URS Corporation

URS Corporation (formerly United Research Services) was an engineering, design, and construction firm and a U.S. federal government contractor. Headquartered in San Francisco, California, URS was a full-service, global organization with offices located in the Americas, Europe, Africa, and Asia-Pacific.

URS was acquired by AECOM on October 17, 2014.

History

URS Corporation's oldest predecessor company was founded in 1904. URS was established in 1951 and incorporated in 1957 as Broadview Research – a research group active in the area of physical and engineering sciences. In 1967, management developed a growth strategy focused on building a multidisciplinary professional services firm. In 1968, Broadview Research acquired United Research Incorporated of Cambridge, Massachusetts. During this period, the name Broadview Research was changed to United Research Services and later shortened to URS.

URS was publicly traded as "URS" on the NYSE from January 13, 1978 through its acquisition by AECOM on October 17, 2014. It was originally traded as Thortec.[1] A major investor was Richard Blum, husband of Senator Dianne Feinstein.

Projects

URS provided ongoing management and operation of the 4,200 acre Kennedy Space Center complex, including its 900 mission-specific facilities, 16,000 unique NASA systems and equipment, and 600 unique U.S. Air Force systems and equipment.[20]

In the United Kingdom, a URS-led team was responsible for management and operation services at the Sellafield nuclear complex, including commercial operations, waste management, support services, decontamination and decommissioning, and new construction projects. Sellafield is one of the largest and most complex nuclear sites in the U.K., storing and treating nuclear waste from both the U.K.'s military and civil nuclear programs. URS lost this contract in January 2015.[21][22][23]

URS provided comprehensive project and construction management services for the reconstruction of the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, the largest building project ever undertaken by the University of California.[24]

URS was the contractor for the Port Washington Generating Station in Wisconsin, an 1100 MW combined-cycle power plant, which was recognized by Power Magazine as one of its top plants of 2008.[25] URS also helped build the state-of-the-art Holcim cement manufacturing plant in Missouri, one of the largest cement manufacturing facilities in the world.[26]

I-35W bridge

The I-35W bridge in Minneapolis collapsed in August 2007, killing 13 people and injuring 145. In 2003, URS was retained by the Minnesota Department of Transportation to conduct a fatigue evaluation and a redundancy analysis of the bridge. Lawsuits filed in 2008 and 2009 cite the company with negligence. In 2010, these lawsuits were settled out of court without an admission of negligence or wrongdoing on the part of URS.

In November 2008, the National Transportation Safety Board determined the probable cause of the collapse of the I-35W bridge was "inadequate load capacity, due to a design error by Sverdrup & Parcel and Associates, Inc., of the gusset plates at the U10 nodes, which failed under a combination of (1) substantial increases in the weight of the bridge, which resulted from previous modifications, and (2) the traffic and concentrated construction loads on the bridge on the day of the accident." URS was not involved in the work being conducted on the bridge at the time of the collapse or in the design of the bridge.[27][28][29]

type	Subsidiary
fate	Acquired by AECOM
foundation	1951
defunct	October 20, 2014
location	Transamerica Pyramid San Francisco, California, United States
key people	Martin M. Koffel (CEO from 1989 to 2014)
industry	Engineering Architecture Construction Planning Management Information Technology Operations Decommissioning
area served	Worldwide
revenue	▲ US$ 10.6 billion (2012)
operating income	▲ US$ 600 million (2012)
net income	▲ US$ 400 million (2012)
assets	US$ 7.04 billion (2012)
equity	US$ 3.905 billion (2009)
num employees	56,000 (2012)
parent	AECOM

History

Activist investor demands and sale of company

Mergers and acquisitions

Projects

I-35W bridge

Martin Olav Sabo Bridge

See also

External links

References