VHB Opens Tampa Location to Expand Engineering, Environmental and Planning Services
VHB recently announced the opening of its second location on Florida’s Gulf Coast in downtown Tampa. This expansion increases VHB’s presence in the Tampa Bay area, addressing the growing demand for integrated transportation, land development, and environmental services, as it is one of the fastest growing regions in Florida. VHB has been serving the Gulf Coast for more than 35 years from the existing location in Sarasota County.
“It’s an ideal time and an ideal match,” said David Mulholland, Southeast regional manager at VHB. “An area as geographically diverse and fast-growing as Tampa Bay produces complex transportation, planning, development and environmental challenges, and that’s the type of culture in which VHB thrives. Our Tampa team is deep in talent and experience in not just suburban, but urban communities with demands for new transportation and transit infrastructure planning, additional water resource solutions, traffic engineering and sustainable planning. VHB is equipped to provide integrated solutions to every type of project where the Tampa Bay area has needs.”
VHB’s Tampa team includes Brent A. Lacy, AICP, transportation lead, with more than four decades of experience in all facets of transportation planning, parking planning, land development and traffic impact studies. His project experience includes major transportation corridor studies, route location studies, medical and university campus planning, long-term healthcare facilities, growth management studies, access management, and environment assessment (NEPA) studies. He has led or participated on projects throughout the State of Florida including, the Polk County TPO Complete Streets Corridor Studies, the Manatee County Complete Streets Design Guidelines, the US 98 PD&E Study in Lakeland, Florida, the US 17-92 & Oak Avenue Corridor Feasibility Study in Haines City, the Starkey Ranch DRI in Pasco County, the I-95 Master Plan in Ft. Lauderdale, and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers-Raymond James Stadium Master Transportation Management Plan.
Robert Woithe, Ph.D., recently joined the VHB Tampa office as director of environmental services. Dr. Woithe has extensive experience from Florida to Texas in the design and implementation of environmental monitoring studies, environmental permitting, mitigation, and habitat and wetland restoration projects. His expertise includes large environmental project-management, coastal ecology, natural resource monitoring, and habitat restoration and assessment. He led Tampa Bay Water’s hydrobiological monitoring programs for both the Alafia, Palm and Hillsborough Rivers, and the Desalination Facility, assisted Collier County with their watershed management plan RESTORE Act funding plan, managed the Lake Tarpon water quality management plan, and has conducted a number of project with the Peace River Manasota Regional Water Supply Authority.
Benjamin Siwinski, CM, ENV SP, senior planner/Southeast aviation planner, has worked nationally on aviation-related projects with an emphasis on environmental planning, aircraft noise analyses, airport master planning, and sustainability planning. His projects have encompassed both the civilian and military sectors, and include facilities ranging in size from small general aviation airports to major large-hub air carrier airports in the United States and abroad. He is currently working on the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) Airport Sustainability Planning Guidebook, the Ft. Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport noise compatibility study, and is project manager of the Greater Orlando Aviation Authority (GOAA) Sustainability and LEED consulting services contract. Ben is Chair of the Airport Consultants Council (ACC) Planning and Environmental Committee, past Vice Chair of the Florida Airport Council (FAC) Environmental Committee, and a member of the Florida APA’s Sustainability Committee.
Gary Serviss, LEED AP, managing director, has 34 years of technical and project management experience in ecological assessments and permitting. He has extensive experience in water quality evaluations, aquatic resources assessments, wetlands evaluation/classification, mitigation design, wildlife evaluations, and habitat mapping. He has designed and coordinated numerous environmental investigations to serve as a basis for environmental resource and water resource permit applications and for water quality and hydrology evaluations. He has served as an expert witness on environmental constraints, protected species and wetland impacts related to dredge and fill activities. His projects include pollutant removal evaluations of the Clam Bayou (Pinellas County) and McIntosh Park (Hillsborough County) projects, discharge characterization in the Chassahowitzka River, environmental assessment of the Brandon Urban and South Central Hillsborough Wellfields, Archie Creek relocation design and permitting, and SunRail environmental permitting.
Margaret Kubilins, PE, ENV SP, traffic engineering manager, brings extensive professional experience integrating traffic and mobility systems planning and design. By taking a complete streets approach and identifying opportunities to enhance mobility, Kubilins develops context-sensitive design solutions to create livable communities. Her previous projects include assistance in the development of the FDOT Complete Streets Implementation Plan, the FDOT District 3 Feasibility/Planning Modeling for Operational Improvements on Main Street/Bayfront Parkway in Pensacola, FL, and the FDOT District 5 Modeling Support and Limited Access Analysis, C-9F38 (US 1 Corridor Planning Study). She is also a certified instructor of the “Designing for Pedestrian Safety” course for the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) Office of Safety and has provided training to every FDOT District in this area of expertise.
