David Evans and Associates, Inc. (DEA) has hired four industry veterans to fill leadership positions in its Denver, Los Angeles and Portland offices. DEA's Portland office has provided services for several transportation infrastructure projects in the Portland metropolitan area, including the Columbia River Crossing, the Portland streetcar project, and the Sellwood Bridge redesign. DEA was the lead engineering designer for the Airport MAX, the Interstate MAX 10C segment, and the South Corridor I-205 segment.
"The last two years have been challenging for DEA and for the nation," said transportation general manager Jay Lyman. "It is gratifying to be going on offense and to start growing our business again. 2011 has been a good year for DEA and we are excited to be adding key leaders to our bridge, railroad, and transit groups."
Jim Ellerbroek has joined DEA's Denver office as a vice president and firm-wide railroad services manager. Ellerbroek has more than 18 years of experience in all aspects of civil engineering. Most recently he was rail team leader and civil-rail division leader for TranSystems Corporation in Kansas City, Mo. In this position, Ellerbroek managed 60 engineers, designers and other professionals on five service delivery teams, including rail, site civil, water resources, GIS and facilities. He has extensive experience as a consultant to Union Pacific Railroad, the Ramsey County Regional Rail Authority in Saint Paul, Minn., and Kansas City Southern Railway. He's worked on rail projects in California, Colorado, Illinois, Kansas, Minnesota and Texas. Ellerbroek is a registered professional engineer in Colorado, Kansas and Missouri. He has a bachelor's degree in civil engineering from Iowa State University and a master's in civil engineering from the University of Illinois.
Zafar Alikhan is a vice president and DEA's firm-wide transit planning and environmental services manager. He is based in DEA's new Los Angeles location. Alikhan has more than 18 years of experience in a variety of domestic and international transit development projects. He joined DEA from Jacobs Engineering Group where he most recently served as transit practice area leader for the Southeast United States and Caribbean regions. Prior to joining Jacobs, he was the Middle East and North Africa business development manager for the rail and transit division Parsons International. Before joining Parsons, Alikhan was a project manager for Carter & Burgess in Utah and Denver, Colo. He has worked with public transit agencies in key roles to develop successful transit and rail plans, environmental documents and implementation programs in Phoenix, Dallas, Houston, Denver and Dubai. Alikhan received his bachelor's degree in civil engineering from the University of California at Los Angeles and his master's in urban planning from the University of Michigan.
Jiri Vitek is a vice president and will lead DEA's bridge practice firm-wide. He is based in DEA's Portland office. Vitek has more than 35 years of experience in the bridge industry, including leading large business development pursuits as a vice president for Parsons Transportation Group and serving as vice president and senior division manager for PBS&J. His most recent experience was principal engineer for Rajappan & Meyer Consulting Engineers in California. Vitek's extensive expertise includes large, signature bridge projects, such as the $360 million Capitol Expressway LRT/BRT project in San Jose, Calif., the $500 million I-5 North Stockton Widening Project in Stockton, Calif., and the I-15 design-build project in Utah – one of the largest public works projects in the country – that required designing more than 140 bridges in the span of two years. Vitek is a registered professional engineer in Arizona, California, Colorado and Oregon. He received his master's degree in structural engineering from the Czech Technical University in Prague, Czech Republic.
