CH2M Hill
Encyclopedia
CH2M Hill is an American-based global provider of engineering, construction, and operations services for corporations, nonprofits, and federal, state, and local governments. The firm is headquartered in Meridian
, an unincorporated area of Douglas County, Colorado
in the Denver-Aurora Metropolitan Area
. The postal designation of nearby Englewood
is commonly listed as the company's location in corporate filings and local news accounts. As of December 2010 CH2M Hill had 23,000 employees, and 2010 revenues totaled approximately $6.3 billion. The firm is employee-owned, with an internal stock market that operates buy/sell events quarterly.
by Oregon State University
civil engineering professor Fred Merryfield and three of his students: Holly Cornell, Jim Howland and T. Burke Hayes (the firm was named after the founders, with Howland and Hayes making up the H2 portion). Cornell, Howland, and Hayes were all graduates of Oregon State University. The Hill name was added after a 1971 merger with Clair A. Hill and Associates of Redding, California
. The firm remained headquartered in Oregon until 1980, when a decision was made to relocate to Colorado, a more central location in the United States.
Other key acquisitions include Black, Crow & Eidsness (a southeast U.S. engineering firm) in 1977, Gore & Storrie (a Canadian water and wastewater engineering firm) in 1995, Gee & Jensen (a Florida-based Ports and Harbor firm) in 2002, DeMil International (a U.S.-based weapons destruction firm) in 2002, EHS Consultants Ltd (a Hong Kong-based consulting firm), Lockwood Greene, the oldest continuously operating professional services firm in the United States in 2003, and BBS Corporation (an Ohio-based environmental engineering firm) in 2005. On September 7, 2007, CH2M Hill finalized the purchase of most of the components of VECO, an Alaska-based firm specializing in services to the oil, gas, and energy sector that had become embroiled in the Alaska political corruption probe. In December 2007, CH2M Hill acquired Trigon EPC. In March 2008, CH2M Hill acquired Texas-based Goldston Engineering, a company specializing in marine and coastal transportation engineering services. In September 2011, CH2M Hill announced that it intended to acquire the share capital of Halcrow Group Limited
, a UK-based engineering consultancy that operates worldwide. The acqusition for £124m was completed on 10th November 2011.
CH2M Hill developed, maintains and publishes its own method for managing projects for clients, called the CH2M Hill Project Delivery System, which may be found at popular internet book retailers. As a firm specializing in project management, CH2M Hill has been associated in several large, complex projects around the world. In 2005, a CH2M Hill joint-venture known as Kaiser-Hill decommissioned and closed a former nuclear weapons facility at the Rocky Flats site in Colorado.
In Singapore
, a joint venture is helping to replace an entire nation's sanitary services infrastructure. The new Singapore Deep Tunnel System will surpass the existing infrastructure in reliability, ease, and economy of operation, and will be critical in handling Singapore's burgeoning waterfront renaissance. CH2M Hill assisted in reconstruction efforts along the US Gulf Coast
in the wake of Hurricane Katrina
. Its main assignments included providing temporary housing, debris removal, and other services.
Starting in 2006, CH2M Hill subsidiary CH2M Hill OMI won contracts to manage all municipal services (except police and fire) for newly incorporated Georgia cities: Sandy Springs
, Johns Creek, Chattahoochee Hill Country and Milton. CH2M Hill OMI won the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, the nation's highest award for quality, in 2000.
Other large projects include a $660 Million gas-fired power plant in Australia, in conjunction with General Electric, and an $11.7 billion project to relocate American military bases in Korea. In August 2007, the Panama Canal Authority selected CH2M Hill to manage the $5.25 billion Panama Canal expansion project, which will add new locks to the Pacific and Atlantic ends of the canal and allow Post Panamax
ships passage through the canal for the first time. In 2009, a CH2M Hill consortium was named program partner to oversee construction of the Crossrail
project to expand London’s transit system.
On August 30, 2006, as part of joint venture CLM, CH2M Hill was named Delivery Partner for the London 2012 Olympics. The other two members of the venture are project management service provider Mace Group
and Laing O'Rourke
, the largest privately owned construction firm in the UK.
Not only the company manages projects for the clients, but also handles the projects considering the Environmental footprint with sustainable solutions. The firm continues to reduce its internal environmental footprint.
