Business Profile: Transpo Group

Moving Business Forward

ARTICLE BY JOHN STEARNS

Heritage helps Transpo Group navigate complex business needs for far-reaching transportation planning projects

Bruce Haldors is the first to admit that the Kirkland-based transportation planning and engineering business he leads, Transpo Group, might appear small on the outside. Beyond its extensive U.S. work, it also manages projects and offices in the Middle East, which adds a layer of complexity belying its modest size. Haldors is grateful Heritage Bank has helped Transpo— which has more than 300 active projects at any one time—navigate along the way. The banking relationship’s roots date back to 2005, the year after Haldors took over as CEO and switched Transpo’s banking business to what was then a Bellevue-based startup, Puget Sound Bank, which Heritage acquired in January 2018. The transition to Heritage was seamless.

“They’ve just been very supportive in understanding our needs that have been pretty unique,” said Haldors, CEO and a company shareholder. “It’s not like we’ve been a very traditional, easy business to bank with. I suspect they’ve kind of pulled their hair out at times trying to figure out, ‘What the heck?’” he added with a chuckle. “But they’ve been with us through thick and thin, so that’s been great.”

Over the past several years, Transpo has been moving away from consolidation of its U.S. and Middle East offices and toward independence of each entity, including independent ownership, and Heritage has been a catalyst in that process, he said. As part of the transition, banking that Heritage formerly did for U.S. and Middle East operations has changed; Heritage now handles all of Transpo Group’s banking needs for U.S. projects. Transpo switched to foreign banks for its overseas work, but Heritage has helped manage the transition.

Transpo Group is wrapping up design and transportation management plans for the Washington State Convention Center's latest expansion, left, in downtown Seattle, including helping to mitigate impacts from the project that will finish this year. Transpo has consulted for WSCC on every expansion since WSCC opened in 1988.

Transpo Group

“Most banks probably would’ve said, ‘Well, forget it, you need to find somebody else to help you through this,’ but they helped us navigate that,” he said of the foreign business and banking needs. “And they’re big enough to understand what the avenues are to make that happen, yet small enough to kind of hold your hand through it.”

Transpo’s banker with Heritage Bank, Katherine Thompson, remained through the transition and served Transpo well until she retired in April this year. Her replacement, Britni Babington, vice president relationship manager, has been equally helpful, Haldors said.

Transpo has about 105 employees, of which approximately 55 are based in the U.S. and 50 in the Middle East. Most U.S. workers are in Kirkland (45) with the remaining 10 in a small office outside New York City or working remotely from other states. Employees are mostly engineers with a mix of transportation planners and specialists in areas that include mapping and information systems.

Haldors is among 13 U.S. employees who own shares in Transpo, a few of whom also have ownership in the Middle East office but are transitioning to U.S.-only ownership as the two entities complete their separation. The Middle East office is expected to take a new name eventually.

The company was founded in 1975 by four people who combined their individual consulting practices into one, hence the name Transpo Group. When Haldors took over in 2004, there were about 30 employees. Staff has more than tripled since then, reflecting Transpo Group’s focus on expanding its project reach.

Working in the consulting engineering business, Transpo focuses on transportation-related projects, both public and private. It doesn’t actually build projects but sometimes manages construction of projects it designs. Its transportation project planning and engineering is not heavy civil/structural engineering of infrastructure like bridges and highways; it’s more related to traffic signalization, traffic and pedestrian flow, including multimodal transportation and other “above the pavement” work, he said.

That can include traffic management plans for movement in, out and around shopping centers, housing developments, stadiums, convention centers, university campuses and cities. It also includes planning how to manage traffic flow to mitigate disruption during highway construction. In Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Transpo designed and helped operate a massive control center for the city’s sprawling traffic and transit systems.

“Anything we do is really about how people move safely and efficiently—whether it’s riding a bike, where the bike lanes need to be, or designing sidewalks or crosswalks, or helping understand where access needs to be, or whether it needs to be signalized, or whether we need to put a roundabout there or we need to close off an access,” he said, explaining a few areas of the company’s diverse consulting expertise.

If somebody is building a project, an architect or engineer typically lays out the site, after which Transpo might advise where the best access is or what that access should be, Haldors said. If that access is already determined, Transpo is often hired to handle the government entitlement processes for the project to help clients obtain approvals they need and to validate that the transportation system works. Transpo also ensures projects provide safe and equitable access for people of different socio-economic backgrounds and physical abilities.

A local Transpo project involves consulting for the $1.9 billion Washington State Convention Center (WSCC) expansion underway in downtown Seattle, continuing work Transpo has done for every expansion since WSCC opened in 1988. Transpo has developed multimodal trip generation estimates for different WSCC event types, plus comprehensive access and circulation analysis of pedestrian and bicycle mobility, transit and freight. Its work has included planning for and mitigating WSCC parking demands, vehicle access and construction impacts, and it also developed a comprehensive transportation and dock management plan. Transpo’s WSCC work is nearly complete but it continues to finalize design and transportation management plans.

It has also consulted on pedestrian and vehicle traffic flow in, out and around Husky Stadium at the University of Washington, working with UW, the city of Seattle, King County Metro, Sound Transit and others on special traffic signalization, ingress and egress signage and more to mitigate and minimize impacts on traffic and pedestrian movement of 70,000 fans.

For the broader UW campus, Transpo analyzed how different travel modes will impact UW’s transportation system and Transpo completed a comprehensive mitigation plan that included transportation demand management strategies to reduce single-occupancy vehicles and improvements to transit and bicycle facilities to encourage use of those travel modes.

