LIVIC Civil Ranked 34th in Central PA's Fastest Growing Companies

Ranked at #34 among Central Pennsylvania's 2023 Fastest Growing Companies by The Central Penn Business Journal, LIVIC Civil's success is attributed to its focus on employee engagement, professional development, and the cultivation of strong client relationships. According to The Central Penn Business Journal, the company's growth is also influenced by its proactive approach to identifying emerging markets.

The foundation of LIVIC's thriving company culture begins with its meticulous hiring process. Brittany Hackenberg, the Operations Executive, emphasizes the unique term "Guides" for employees, reflecting their ability to discern needs and lead effectively, whether within the office or on projects. She explains that our Guides are responsive, resourceful, and humble problem solvers who know what you need before you know you need it.

LIVIC seeks candidates who align with their proactive environment and encourages the contribution of fresh ideas. The company's commitment to understanding candidates, placing them in roles suited for their success, and fostering a collaborative ethos is reflected in its remarkably low turnover rate.

LIVIC Civil Ranked 112th for ENR MidAtlantic Top Design Firms 2023

LIVIC Civil proudly secures its position as a leader in the engineering and construction industry, earning a distinguished rank of 112th among the top Mid-Atlantic Design Firms for 2023 according to Engineering News-Record (ENR). ENR, a reputable publication with a substantial readership of over 60,400 paid print subscribers, has recognized LIVIC Civil's commitment to excellence in the realm of design and engineering. This coveted position reflects LIVIC Civil's expertise and contributions in shaping the built environment across the Mid-Atlantic region, encompassing Delaware, the District of Columbia, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania. The recognition by ENR underscores LIVIC Civil's dedication to delivering innovative and impactful solutions in the dynamic landscape of engineering and design.

LIVIC Civil Named One of Central Penn Business Journal's Fastest Growing Companies

The Central Penn Business Journal’s Fastest Growing Companies recognizes local businesses’ growth. Nominated companies will be ranked according to revenue growth over a three-year period, with both dollar and percentage increases taken into consideration. This ranking formula will lead to the recognition of both large and small companies.

The top winners were calculated from the pool of nominees based on dollar growth and percentage growth over the past three years. LIVIC Civil was named #18 of 42 recognized companies.

Local Civil Engineering Firm Opens New Office In Harrisburg

HARRISBURG, PA – LIVIC Civil, a civil engineering firm headquartered in Central Pennsylvania celebrates its third office location in Harrisburg. The new office, which joins Selinsgrove and Bloomsburg is just across the river from the state capital and located at 1029 Mumma Road Wormleysburg, PA 17043. LIVIC’s newest Guides leading the office include Doug Gamber and Kevin Burke. Doug is a registered Landscape Architecture with extensive experience and enjoyment leading land development projects in the region. Similarly, Kevin Burke shares equal talent and experience across the commonwealth shaping traffic and transportation focused studies and projects.

LIVIC Civil specializes in Land Development, Traffic Engineering, Municipal Engineering, GIS and Landscape Architecture, and aims to provide responsive, experienced, and value driven results. Choosing to work with LIVIC also means choosing a Guide. A LIVIC Guide is a responsive, resourceful, humble and thorough problem solver with the drive and grit to keep you one step ahead, while also having a little fun along the way. LIVIC Guides thrive on challenges and love to learn and explore new opportunities. They take pride in sharing their skills and knowledge to help others be successful.

With the help of their talented and experienced Guides, LIVIC was recently named #18 of the Top 50 Fastest Growing Companies by Central Penn Business Journal as well as Engineering News Record (ENR) #119 for Top Mid-Atlantic Design Firms. LIVIC is thrilled to further strengthen business partnerships and attract exceptional talent in the mid-state region with this newest location.

LIVIC Civil ranked one of top Mid-Atlantic Top Design Firms for 2021

LIVIC Civil has been ranked by Engineering News-Record (ENR) as one of the top Mid-Atlantic Top Design Firms for 2021. In addition to the ranking, we were spotlighted and interviewed for a corresponding article.

