About Us
Our History
A long time ago in 1996, two employee-conscious, quality-minded Civil Engineers decided to form an alliance. These two Engineers were John Patterson and Steve Bruflat, who saw an opportunity to create a company that could serve ADOT and other Agencies better, along with creating a great company for employees. Consultant Engineering, Inc's (CEI) first focus was to provide contract employees to ADOT for supplemental service contracts.
CEI's first Supplemental Service employee was hired in July 1996, the first part-time office administrative person was hired in March 1997, and the first Construction Inspector was hired in December 1997 to begin CEI's presence in the construction administration (CA) market. CEI continued to hire new employees enabling it to grow into a small successful company. At the end of 1998, there were 25 employees on the payroll ranging from Right of Way Plans Technicians to Resident Engineers.
With a vision in mind and inspired by the challenge, they continued to win work, hired qualified employees and added more vehicles to the fleet, creating a company structure and culture that has attracted top quality employees. In 1999, CEI won their first CA contract from ADOT as a Prime and set up its first field office in Bisbee. With additional contracts, CEI grew to 52 employees and 20 vehicles.
In May of 2000, John and Steve started another company, Transportation Consultant Engineers, LLC (TCE) to specialize in ADOT supplemental services contracts only. In September of 2000, Quality Testing, LLC (QT) was born to begin the path to becoming the best testing lab in the state. Also that year, CEI began their survey department and opened a second field office in Quartzsite. By the end of 2000, CEI had 65 employees, TCE had 7, and QT had 4 along with over 50 vehicles in the company fleet.
In 2001, a satellite office was opened in Yuma and two fully ASSHTO- and ADOT- accredited and functioning testing labs were opened in Duncan and in Quartzsite. In 2002, a new company was started to help service our out-of-town clients more effectively and to begin providing engineering design services to our clients. Tristar Engineering and Management focuses on the design and construction management market for local Governments. Continuing on with customer service, top quality employees and growth as a vision, they started a Right of Way services division in 2003 to specialize in acquisition and appraisals for Government property.
To Date; CEI has almost 90 employees; TCE has 15; QT has 39; and TRISTAR has 33 with over 100 vehicles in our fleet. Each company is separately owned and overseen by a different managing Partner. CEI is now known as the largest locally-owned Construction Management firm in Arizona providing quality services to clients throughout Arizona.