It has advised on traffic management for widening projects along the northern section of Interstate 405 from Kirkland to Lynnwood. That included advising on lane closures and other access issues to minimize traffic interruptions, he said.

Currently, Transpo is fielding calls to help transit agencies, cities and others apply for federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act funding, which could lead to follow-up consulting work for projects that win grants.

“We’ve been inundated with a number of these grant applications already, helping cities apply for this money that’s available for them to help move their projects along,” Haldors said, noting many cities and organizations don’t have the staff or time to do the grant applications. “We have experience in doing that as well as understanding the system as a whole and helping put the argument together to why it makes sense.”

In the Middle East, where Transpo Group opened an office about 10 years ago, work has tended to be larger scale based on significant open spaces in which to plan transportation projects, Haldors said, so the projects tend to be larger master-planning efforts. Lately, there’s been more focus on transportation coordination, including various modes of transit.

But the work there also is much different, including requests for Transpo to help staff transportation agencies to help manage and run them, which is not as common in the U.S.

A big project Transpo conceived and then helped staff in Dubai was the Enterprise Command & Control Center, or EC3. Like the name suggests, the facility monitors and manages all movement of buses, taxis, emergency vehicles, ferries and private traffic in the sprawling city of about 3 million people. Staff take all the information on those transit systems and adjust them in real time as traffic conditions and needs change. For example, EC3 could change signal timing in an area to improve traffic flow, send more taxis to a zone, provide backup water transit if a ferry goes out of service and more, he said. The work improves traffic movement, which reduces environmental impact as well. Transpo did everything from help conceive the plans for EC3, ultimately plan it, design it, then help operate it once it opened in 2018. “We took that the whole way. We just don’t do that scale of project here in the U.S.” for a city the size of Dubai, he said.

Transpo Group conceived, planned, designed and helped operate this Enterprise Command & Control Center, or EC3, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The facility monitors and manages all movement of buses, taxis, emergency vehicles, ferries and private traffic in the city of 3 million people. Its functions include adjusting traffic signals in real time, for example, as traffic conditions and needs change to ensure the most efficient and safe movement of vehicles and people.

Transpo Group

Sustainability is a big part of the company’s work

Sustainability is central to Transpo’s projects and its own office functions.

“We plan and design transportation systems that are intended to improve the mobility needs of our communities that are least impactful to the environment today as well as anticipating the needs of future generations,” Haldors said. “This includes designing communities that provide multimodal options and can adapt to future changes in behavior and technology as the world evolves.Not just thinking about moving cars and vehicles but how to move people in the most efficient and sustainable way. Transportation will always exist and continues to evolve and Transpo is at the forefront of developing transportation policies, planning communities and designing infrastructure that can adapt and stand the test of time.”

As Haldors noted, improving traffic flow reduces greenhouse gas emissions and Transpo’s planning practices are forward thinking and focused on making communities more sustainable. That includes designing walkable communities, which improves physical health and mental wellness.

Transpo’s engineering designs are intended to provide safe and efficient operations, use low impact development practices, integrate with improved water treatment systems and utilize new energy efficient technology for illumination and traffic signals. Transpo incorporates smart-city practices and technology into its planning and engineering work, and its transportation practices improve economic vitality, help with social equity challenges, incorporate demand management practices and improve freight and mobility, all of which integrate into sustainability, he said.

Internally, Transpo Group provides transit passes to employees, encourages flex time and remote work, uses motion lights in its office, is mostly digital and reuses and recycles throughout its offices.

Transpo Group sponsors sections of roads near Transpo's U.S. headquarters in Kirkland as part of the "Adopt-a-Road" program. Pausing from litter pick-up are, from left, Transpo employees Melissa Whalen, Kassi Leingang, Damani Nkeiruka, Dan McKinney, Patrick Lynch, Bruce Haldors, Tuan Nguyen and Jessica Hild.

Transpo Group

Heritage was ‘on it’

When the pandemic first hit, offices shut down and fear and uncertainty reigned nationally, Heritage Bank responded quickly to help, Haldors said. That included one round of Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) funding for Transpo, which proved extremely helpful as projects and contracts were temporarily halted while the country grappled with the emerging health emergency.

“They helped us through that process and that was great,” he said. “They were on it. I talked to a lot of friends of mine and colleagues, in other industries as well, and I don’t know that anybody had as good an experience as we did, as far as what I heard, just how quickly they jumped on it.”

Does Haldors have any insight for other businesses about the benefits of working with Heritage? “It’s that personal touch and the hands on, and really understanding our business, and asking questions, and being engaged,” he said. “Engagement is the biggest thing. I don’t have experience with a ton of other banks other than in the Middle East. It’s more of a personal relationship that I have with these folks at Heritage…and it’s built on years of trust and experience and conversation. It was intentional, it wasn’t just happenstance. They were very intentional about making sure they understood our needs and how our business operates and what the challenges are.”

ABOUT TRANSPO'S RELATIONSHIP MANAGER BRITNI BABINGTON

Britni has over 10 years of banking experience. Her main responsibility as a relationship manager is ensuring all aspects of her customers’ financial needs are taken care of, from deposits to loans to treasury management services. She works with all types of operating companies, including service firms, dental and veterinary practices, manufacturers, distributors and more. She also assists with commercial real estate, including owneroccupied buildings, multi-family and residential development. Outside of work, Britni serves on the board for the Risk Management Association, Puget Sound Chapter and likes to spend time with family, go golfing and cook.