June 29, 2017 – Anitra Schulte, Strategy.Ink-
CHICAGO – Quandel Consultants added three veteran engineers to its team this spring, further enhancing the firm’s expertise and client offerings. New leaders joining the Chicago-based railroad and transit consultancy include James R. Push, P.E. (Chief Transportation Engineer), James LeVan, P.E., PTOE (Senior Transportation Engineer) and Dean Smith, P.E. (Senior Structural Engineer).
Quandel Consultants, LLC, provides engineering solutions for the railroad and rail transit industry, including program management, engineering, planning, operations analysis and construction management. The firm has completed work for departments of transportation in Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri and Colorado.
“We are very pleased to welcome Mr. Push, Mr. LeVan and Mr. Smith to our team,” said Charlie Quandel, CEO of Quandel Consultants. “Their combined 68 years of experience, and their status as professionally licensed engineers, will enable us to pursue new clients and move our firm forward. The entire office benefits greatly from their unique expertise, as well.”
James R. Push, P.E.
Experience & Education
Push brings more than 25 years of experience to Quandel Consultants. A frequent collaborator with state agencies, municipalities, regional agencies and private developers, Push will lead Quandel Consultants in the development of project studies and construction documents for roadway improvement and site development projects.
A certified project manager, Push is a registered professional engineer in Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin. He specializes in preparing contract plans, including specifications and engineering estimates for urban and rural transportation projects. Push also is experienced in the preparation of traffic studies, capacity analysis, alternate geometric studies and in the incorporation of sustainable design practices in project specifications.
Push received a Bachelor of Science degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Wisconsin. He was Senior Project Manager of Infrastructure at AECOM for 25 years. Prior to that post, he worked as a project manager for the Wisconsin Department of Transportation. Push has collaborated with the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority, the Illinois Department of Transportation, Will County Division of Transportation, DuPage County Division of Transportation and Cook County Highway Department, as well as local municipalities.
Project Work
In his long career, Push has served as project manager to a wide array of construction initiatives, overseeing engineering studies and the preparation of plans and documents. Projects led by Push include the intersection improvement at Belmont Road and Curtiss Street (Downers Grove, Ill.), reconstruction/construction of a portion of the Jane Addams Memorial Tollway/I-90, improvements to 37 railroad crossings in the Chicago-St. Louis corridor, reconstruction and widening of Wolf Road (Orland Park, Ill.), reconstruction of Army Trail Road (DuPage County, Ill.), and reconstruction of US Route 6/159th Street (Harvey and Markham, Ill.) and Bode Road/Springinsguth Road and Spring South Road/Wise Road (Schaumburg, Ill.).
As project engineer, Push completed construction plans and documents for the reconstruction of a seven-mile section of US Route 45/LaGrange Road (connecting Orland Park, Tinley Park, Orland Hills and Palos Park, Ill.), a two-mile extension of 95th Street (in Naperville and Bolingbrook, Ill.), and a reconstruction/add-lane improvement to a portion of the Tri-State Tollway/South I-294 (159th Street to Kedzie Avenue).
James A. LeVan, P.E., PTOE
Experience & Education
LeVan joins Quandel Consultants with more than 27 years of civil engineering experience. Responsible for roadway design and management in his long career, LeVan’s design experience includes concept studies, preliminary design and final design of varying roadway types, ranging from local streets to interchange designs. He has designed many intersections, roadway alignments, profiles, cross-sections and other plan elements such as construction staging, roadway signing, striping plans, quantity computations and specification writing.
He received a Bachelor of Science degree in Civil Engineering/Structures from Purdue University, and a Master of Engineering degree in Engineering Management from the University of Idaho. A registered professional engineer in Illinois and Indiana, LeVan also has a certificate in IT/Programming and is a certified project manager. Previously, LeVan was a Project Manager at AECOM and its legacy company URS. He also led as a Senior Project Engineer at AECOM legacy company CTE Engineers.
Project Work
LeVan served as project manager and lead engineer on Greenwood Road reconstruction plans (Dolton, Ill.) and a local street reconstruction project in Wood Dale, Ill. He led as project manager for the Chicago Avenue/Halsted Street viaduct reconstruction (Chicago), Skokie and Hibbard intersection improvement (Wilmette, Ill.), intersection improvements at Belmont Road and Prairie Avenue, and Belmont Road and Curtiss Street (Downers Grove, Ill.), and bike trail and bridges over the Little Calumet River (Burnham, Ill.).
