George Y. Karmo, P.E., DEE, President was appointed to the Board of Professional Engineers for a 3-year term.

Thanks to great efforts by Gregory Parker, Bob Karber, Al Schneider, and Gail Phillips, TYJT was awarded a contract by the city of Detroit, Department of Public Works for Investigation, Survey, Design and implementation of an Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Ramp Compliance. The contract price is more than a million dollars.

Our partners for the contract work include the firms of H.R. Gray, a specialized construction management firm headquartered in Columbus, Ohio; METCO Services, Inc. and BBF Engineering Services, both located in Detroit, Michigan.

This project was a result of the City of Detroit being directed by the United States District Court, to develop a compliance program to ensure that whenever it alters or resurfaces a street, modifies an intersection, sidewalk or curb ramp, the curbs are accessible to and usable by individuals with disabilities during the course of resurfacing or modifications before the project is completed.

Our contract covers a five square mile section of Detroit which has been designated to develop and implement a plan for investigation, survey, design and construction to ensure that every intersection in the area, that has even one existing ramp, will have all quadrants upgraded with ramps that are compliant with current standards.

The area is bounded by Grand Boulevard, the M-10 Freeway, I-75 / 375 Freeways, and the River and consists of approximately 2800 ADA ramps.

We will investigate the project area and list all ramps that are in compliance, all ramps that are not in compliance but can be rendered in compliance with minor modifications, all ramps that are not in compliance but can be rendered in compliance with major alterations, all ramps that are not in compliance but are impossible to correct, as well as all intersections that do not currently have any ramps in them. A report will be prepared to be submitted to the United States District Court by August 1, 2007. The report must include sketches, drawings with measurements, cost estimates, and a plan to implement the construction activities. It is anticipated that the MDOT will provide funding and that several MDOT contracts will be needed over the next few years to completely bring the ramps into compliance. Our team will prepare construction contract documents and may get involved in construction if directed by the City.

This project will be managed by Bob Karber, assisted by the Infrastructure staff including Kyle Pabin. Let’s give Bob and his team all the help that they need. Again, thanks to all that made this happen.

In addition to the work being performed in the DC area, TYJT is also marketing its services to Baltimore clients and consultants that do work within the Baltimore area. Major focus was given to the City of Baltimore, especially the Public Works Department, which operates and administers the city’s water and wastewater facilities, and the Department of Transportation. We also established relationships with several major firms that do work in the Baltimore area, and have submitted proposals as a team member with firms such as Gannett Fleming, URS and Parsons Brinckerhoff.

To accommodate the expected work and personnel as a result of our marketing efforts, TYJT relocated to a permanent office suite in downtown Baltimore in March 2007.

This suite occupies about 1800 square feet and has space for 10 employees. It is a self contained fully functional office, with our computer network fully integrated with the network in Detroit, for fast and efficient transfer of data. One of the great features of our new office is the location. We are centrally located downtown, within a few minutes walk of the city offices, and the branch offices of several national consulting firms.

Currently there are two employees in the Baltimore office, myself and Jamesha Bazemore, CADD technician, who relocated from the Detroit office in summer of 2006.

Greg Parker, Senior Vice President based in the Detroit office makes frequent trips to Baltimore to oversee the marketing and administrative efforts at a corporate level. In addition, I make at least two trips a month to the Detroit office to report to the management staff on project management and marketing activities.

Until we have the Baltimore office fully staffed with local staff, we will be requesting help when needed, from current Detroit and Cleveland staff, either in their respective offices or in the Baltimore office on a short term basis. We will be calling upon some key individuals for assistance in the near future.

By Henry Smart

Congratulations are in order to the following staff for being selected as the recipients of the reward under the Company’s Incentive Program:

Marketing: Gail Phillips and Santasha Hadley for their willingness, initiative and hard work in successfully meeting the marketing and proposal preparation requirements under very challenging circumstances, such as high volume of work, tight schedule, coordination and interface with others.

Administration: Seneta Pope and Keisha Cannon for working patiently and diligently with our consultant for over a year in implementing the new accounting and project management “MAS200” program. The “MAS 200” system is expected to be completed by the end of April 2007.

CONGRATULATIONS AND KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK!