Burns & McDonnell to acquire bridge design specialist Harrington & Cortelyou

Burns & McDonnell has reached an agreement to acquire Harrington & Cortelyou, Inc., a consulting engineering firm with a well-established national reputation for engineering design of fixed and movable highway and railway bridges. Based in Downtown Kansas City, Harrington & Cortelyou has been providing engineering and construction management services since 1907. The firm has designed and supervised construction of more than 800 bridges in Missouri, including several major bridge improvements in the Kansas City metropolitan area.

The transaction is expected
to be complete on or before June 30. At that time, 12 H&C staff members
will join Burns & McDonnell and operate as Harrington & Cortelyou,
Inc., a Burns & McDonnell Company. H&C will continue to operate from
offices at 911 Main Street in Downtown Kansas City.

"Burns & McDonnell has
traditionally not pursued acquisitions as a growth strategy but this
opportunity to merge with a highly respected firm with historic roots in Kansas
City was too good to pass up," said Burns & McDonnell Chairman and CEO Greg
Graves. "The addition of Harrington & Cortelyou makes perfect strategic
sense for both firms. We see exciting growth opportunities going forward."

Harrington & Cortelyou
has been providing civil engineering design and construction services for
highway, road and bridge projects since the firm’s founding in 1907. For decades,
its specialty has been design and construction of fixed and movable highway and
railway bridges. Harrington & Cortelyou traces its origins to 1887 when
John Alexander Low Waddell teamed with John Lyle Harrington to open a firm
specializing in engineering design of long-span and movable bridges. In 1909,
the firm secured a patent for a span drive lift bridge that led to projects
designing approximately two dozen vertical lift bridges, including the ASB
Railroad bridge that once connected North Kansas City with Downtown Kansas City
prior to completion of the Heart of America Bridge.

The transaction takes Burns
& McDonnell back to Downtown Kansas City after a 50-year absence. In 1898,
founders Clinton S. Burns and Robert E. McDonnell opened a small office in the
still-standing New England Life Building on Ninth Street. As the firm grew over
subsequent years, it relocated to several other downtown locations. In 1959,
Burns & McDonnell moved to a large new building on East 63rd Street near
Swope Park. In 1996, the firm moved again into its current World Headquarters
at 9400 Ward Parkway following the purchase and renovation of a complex that
was originally constructed by Ewing Kauffman as the headquarters for Marion
Laboratories.

Burns & McDonnell
provides engineering, construction and consulting services for highway, road
and bridge projects from offices located nationwide. More than 3,000 engineers,
architects, scientists, planners, estimators, economists, technicians and other
professionals work in 20 offices located throughout the U.S. Burns &
McDonnell is 100 percent employee-owned.