Steere: Building bridges to business success

FINDING A FASTER WAY: When Patricia Steere founded her company, she found a niche in replacing bridges more quickly than it had been done traditionally. Here she confers with Chief Engineer Martin Pierce on the site of the Providence Viaduct replacement. / PBN PHOTO/RUPERT WHITELEY
FINDING A FASTER WAY: When Patricia Steere founded her company, she found a niche in replacing bridges more quickly than it had been done traditionally. Here she confers with Chief Engineer Martin Pierce on the site of the Providence Viaduct replacement. / PBN PHOTO/RUPERT WHITELEY

Having spent the better part of the 1980s working on nuclear power plants, structural engineer Patricia Steere made a career switch to bridge engineering and joined a Providence-based engineering firm.
Steere worked on several bridge projects in Rhode Island and Massachusetts until 1999, when she began work on the final design of the Interstate 195 relocation project as the lead engineer for the new Iway Bridge. In 2002, she was promoted to bridge department manager and took over the role as lead bridge engineer for the entire project, which included 15 new bridges.
As the I-195 project was wrapping up in 2010, Steere – deciding it was time to go it on her own – founded Steere Engineering.
In four years, Steere has grown the company from a one-person shop providing structural engineering services to contractors building bridges in Rhode Island and Massachusetts to a $1.6 million firm with 14 employees. She has also expanded services to include bridge and building design; bridge inspection and ratings; contractor support services, including accelerated bridge construction services; highway and civil design; and 3-D computer aided design, or CAD, services.
“Steere Engineering has embraced new ways of doing things, including using accelerated construction for a bridge move in Connecticut, using 3-D CAD to uncover problems before they happen in the field, to working with fiberglass fabricators using that material for structural purposes,” Steere said. “We like to think outside the box and are always up for a challenge.”
In the past 12 months, the company served as the engineer for the first bridge move ever performed in Connecticut – a job completed in just one weekend – performed all the construction services for the Providence Viaduct project, and started work on bridge design jobs for the departments of transportation in Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Connecticut.
“We are working at establishing a highway/civil group at Steere to become more of a full transportation firm,” Steere said. “We are also working to establish ourselves with new clients such as the MBTA and federal government.”
Martin Pierce, Steere vice president and chief engineer for the past three-and-a-half years, says the work done at the company often involves finding unique solutions to complex problems.
“Being able to resolve a complex problem with a simplified, efficient solution is very gratifying,” Pierce said. “Solving new problems and challenges on a daily basis keeps things refreshing.”
Pierce says a highlight for him is working with the younger staff and seeing them develop the skills that will help them advance into senior-level engineers.
“Steere tries to provide a work environment that fosters both professional development and friendship between employees,” Pierce said. “This makes for a very friendly and loyal environment.”

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