Founded in 1968, Raba Kistner, Inc. has become an industry leader specializing in the design, management, and testing of construction materials, facilities engineering, geotechnical engineering, and environmental consulting. Since inception, Raba Kistner, Inc. has grown from a handful of engineers to more than 400 top industry resources, and its geographic footprint has expanded to serve clients across the United States and in Mexico. Raba Kistner, Inc. is headquartered in San Antonio, Texas with several offices throughout the country.
In January 2012, the company restructured to create Raba Kistner, Inc. as a holding company and four operating companies: Raba Kistner Consultants, Inc.; Raba Kistner Environmental, Inc.; Raba Kistner Facilities, Inc.; and Raba Kistner Infrastructure, Inc.
This restructuring has allowed the company to support continued growth in its four main service areas. In the last 10 years, the company has almost doubled its number of employees and billings.
On April 29, 2013, San Antonio-based Project Control of Texas, Inc. (PCT) became a division of Raba Kistner Facilities, Inc. PCT will maintain its name while still performing the program management services that have made Project Control a well respected name in the construction industry.
Raba Kistner’s innovative approaches and experienced professionals also have been widely recognized within the profession. In 2011, Raba Kistner received the prestigious “Best of State” Award for Civil Engineering in the State of Utah, and for the last 17 out of 22 years, the company has ranked as a “Top 500″ Firm by Engineering News-Record.
The company credits its successes and continued growth during tough economic times to its commitment to quality control and cost-effective solutions, supported by proprietary project management systems to ensure that projects are not only planned, designed and constructed properly, but also operated and maintained efficiently.
- Geotechnical Engineering and Laboratory Testing, Expert Witness
- Construction Materials Engineering, Testing, and Observation
Almost 43 years of continuous service by the same executive management substantiates that we have been, and will continue to be, available to meet our clients’ objectives in the future.
Our multi-disciplined team consists of civil, geotechnical and construction materials engineers; scientists; lab and field technicians; and support personnel. More than 75% of our team holds licensure or certifications in their areas of expertise. Furthermore, RKCI’s Geotechnical and Construction Materials Testing staff and laboratories are among the largest in the State.
Our experience with soil conditions in the Southwestern part of the United States is part of what distinguishes us and makes us an invaluable partner for our clients. Soils and the resultant challenges for building in our region are highly complex, partly as a result of regional faulting and the alluvial nature of area soil as a result of its proximity to the Balcones Fault. Subsurface conditions range from karstic limestone formations to the north, to alluvial sand deposits in the south. The greater San Antonio Metro area, for example, is underlain by highly expansive clays which greatly impact foundation and pavement design and construction. Raba Kistner’s 43-year library of test results is an additional asset for any project, along with our engineers’ and scientists’ long experience working with these materials.
Headquartered in San Antonio, Texas, Raba Kistner has offices with on-staff engineers and laboratories in Austin, Brownsville, Dallas, El Paso, Houston, and McAllen, Texas, Salt Lake City, Utah and México. RKCI’s resources, manpower, and organizational structure allow for all RKCI employees to serve as seamless service providers for every project no matter in which city their laboratory is located.
With over 40 years of service and staff expertise ranging from environmental planning to permitting and geosciences to archeology, Raba Kistner Environmental, Inc. (RKEI) has proven to be a leader for environmental consulting throughout Texas , the Southwest and Mexico. Based in San Antonio, Texas, RKEI maintains professional staff throughout the Raba Kistner network of offices. Our services include:
- Environmental Planning
- Environmental Permitting
- NEPA Documentation
- GIS
- Geology
- Hazardous Materials and Wastes Characterization and Remediation
- USACE Section 404 permitting
- Biological Surveys
- Archeology
- Phase I Environmental Site Assessments
- Water Pollution Abatement Plans
RKEI clients have come to depend on us to both augment their own internal staff as well as to independently develop and implement comprehensive solutions to their environmental needs and challenges. These services are provided to private industry, developers, cities, counties, and State and Federal Agencies.
During our almost 40 year history, we have serviced tens of thousands of environmental projects, ranging from simple real estate transactions to preparing Presidential Permits for international border crossings. Our relationships within the professional consulting industry, combined with our in-house expertise, have afforded RKEI the opportunity to deliver high-impact projects such as the environmental clearance and permitting for the new Toyota truck manufacturing facility in south Bexar County, Texas, and a new international border crossing for a major petroleum pipeline from El Paso, Texas to Juarez, Mexico, as examples.
Since we formally created this service area in 1999, Raba Kistner Facilities Inc. (RKFI) has delivered results. Our Facilities engineering team responds to clients’ needs with objective, timely, and practical answers to bring a facility back to its original operating intent. Crossing multiple professional disciplines – many of which we have offered since 1968 – we evaluate a property and then develop alternative management strategies for the building to be used going forward. These strategies consider the type and age of the structure and existing or potential defects, as well as occupant usage patterns, health and safety regulations, and clients’ wishes. Property owners and managers, insurers, and prospective investors are positioned with options for directing funds to maintain and improve the value of their asset or to safely shut it down.
Project Control of Texas, Inc., which became a part of Raba Kistner Facilities, Inc. in April 2013, is a San Antonio-based company which provides owner representation and program and project management services for commercial and industrial construction. Project Control’s managers represent an owner’s best interests on all development issues and alleviate the demands of day-to-day management responsibilities and technical issues associated with major construction projects. PCT’s core competencies include due diligence, feasibility, reporting, budgeting, scheduling, contractor selection, project delivery and value analysis. Learn more online at www.projectcontrol.com.
To facilitate the necessary authorization for real-time access to inspection and material testing results, RKI developed and implemented a web-based construction information database with workflow, qualification, data repository and statistical analysis capabilities. This award-winning software application – Electronic Laboratory Verification Information System (ELVIS) – has now been successfully utilized on multiple projects.
Since its inception, the value of RKI to State DOT and other public agencies in alternative project delivery methods became apparent as RKI expanded well beyond the original SH 130 project to include delivery of Construction Quality Assurance, Owner Verification and Independent Assurance services (each individually required by 23 CFR 637 B) on Design-Build and traditional Design-Bid-Build transportation projects for TxDOT, UDOT, North Texas Tollway Authority, Central Texas RMA, and Alamo RMA, representing over $5B in construction costs.
RKI is serving as the Independent Engineer reporting to both the developer and the State DOT for the first concession project in the State of Texas – the $1.2B SH 130 Sections 5 & 6, a 42-mile, 4-lane controlled-access tollway in Central Texas. We continue to expand our professional service offerings and now provide services related to Construction Management, Pass-Through Toll Finance projects and Right-Of-Way Services.
RKI presently employs approximately 150 professionals, engineers, technicians and inspectors, and operates offices in Austin, Dallas, and Salt Lake City.