In 2008, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) contracted a CH2M Hill company, CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation Company, LLC (CHPRC), to manage deconstruction and remediation of the Central Plateau on the Hanford Nuclear Site in eastern Washington, one of the world’s largest environmental cleanup projects. The project focuses on shrinking the environmental footprint of the Hanford Site from a 586 square miles (1,517.7 km²) area (large enough to fit the city of Los Angeles) to 75 square miles (194.2 km²) or less. More importantly, the project will reduce legacy infrastructure costs on site by more than $25 million per year starting in 2015.
Boosted by American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funding, CHPRC sped up cleanup of the site over the past two years, reducing the site footprint 25 percent, employing an additional 1,350 people in the process. When ARRA funded work concludes in September 2012, the site footprint is targeted to shrink to a total of 290 square miles (751.1 km²), roughly half its previous size. Without ARRA funding, however, the scope of DOE contracted work at Hanford will be reduced. The company has announced that its workforce will reduce by up to 1,350 workers later this year through a combination of voluntary and involuntary separations.
magazine as one of the top 100 companies to work for in 2011, marking the company's fifth time on the list. In October 2009, the company's Canadian division, CH2M Hill Canada Ltd., was named one of "Canada's Top 100 Employers
" by Mediacorp Canada Inc., and was featured in Maclean's
newsmagazine. Later that month, CH2M Hill Canada Ltd. was also named one of Greater Toronto's Top Employers
, which was announced by the Toronto Star
newspaper.
In 2009, CH2M Hill became the first company in the heavily male-dominated engineering and construction industry to receive the Catalyst
Award in recognition of its efforts to develop and advance women in the company. The firm also was named one of the World’s Most Ethical Companies by Ethisphere Institute for three consecutive years (2009, 2010, 2011).
Meridian, Colorado
Meridian is a census-designated place in Douglas County, Colorado, United States. The population was 184 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Meridian is located at ....
, an unincorporated area of Douglas County, Colorado
Douglas County, Colorado
Douglas County is the eighth most populous of the 64 counties of the state of Colorado, in the United States. The county is located midway between Colorado's two largest cities: Denver and Colorado Springs...
in the Denver-Aurora Metropolitan Area
Denver-Aurora Metropolitan Area
The Denver-Aurora-Broomfield, CO Metropolitan Statistical Area is a United States Census Bureau defined Metropolitan Statistical Area in the State of Colorado that includes the City and County of Denver and nine suburban counties. The Census Bureau estimates that the population was 2,357,404 on...
. The postal designation of nearby Englewood
Englewood, Colorado
The city of Englewood is a Home Rule Municipality located in Arapahoe County, Colorado, United States. As of 2007, the city is estimated to have a total population of 32,532. Englewood is part of the Denver-Aurora Metropolitan Area. Englewood is located in the South Platte River Valley east of the...
is commonly listed as the company's location in corporate filings and local news accounts. As of December 2010 CH2M Hill had 23,000 employees, and 2010 revenues totaled approximately $6.3 billion. The firm is employee-owned, with an internal stock market that operates buy/sell events quarterly.
History
CH2M Hill was founded in 1946 in Corvallis, OregonCorvallis, Oregon
Corvallis is a city located in central western Oregon, United States. It is the county seat of Benton County and the principal city of the Corvallis, Oregon Metropolitan Statistical Area, which encompasses all of Benton County. As of the 2010 United States Census, the population was 54,462....
by Oregon State University
Oregon State University
Oregon State University is a coeducational, public research university located in Corvallis, Oregon, United States. The university offers undergraduate, graduate and doctoral degrees and a multitude of research opportunities. There are more than 200 academic degree programs offered through the...
civil engineering professor Fred Merryfield and three of his students: Holly Cornell, Jim Howland and T. Burke Hayes (the firm was named after the founders, with Howland and Hayes making up the H2 portion). Cornell, Howland, and Hayes were all graduates of Oregon State University. The Hill name was added after a 1971 merger with Clair A. Hill and Associates of Redding, California
Redding, California
Redding is a city in far-Northern California. It is the county seat of Shasta County, California, USA. With a population of 89,861, according to the 2010 Census...
. The firm remained headquartered in Oregon until 1980, when a decision was made to relocate to Colorado, a more central location in the United States.