ENR is the leading engineering and construction publication with over 61,700 paid print subscribers. The Mid-Atlantic Ranking includes Delaware, the District of Columbia, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania.

LIVIC Civil: Less time in meetings, more time on billable client work

In 2017, LIVIC Civil created a company to focus on work that sparked their passion for guiding clients and delivering high-quality civil engineering projects. They grew quickly from three to more than 20 employees, and the growth was accompanied by an increase in internal meetings that were taking away from time their team could spend on revenue-generating client work.

“We had two problems,” said Jesse Smith, Director of Transportation and Infrastructure at LIVIC Civil. “Our meetings were being managed over email. It was difficult to keep track of the attachments, agendas and minutes, which meant people were not prepared for meetings and we were writing the agenda as we went through it.”

Smith began looking for a solution to improve preparation and record-keeping. A Google search led him to Decisions and then to the Decisions for Microsoft Teams add-in. “We have used Office 365 since the start of the company in 2017,” said Smith. “I liked that Decisions is integrated into those tools already familiar to our team.”

Drew Barton, P.E., Principal and Co-Founder, shared, “With Decisions, everyone adds their notes and pre-populates the agenda with their comments, so we can dive right into discussions.” 

“There is a common sentiment across the company that Decisions makes it easy to organize, find and share materials around our meetings,” continued Smith. “The automated elements like agenda notification and having everything stored in one place lets us spend the time before, during and after meetings most productively.” 

Barton’s favorite feature is the built-in time tracker. “I love that it keeps time by topic and not just at the overall meeting-level. Meetings are time-consuming but important. They are where our managers engage with each other and how the different business sectors share work. It is imperative that we use our time together as efficiently as possible." He continued, "Decisions guides us through our meetings just like we guide our clients through the challenges and complexities of each project.”

Since the implementation of Decisions, Smith and Barton estimate the company reallocates thousands of dollars back to billable time each month across employees.  

“Our business is engineering and we are selling hours,” said Barton. “When we can keep our meetings short and to the point, we get the most benefit from them and more time to focus on guiding our clients through projects.” 

Development project to bring 15 jobs to Valley

NORTHUMBERLAND — The North Shore Railroad Company awarded a $407,162 contract to Rhinehart Railroad Construction for a development project along Route 11 just east of Northumberland for a customer who will bring 15 new full-time jobs to the area.

North Shore’s Business and Development Manager Joe Kantz informed the Greater Susquehanna Valley Chamber of Commerce's Transporation Committee on Friday via Zoom that the site is located at the former PennDOT rest area, which was purchased in 2019 by North Shore. They have been working with LIVIC Civil Engineering to develop the site of a propane distribution station.

"The bid was awarded (on Thursday) to the company to move forward on earth moving and track build," said Kantz. "That project is going to get ramped up pretty quickly here in the springtime so we can move it forward and have it come to completion before the end of the year."

North Shore was awarded a Rail Transportation Assistance Program (RTAP) through PennDOT for the project. Nine companies, including Bullock Construction at $510,084, bid on the contract.

"This is the first time we are acting as a developer and we are looking forward to the project's completion," said North Shore President/CEO Jeb Stotter. "We anticipate the creation of 15 local jobs, which will have a positive impact on the regional economy."

North Shore is still under a non-disclosure agreement with the customer, but Kantz said the company is currently in the local market. He expects further announcements in the spring.

The company recently purchased another existing business in the area as well and once North Shore's project is complete, the two will "mesh nicely together," said Kantz.

PennDOT, Point Township and state Rep. Lynda Schlegel Culver, R-108, "have been very supportive of the project" and have worked well together to make sure the project is in order to move forward, said Kantz.

"It will be a nice development for retail and wholesale of the propane industry in our market here," said Kantz. "Anything we can do to keep prices down is a good thing."

Culver said the Route 11 corridor is slowly transforming into an energy corridor.

"We always need job creation," she said. "This is taking an eyesore and changing it to something else. Any time you can create jobs that's a win."

