WMU News - SME opens new BTR Park building

SME opens new BTR Park building

Aug. 25, 2006

KALAMAZOO--The newest corporate partner at WMU's BTR Park is open for business, following a July 19 move into the company's new building at 3301 Tech Circle.

SME--Soil and Materials Engineers Inc.--a Plymouth, Mich. -based firm with a long track record of providing geotechnical, environmental and materials engineering for building projects in Kalamazoo and across southwest Michigan, has opened the doors of its 10,500-square-foot building. Timothy J. Mitchell is SME vice president and principal and leads the Kalamazoo operation. He says the new facility, designed by Delta Design of Kalamazoo, includes offices for 11 professional staff members, 10 technical and support staff, and six engineering coop students. Other features include a soils laboratory, an asphalt testing area, a concrete cure room, a clean room for special testing procedures and associated storage space. The building was designed to accommodate up to 15,000 square feet of future expansion area.

SME, which has had offices in southwest Michigan for more than 20 years, has collaborated with other civil engineering firms at the BTR Park and has an extensive roster of clients in the Kalamazoo area. The firm's engineers most recently have been involved in work on the Kalamazoo Transportation Center, the Andersons Ethanol Plant in Albion, athletic facility improvements at WMU and the Greenleaf Trust development at Rose and South streets. The company also does extensive work with the Michigan Department of Transportation and local government.

Mitchell says a longstanding relationship with WMU's College of Engineering and Applied Sciences has been enhanced by the establishment of a civil engineering program at the University. The company, he says, continues to attract WMU students for co-operative education opportunities and has hired former WMU co-ops and other WMU graduates to full-time positions at SME. Mitchell and other SME engineers have been active as visiting lecturers and instructors and hope to continue in that role with the WMU engineering college.

For more information about the firm and its plans for the new facility and area projects, contact SME's Timothy Mitchell at (269) 323-3555. For information about the BTR Park, contact Bob Miller, WMU associate vice president for community outreach at (269) 387-2073.

Media contact: Cheryl Roland, (269) 387-8400, cheryl.roland@wmich.edu

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