Other key acquisitions include Black, Crow & Eidsness (a southeast U.S. engineering firm) in 1977, Gore & Storrie (a Canadian water and wastewater engineering firm) in 1995, Gee & Jensen (a Florida-based Ports and Harbor firm) in 2002, DeMil International (a U.S.-based weapons destruction firm) in 2002, EHS Consultants Ltd (a Hong Kong-based consulting firm), Lockwood Greene, the oldest continuously operating professional services firm in the United States in 2003, and BBS Corporation (an Ohio-based environmental engineering firm) in 2005. On September 7, 2007, CH2M Hill finalized the purchase of most of the components of VECO, an Alaska-based firm specializing in services to the oil, gas, and energy sector that had become embroiled in the Alaska political corruption probe. In December 2007, CH2M Hill acquired Trigon EPC. In March 2008, CH2M Hill acquired Texas-based Goldston Engineering, a company specializing in marine and coastal transportation engineering services. In September 2011, CH2M Hill announced that it intended to acquire the share capital of Halcrow Group Limited
Halcrow Group Limited
Halcrow Group Limited is an engineering consultancy company, based in the United Kingdom.Halcrow is one of the UK's leading consultancies, with a pedigree stretching back to 1868. The UK-based consultancy specialises in the provision of planning, design and management services for infrastructure...
, a UK-based engineering consultancy that operates worldwide. The acqusition for £124m was completed on 10th November 2011.
Services
CH2M Hill offers full-service capabilities in multiple business units, among three key operating divisions, Facilities and Infrastructure; Energy and Water; and Government, Environment, and Nuclear . Business groups served include: Water; Transportation; Operations and Maintenance; Government Facilities and Infrastructure; Nuclear; Environmental; Energy and Chemicals; Power; and Industrial and Advanced Technology.CH2M Hill developed, maintains and publishes its own method for managing projects for clients, called the CH2M Hill Project Delivery System, which may be found at popular internet book retailers. As a firm specializing in project management, CH2M Hill has been associated in several large, complex projects around the world. In 2005, a CH2M Hill joint-venture known as Kaiser-Hill decommissioned and closed a former nuclear weapons facility at the Rocky Flats site in Colorado.
In Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
, a joint venture is helping to replace an entire nation's sanitary services infrastructure. The new Singapore Deep Tunnel System will surpass the existing infrastructure in reliability, ease, and economy of operation, and will be critical in handling Singapore's burgeoning waterfront renaissance. CH2M Hill assisted in reconstruction efforts along the US Gulf Coast
Gulf Coast of the United States
The Gulf Coast of the United States, sometimes referred to as the Gulf South, South Coast, or 3rd Coast, comprises the coasts of American states that are on the Gulf of Mexico, which includes Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida and are known as the Gulf States...
in the wake of Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season was a powerful Atlantic hurricane. It is the costliest natural disaster, as well as one of the five deadliest hurricanes, in the history of the United States. Among recorded Atlantic hurricanes, it was the sixth strongest overall...
. Its main assignments included providing temporary housing, debris removal, and other services.
Starting in 2006, CH2M Hill subsidiary CH2M Hill OMI won contracts to manage all municipal services (except police and fire) for newly incorporated Georgia cities: Sandy Springs
Sandy Springs, Georgia
Sandy Springs is a city in north Georgia, United States. It is a northern suburb of Atlanta. With a 2010 population of 93,853, Sandy Springs is the sixth-largest city in the state and the second-largest city in Metro Atlanta. Sandy Springs is located in north Fulton County, Georgia, just south of...
, Johns Creek, Chattahoochee Hill Country and Milton. CH2M Hill OMI won the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, the nation's highest award for quality, in 2000.
Other large projects include a $660 Million gas-fired power plant in Australia, in conjunction with General Electric, and an $11.7 billion project to relocate American military bases in Korea. In August 2007, the Panama Canal Authority selected CH2M Hill to manage the $5.25 billion Panama Canal expansion project, which will add new locks to the Pacific and Atlantic ends of the canal and allow Post Panamax
Panamax
Panamax and New Panamax are popular terms for the size limits for ships traveling through the Panama Canal. Formally, the limits and requirements are published by the Panama Canal Authority titled "Vessel Requirements"...
ships passage through the canal for the first time. In 2009, a CH2M Hill consortium was named program partner to oversee construction of the Crossrail
Crossrail
Crossrail is a project to build a major new railway link under central London. The name refers to the first of two routes which are the responsibility of Crossrail Ltd. It is based on an entirely new east-west tunnel with a central section from to Liverpool Street station...
project to expand London’s transit system.