Two LIVIC Civil employees pass PE exam

LIVIC Civil's founders are proud to announce furthering education from two of their employees. Two project engineers, Brent Littlejohn and Corey Johnson, both recently passed their PE exams (Principles and Practice of Engineering Examination). With these passing scores, Brent and Corey can obtain a professional engineering license. With a professional engineering license in hand, they will be able to sign, seal and submit engineering plans to a public authority.

Brent’s completed projects thus far include:

-Webstaurant Store Warehouse in Buckhorn, Pa., where he conducted a transportation impact study including the analysis of 6 existing traffic signals, and modernization and retiming of the traffic signal at the warehouse entrance.

-Bloom Road and Academy Avenue intersection traffic signal upgrades in Mahoning Township, Pa., where he assisted in upgrading the existing signal detection to a video detection system and improved the level-of-service for the a.m. and p.m. peak hours for more efficient signal timings.

Corey’s completed projects thus far include:

- Buckhorn Warehouse, a 580,000 square foot warehouse, where he completed the site layout design to grading, stormwater design, and permitting.

- Brightfarms, a greenhouse in Penn Township, where he completed site layout grading, and stormwater design assistance.

- Burger King in Milton, where he completed the layout of the site, grading, stormwater design, and permitting; and Bald Top Road reconstruction, where he designed new road alignment and road grades, along with completed construction plans.

LIVIC Civil is a civil engineering firm specializing in transportation and commercial, land development and municipal engineering, with locations in Selinsgrove, Bloomsburg, and Harrisburg.

For more information about LIVIC Civil, visit www.liviccivil.com.

Selinsgrove-based engineering fim sets its sights on Harrisburg

LIVIC Civil – Now Guiding for 3 Years

Three years ago on a crisp October morning, LIVIC Civil was officially incorporated, setting off a chain reaction no one could have anticipated. Weeks of ideas and planning turned into one life-changing leap of faith for co-founding engineers Andrew Barton and Justin Ross.

“My personal goal in creating LIVIC was to assure that a small group of very talented and experienced professionals would have an opportunity to continue working together, a group that would be able to do more together rather than fracturing and competing against one another across the region. What has resulted is a testament to everyone here, our many industry partners and consultants who share our Guide philosophy,” Ross said.

Fast forward to this October morning in central Pennsylvania, when Ross and Barton celebrate the business they began, surrounded by their team of nearly 20 employees.  A team which has flourished assisting clients throughout the region and all across Pennsylvania on project related to commercial land development, municipal engineering, traffic/transportation engineering and GIS.

“The opportunities are as big as we can dream. And sometimes bigger…looking back at these last three years. We are good at engineering, but I’m more proud of the selflessness that I see daily; a willingness to make things better than they were before and to take the time to share knowledge and teach others. We now call it being a Guide, “ Barton said.

In life, you hire a guide when you want to rely on someone with experience to put you in a position to be successful. For this same reason, our clients recognize LIVIC as go to guides in the civil engineering and development industries.  But why…?

A guide is an expert, who has consistently and successfully completed similar journeys. A guide knows the requirements, influencers, and the challenges in order to deliver results. A successful guide will set expectations, learn from experience, be responsive, and build networks and relationships for future success.

LIVIC is thorough, some may even say picky, when hiring for their team. They avoid those who take the easy way out, who don't handle constructive criticism well, who can't work with a team, or those with mediocre attitudes. They seek out motivated, passionate people who pursue adventures and thrive on challenges.  But most importantly it’s about learning and educating.  A great guide should teach you how and why and be an advisor.  Our employees strive to be teachers, good listeners, and problem solvers.

“It's cliché for so many to give business advice and say your people are what makes a business great. But looking back on these three years this morning, I’m humbled to have this group on our side every day.” Ross said.

LIVIC Civil, with offices in Selinsgrove and Bloomsburg, Pa., offers site/civil engineering, land development, traffic, transportation, and municipal engineering services. Contact LIVIC Civil at liviccivil.com or (888) 987-1993 for Guide advice before starting your project!