As project engineer and task manager, LeVan oversaw the widening of the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority’s I-294 and the design of 30 at-grade railroad crossings for the Chicago-St. Louis high-speed rail project. He served as both project and roadway geometrics engineer for the development of construction plans and documents for a two-mile extension of 95th Street (Naperville and Bolingbrook, Ill.) and as highway geometric engineer for the Brush College Road study (Decatur, Ill.).
LeVan has led numerous initiatives as project engineer, including the Peoria to Macomb, Ill., highway corridor study, the Belmont Road grade separation (Downers Grove, Ill.), improvement of Museum Drive at 95th Street (Oak Lawn, Ill.), construction of high-level boarding platforms at Hegewisch Commuter Station, reconstruction of the US-6 and County Line Road intersection (LaPorte/Porter Counties, Ind.), reconstruction of Pulaski Street (Hammond, Ind.), and completion of roadway geometrics and the development of traffic plans for the Grand Avenue grade separation and railroad relocation project (Franklin Park, Ill.).
Dean Smith, P.E.
Experience & Education
Smith is a senior bridge engineer and bridge inspection team leader with more than 16 years of experience. He specializes in in-depth inspection and corresponding repair and rehabilitation scenarios, and leads inspections, creates plans for the design of bridge repairs and rehabilitations, performs design analysis, writes specifications and generates cost estimates. His structural experience includes highway and railroad bridges, retaining walls, and culverts. An IDOT-approved Program Manager, Smith leads a substantial portion of Quandel Consultants’ railroad bridge inspection, design and rehabilitation projects.
He received a Bachelor of Science degree and Master of Science degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Illinois-Chicago, and is a registered Professional Engineer in Illinois and Indiana. Smith’s specialized training includes an NBIS 10-day course, as well as trainings in roadway worker safety, in-service bridge safety inspection, element-level inspection (PONTIS), and inspection of fracture-critical bridges (FHWA). Prior to joining Quandel, Smith was a Senior Structural Engineer at AECOM and its legacy company URS. He started his career as a staff engineer at Peter F. Olesen and Associates.
Project Work
Smith’s vast highway bridge experience includes the O’Hare Modernization program, for which Smith inspected the 1.85-mile elevated portion of the Airport Transit System, performed bi-annual inspections and designed three service road tunnels.
As structural design engineer, Smith led a reconstruction/add-lane project for the Jane Addams Memorial Tollway (I-90), widening and reconstruction of the Tri-State Tollway (I-294), retaining wall plan for and extension of Veterans Memorial Tollway (I-355), replacement of an elevated intersection over the Union Pacific railroad at Chicago Avenue/Halsted Street (Chicago), retaining wall design for the replacement of North Avenue bridge (Chicago), and emergency repair plan for the Calumet River Bridge.
Highway bridge inspection work executed by Smith includes element-level bridge inspections for 480 interstate mainline and overhead bridges for the National Highway System; inspections of 333 interstate structures on the 158-mile Indiana Toll Road system; and inspection of 60 bridges and structures along the seven-mile Chicago Skyway Toll Bridge system. Smith also provided professional engineer services for the Chicago Skyway Overpass rehabilitation, and calculations and final plans for Chicago Skyway Service.
Smith’s railroad bridge experience includes roles overseeing the inspection of 80 railroad structures in the Belt Railway of Chicago, special detailed inspection and rating of Amtrak’s Michigan Line from Dearborn to Kalamazoo, Mich., baseline in-depth inspection and load rating for structures in the Nebraska and Osgood bridges inventory (Indiana), and inspection team leader and rating engineer overseeing the evaluation of 44 Iowa Interstate Railroad Chicago-Quad Cities structures (Illinois).
In addition to inspection, Smith executed design and specifications for the Belt Railroad’s CREATE Railroad Project (Bedford Park and Summit, Ill.), and for the past 12 years Smith served as the structural engineer overseeing 13 railroad bridges of the South Chicago & Indiana Harbor Railroad.
About Quandel Consultants, LLC
Quandel Consultants, LLC, has provided engineering solutions for the railroad and rail transit industry for four decades. Services provided by Quandel Consultants include program management, engineering, planning, operations analysis and construction management. Quandel Consultants has completed work for Departments of Transportation across the U.S., including Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Pennsylvania and Colorado. Chicago-based Quandel Consultants has offices in Ann Arbor and Kalamazoo, Mich., St. Paul, Minn., and Cleveland, Ohio.