History

President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the Federal-Aid Highway Act into law in 1956. Just two years earlier, Paul Erdman and John Hosley had formed a partnership in Rochester, New York. The following year, Edwin Anthony joined the firm, and the new company opened an office in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

As the largest public works program in U.S. history began to reshape America’s landscape, Erdman, Anthony & Hosley engineers contributed to the original design for the New York State Thruway in Erie County and for U.S. Route 1 in Bucks County, PA.

The company also did significant survey and civil design work in New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Vermont. To keep up with this boom, the staff grew to 380 people: engineers, highway designers, inspectors, draftsmen, surveyors, and many other talented professionals.

Communities in New York and Pennsylvania continued to expand during the 1960s, thanks, in part, to services Erdman Anthony Associates provided for roadways and bridges. One of the firm’s first projects in Rochester was the I-490 Eastern and Western Expressways in Monroe County. Additional projects in the ’60s included the Lock Haven Bypass in Clinton County, Pennsylvania, which included several flood protection components to safeguard the municipal airport and the Piper Cub assembly plant.

The company’s reputation for innovation also grew. Photogrammetric engineering, or surveying conducted primarily via the use of aerial photography, was applied to highway planning and surveying, city planning, pipeline and power transmission routes, mine exploration, geology, water resources, forestry, and industrial-plant site-selection. Over the next 50 years, Erdman Anthony would, in this way, map, design, and/or inspect construction on nearly every interstate highway in upstate New York and central Pennsylvania and on most of the arterials in those regions.

As the interstate system developed over the past two decades, the demand for arterial roads, bridges, and other ancillary structures continued to increase. Erdman Anthony put its stamp on downtown Rochester’s pedestrian and motorist traffic by providing services for the I-490 Inner Loop, routing downtown traffic to and from the suburbs, and for the Spring Street pedestrian overpass, which connects neighborhoods bisected by the interstate. In addition, we performed rehabilitation design for the Troup-Howell Bridge in downtown Rochester, New York, which would later be connected to the Inner Loop and I-490. In Pennsylvania, the PA Route 30 Everett Bypass project, a Federal Demonstration Project, was a model for reduced funding that was documented in a white paper.

This decade also saw our firm tackle work related to natural disasters. After Hurricane Agnes in 1972, Erdman Anthony conducted the Gang Mills flood-protection study in Steuben County, New York, and participated in the Susquehanna River Basin Commission’s flood studies in Pennsylvania following Hurricane Eloise in 1975.

As Erdman Anthony thrived in its fourth decade, the communities served by the company’s offices continued to upgrade and refine how they would move people and resources. Our infrastructure solutions in Rochester, New York, this decade included the first concrete segmental bridge designed for Genesee Valley Park’s I-390 flyover. We also completed the bridge design for the St. Paul Boulevard Tunnel System Bridge over the Genesee River Gorge, which included the city’s combined sewer overflow abatement program featuring an innovative siphon design to carry 6-foot-diameter sewers beneath the deck of a pedestrian bridge spanning the river, thereby eliminating the need for downstream pumping. This aesthetically pleasing and highly functional solution was so unique that the EPA's combined sewer overflow guidance for long-term control plans specifically mentions our firm’s solution on the river as an example of successful, creative thinking.

As the countdown to the new millennium began, 27 Erdman Anthony employees bought out the corporate owners, positioning the company as an employee-owned, client-focused firm. In this decade, our firm also opened offices in Buffalo and Albany, and it expanded services to offer private-sector mechanical and electrical engineering and building systems for green projects. Our firm also provided engineering design and construction inspection for Main Streets in Rochester, Buffalo, and Batavia, New York, and still do today.

In Pennsylvania, Erdman Anthony served as prime consultant on the I-99 highway alignment and bridges located at Penn State University that ultimately transformed the area, including access to Beaver Stadium. We completed four consecutive open-end contracts for Conrail, including over 95 work orders across New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, and Ohio, which helped transform its rail system to accept double-stacked cars. On Long Island, our coastal erosion prevention survey of the 83-mile coastline of the Fire Island seashore, which presented several demanding components, was a national award winner for “The Most Interesting Survey Project in 1995.” Back at company headquarters in Rochester, New York, our teams helped Eastman Kodak Company transform its infrastructure, and Russell J. Bullock, PE, was named Erdman Anthony’s president.

As the new millennium arrived, Erdman Anthony prepared to celebrate 50 years in business. The firm expanded by opening offices in West Palm Beach, Florida, and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. We also launched the construction management group and worked on its first project, Pittsburgh’s Interstate 376 – Sections A39 and A40.

The firm began an open-end contract with the Department of Defense, specifically the northern Department of the Navy, for engineering services including runway improvements and flight line clearances at Willow Grove Naval air station, north of Philadelphia. Design work for the DOD included waterline, rail, and roadway improvement projects at Naval bases in New Jersey, Rhode Island, and New York. The contract included gantry crane inspection at Naval Supply Depot Mechanicsburg as part of eight work orders in the contract.

In Florida, we provided design and survey services for SR A1A/Ocean Boulevard, which included the challenge of providing highway lighting design that met unique challenges sensitive to nesting and hatching sea turtles. FDOT later selected Erdman Anthony to develop standards that are now used statewide for alternative lighting design for environmentally sensitive coastal areas.

In New York, the design of the Douglass-Anthony Memorial Bridge transformed Rochester's skyline. A real legacy project, it was first designed by Erdman Anthony in the 1950s and then updated by our firm in 2007.

The 2010s brought a leadership change, more major projects, and a unique service offering.

In 2012, Curt Helman, PE, was named president and CEO of Erdman Anthony. This decade also saw the opening of the Portland, ME, office, and our firm worked on significant projects across the Northeast and Florida, including providing design support for New York state’s first diverging-diamond intersection, improving safety at this Rochester, New York, interstate exit; and the South Florida Water Management District G-716 Divide Spillway in Loxahatchee, Florida, which allows SFWMD to manage and control water with bidirectional flow. We also founded our SustainabiliTEAM™, which brings together engineering designers, energy consultants, and commissioning professionals for a comprehensive approach to sustainable design and the operation of buildings, such as our work on Bailey Hall at SUNY Geneseo in New York.

As the decade opened and circumstances demanded it, Erdman Anthony pivoted seamlessly to the option of a robust remote-work model. Our projects continued to benefit communities and earn numerous accolades. The Singer Island, Yacht Harbor Manor Neighborhood Improvements in Riviera Beach, Florida, helped this community cope with sea-level rise, including improved drainage, replacing sewer pipes, and full reconstruction of the neighborhood’s pavement with a profile grade line design and valley gutters. In Pennsylvania, the I-83 Exit 4 Diverging Diamond Interchange in Shrewsbury reduced traffic congestion and increased safety.

The I-390 Interchange Improvements at I-490, Phases 3 & 4 project in Rochester, New York, transformed the interchange and won Project of the Year from both the Genesee Valley Branch and the New York branch of APWA. The John James Audubon Parkway Bridge — Superstructure Replacement and Roundabout in Amherst, New York, repurposed a bridge for pedestrians and bicyclists and moved traffic more safely and efficiently. We provided energy analysis and commissioning services for a new four-story net-zero energy-ready residence hall at SUNY Polytechnic Institute in Utica, New York.

In 2021, Erdman Anthony acquired Virginia-based Dwyer Engineering and its talented team, enhancing our position as a leader in food market MEPR services. Our firm now has 250 professionals, a greater geographic reach, and more resources due to the addition of offices in Leesburg, Virginia, and Columbia, Maryland.