Outside Help: URS Corp.

URS Corporation is a large publicly-traded construction and engineering firm based in San Francisco. It is also one of the three outside firms who helped plan and design the extra 160 parking spots at Eltingville Transit Center.

According to a March 3 regulatory filing, URS expects 35% of its 2009 revenue to come from government spending. At that point, it had $10.2 billion worth of government contracts in its backlog.

URS expects 2009 revenues to be between $9.5 and $10.0 billion. Last year, revenues increased 87.4% to $10.1 billion from $5.4 billion in fiscal 2007.

At $50.55, URS stock is up 16% from a year ago while the S&P is still off by 23%.

Just Like WSP Group, URS Corporation was on a buying binge in 2007 and bought Washington Group International, an engineering firm with 25,000 employees that year.

Outside Help: WSP SELLS

One of the 3 outside firms helping absorb the $400,000 budget for planning and designing the 160 parking spots is British-owned engineering and design firm, WSP SELLS, based on information from the NY Department of Transportation.

The Sells-side of the deal is the American part. Charles Sells founded the design firm in 1925 and it was acquired by the London-based WSP Group in 2007.

In its 2008 annual letter, WSP Group Chairman David Turner noted, "WSP Sells, which is a leading bridge inspector and infrastructure specialist in the USA, is already seeing benefits from the US Governments' stimulus package."

Publicly-held WSP' revenues increased in 2008 by 36% to $1.2 billion from $920 million the year before. It has 10,000 employees.

Will Plan and Design Asphalt Parking Spots for $133/hr

Eight or nine New York Department of Transportation staffers and outside consultants worked on planning and designing Eltingville's additional 160 open-air asphalt parking spots, amounting to 3000 billable hours over a 16-month period, based on my Q&A with the NY Department of Transportation.

With the final bill coming to $400,000, the brains behind this project clocked an average $133 an hour during a recession. Nice work if you can get it. Since it's highly unlikely that the staffers on the project made that much, I wonder what the consultants charged.

I'm requesting details of payments made to outside firms from the New York Department of Transportation.

This may be all above the board, but the simple fact that adding 160 extra parking spots to a relatively new lot costs $400,000 in planning and $2.6 million to build still blows my mind.

Outside Help: Bechtel Corp.

Bechtel Corp was one of the three firms to help plan and design the additional 160 spots. according to my Q&A with the New York Department of Transportation.

The total bill was $400,000 to the add extra spaces to the existing 5-year old lot.

The privately held company is based in San Francisco and has 44,000 employees. It's proprietor, Riley Bechtel, is the 261st richest man in the world according to Forbes. It is the largest engineering firm in the U.S.* and the 7th largest privately-held company in the country, also according to Forbes. Check out its sweet promotional video. I was waiting for Steven Segal to come into the scene at some point.

In its last fiscal year, revenue climbed to $31.4 billion from $27 billion in 2007, while the value of new work booked rose to $35 billion from $34.1 billion, producing the firm's sixth straight year of record total sales and third consecutive year of record bookings.

Operations in North America were responsible for 40% of earnings and 2/3 of bookings. Government contracts are a key component of its book of business. I emailed Bechtel's Mike Kidder to see how much.

Also from Forbes:
In its 110-year history, four generations of Bechtel family members have been engaged in projects in civil infrastructure, power, petrochemicals, telecommunications and government services. Notable jobs completed by Bechtel include the Channel Tunnel connecting England and France; Jubail Industrial City in Saudi Arabia; and Hong Kong International Airport.

*From Bechtel's website: "That makes Bechtel the largest telecommunications engineering and construction firm in the United States, with nearly seven times the revenue of its nearest competitor."