On August 30, 2006, as part of joint venture CLM, CH2M Hill was named Delivery Partner for the London 2012 Olympics. The other two members of the venture are project management service provider Mace Group
Mace (company)
Mace Group Ltd, commonly known as Mace, is a global consultancy and construction firm headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It has operations across 49 countries, offering a variety of services that span the entire property life cycle, from fund monitoring, cost consultancy, design management,...
and Laing O'Rourke
Laing O'Rourke
Laing O'Rourke is a multinational construction company headquartered in Dartford, United Kingdom. It was founded in 1978....
, the largest privately owned construction firm in the UK.
Not only the company manages projects for the clients, but also handles the projects considering the Environmental footprint with sustainable solutions. The firm continues to reduce its internal environmental footprint.
In 2008, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) contracted a CH2M Hill company, CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation Company, LLC (CHPRC), to manage deconstruction and remediation of the Central Plateau on the Hanford Nuclear Site in eastern Washington, one of the world’s largest environmental cleanup projects. The project focuses on shrinking the environmental footprint of the Hanford Site from a 586 square miles (1,517.7 km²) area (large enough to fit the city of Los Angeles) to 75 square miles (194.2 km²) or less. More importantly, the project will reduce legacy infrastructure costs on site by more than $25 million per year starting in 2015.
Boosted by American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funding, CHPRC sped up cleanup of the site over the past two years, reducing the site footprint 25 percent, employing an additional 1,350 people in the process. When ARRA funded work concludes in September 2012, the site footprint is targeted to shrink to a total of 290 square miles (751.1 km²), roughly half its previous size. Without ARRA funding, however, the scope of DOE contracted work at Hanford will be reduced. The company has announced that its workforce will reduce by up to 1,350 workers later this year through a combination of voluntary and involuntary separations.
Awards and honors
The firm was named by FortuneFortune (magazine)
Fortune is a global business magazine published by Time Inc. Founded by Henry Luce in 1930, the publishing business, consisting of Time, Life, Fortune, and Sports Illustrated, grew to become Time Warner. In turn, AOL grew as it acquired Time Warner in 2000 when Time Warner was the world's largest...
magazine as one of the top 100 companies to work for in 2011, marking the company's fifth time on the list. In October 2009, the company's Canadian division, CH2M Hill Canada Ltd., was named one of "Canada's Top 100 Employers
Canada's Top 100 Employers
Canada's Top 100 Employers is an annual competition that recognizes the best places in Canada to work. First held in 1999, the project aims to single out the employers that lead their industries in offering exceptional working conditions and progressive human resources policies. Winners are...
" by Mediacorp Canada Inc., and was featured in Maclean's
Maclean's
Maclean's is a Canadian weekly news magazine, reporting on Canadian issues such as politics, pop culture, and current events.-History:Founded in 1905 by Toronto journalist/entrepreneur Lt.-Col. John Bayne Maclean, a 43-year-old trade magazine publisher who purchased an advertising agency's in-house...
newsmagazine. Later that month, CH2M Hill Canada Ltd. was also named one of Greater Toronto's Top Employers
Greater Toronto's Top Employers
Greater Toronto's Top Employers is an annual competition that recognizes the best places to work in the Greater Toronto Area...
, which was announced by the Toronto Star
Toronto Star
The Toronto Star is Canada's highest-circulation newspaper, based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Its print edition is distributed almost entirely within the province of Ontario...
newspaper.
In 2009, CH2M Hill became the first company in the heavily male-dominated engineering and construction industry to receive the Catalyst
Catalyst (nonprofit organization)
Catalyst, Inc. is a nonprofit organization that promotes inclusive workplaces for women. It was founded in 1962 by feminist, writer, and advocate Felice Schwartz. Sheila Wellington served as president of Catalyst following Schwartz for ten years...
Award in recognition of its efforts to develop and advance women in the company. The firm also was named one of the World’s Most Ethical Companies by Ethisphere Institute for three consecutive years (2009, 2010, 2011).