SSOE Group and Morrison Hershfield recently unveiled a new alliance at the Global Petroleum Show and Conference held on June 8-10, 2010 at Stampede Park in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Petroleum experts from both firms were in attendance to discuss engineering solutions and services that this alliance can provide including: infrastructure, petroleum process engineering, project management, and facilities design. Combined, SSOE and Morrison Hershfield have more than 120 years of history and 35 office locations including locations in the U.S., Canada, and China. SSOE's Petroleum Business Leader, Cliff Reese, PE, was in attendance and stated, "The advantage of this alliance is that each firm has its own unique strengths and by integrating them, we can deliver comprehensive project solutions on any and all phases of their projects." Continue Reading →

U.S. Department of Energy announced the funding for 12 projects to test innovative concepts for the beneficial use of carbon dioxide (CO2). SSOE chosen for Phycal LLC project. Continue Reading →

Base and post exchanges are known for their bargain prices, and now they'll be known for being environmentally friendly. The design-build team for the $30.9 million project was composed of the Michigan-based Walbridge Corp. and the Ohio-based SSOE Group. Continue Reading →

No matter how many building projects you undertake, early in the process you face myriad decisions that significantly impact capital, operational cost, and time. Now more than ever, the pressure is on to eke out any advantages, from the initial programming phase forward. To get a perspective on your decision making, imagine a scale. On one side of the scale are information gathering, research, and intelligence. On the other side are calculated risk and a bold-faced clock that ticks away potential revenue that is lost until you become operational or open for business. Keep in mind that striking the right balance is not all up to you. Professional input is there for the asking on all these decisions. Decision #1: Selecting the best site for a specific building project. The challenge is to get critical information in hand to intelligently compare several sites in a reasonable amount of time. There are three issues you can’t afford to neglect as you go through the evaluation process: What will it take in terms of time and money to develop them, to build on them and, possibly the most challenging, what kinds of entitlements will be involved? Continue Reading →

Any time a catastrophic event occurs that is related to an industrial or manufacturing process, there is speculation as to how it could have been prevented. Was it human error? Were the safety standards followed? Did the company know there was a potential hazard? Many companies equate assuring worker safety with following OSHA mandates. Although OSHA’s regulations apply to a long list of situations, not all environments where hazardous materials are handled are covered. Despite the fact that OSHA has been in force since the early 70’s, there are many vulnerable areas in terms of safety they have yet to address. Then too, with new technologies and products come new hazards. That leaves the onus to fully protect workers on the companies themselves. To make this easier, SSOE advises its clients to apply “ready-to-use” OSHA procedures voluntarily even to areas or industries that are exempted or are not yet covered. One method for identifying potential safety hazards is a Process Hazard Analysis (PHA) that OSHA requires of companies engaged in the processing or handling of hazardous chemicals. The Three Ws of a Process Hazard Analysis PHAs take place in a single meeting, or series of them, and have a prescribed format. Continue Reading →