar-Long in 1973. He was succeeded by Peter S.C. Chan, PE, who managed the office, called Geolabs-Northern California, in the 1970s. Chan formed PSC Associates in 1976 (profiled elsewhere).

Soil Services (1972-82); Construction Materials & Testing (CMT) (1982-present)

Soil Services, a materials testing firm, was spun off of Gribaldo, Jacobs & Jones when that firm broke up, around 1972. They operated from an office in San Ramon in the early 1970s, run by Max Gahrahmat, PE (BSCE ’69; MS ’76 SJSU), with their senior soils tech Don Rose.

This operation later moved to Concord and changed its name to Construction Materials & Testing, or CMT. Their largest competitor was Testing Engineers of Oakland, a similar spinoff from Woodward-Clyde, managed by Merlyn Isaak, PE in the early 1970s. Don Rose continued as the principal soils technician.

Soil Foundation Systems, Inc (1972-2002); Geotechnical Testing (1983-2000); Soil Testing (2000-unkn)

Firm founded by Kacey “K. C.” Chong Sohn, GE (1935-2000) in May 1972 and based in Mountain View. In 1983 he founded Geotechnical Testing, based in Santa Clara. In 2000 he appears to have also established Soil Testing, based out of his home in Los Altos, not long before he passed away.

VHS Associates (1974-present)

VHS Associates was founded in January 1974 as a civil engineering and construction management company specializing in assessing insurance claims, designing repairs, and managing construction of repairs, licensed as enginers and contractors. They were originally based in San Rafael, and later moving to Novato. Charles C. Swensen, Jr., PE (BSCE ‘76 Cornell) joined the firm in 1980 after serving as a naval officer, and became the firm’s President in January 1999. Herbert J. Dix, GE joined the firm in 1982 and served as Vice President for many years thereafter. VHS provided engineering assessment of damage claims, engineered suitable repairs, and offered construction management serviced for insurance companies. Herb retired and moved to Sunriver, and then Bend, Oregon. Walter K. Weibezahn, PE (BSCE ‘57 Berkeley) joined the firm in 1987 and served as an associate.