| Type | Subsidiary |
|---|---|
| Industry | Engineering, design, planning, environment, project/program/construction management |
| Founder(s) | William Barclay Parsons(1885) |
| Headquarters | One Penn Plaza, New York |
| Number of locations | New York, London, Dubai, Hong Kong, Singapore, Sydney and approximately 150 other offices worldwide |
| Area served | Global |
| Key people | George J. Pierson, President and Chief Executive Officer |
| Products | Strategic consulting, planning, design, program management, engineering, construction services and operations & maintenance |
| Employees | Approximately 14,000 worldwide |
| Parent | Balfour Beatty |
| Website | www.pbworld.com |
Parsons Brinckerhoff (previously known as PB) is a professional services firm with 14,000 employees in 150 offices providing construction and operation management, planning, design, engineering, project and program management, strategic consulting, environmental and sustainability services for clients and communities in the Americas, Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and Australia-Pacific regions. The professional services division of Balfour Beatty, the international infrastructure group, Parsons Brinckerhoff is active in both the public and private sectors, and its projects are focused on transportation, buildings, power, water/wastewater, and community development.
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Founded in 1885 in New York City by William Barclay Parsons, among Parsons Brinckerhoff’s earliest projects was the original IRT line of the New York City subway, designed by Parsons and opened in 1904. Parsons also designed the Cape Cod Canal and charted the course of a railway in China from Hankow (Wuhan) to Canton (Guangzhou) in 1899, a line that is also still in use today. In 1906, Henry M. Brinckerhoff, a highway engineer, brought his expertise in electric railways to the firm. He is known for his co-invention of the third rail.
The firm has worked on some of the most notable infrastructure projects of the 20th century, including: the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel; the North American Air Defense Command (NORAD) in Colorado; the rapid transit systems of San Francisco, Atlanta, Singapore, Taipei and Caracas; the I-95/Fort McHenry Tunnel under Baltimore Harbor; Virginia’s Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnels; and Hawaii’s H-3 highway.
Currently, the firm is involved in several major expansions of the public transportation system in the New York metropolitan area, including the extension of the No. 7 line subway, the new Second Avenue Subway, and an extension of the Long Island Rail Road to Grand Central Terminal. Other current and recent projects include: the Epping to Chatswood Rail Line in Australia; the Taiwan High Speed Rail Project; the Kanchanaphisek Bridge in Bangkok, Thailand; the Katy Freeway Reconstruction in Houston, Texas; an extension of the East London Line of the London Overground; and the Medupi Power Station in South Africa.
Parsons Brinckerhoff was acquired by Balfour Beatty in October 2009 and operates as a wholly owned subsidiary of the Balfour Beatty Group. Parsons Brinckerhoff is organised in six operating divisions reporting to President and Chief Executive Officer George J. Pierson. The divisions include two units representing Europe/Middle East/Northern Africa and Asia/Australia-Pacific and Southern Africa, as well as four units operating in North American in the fields of transportation, power/energy, U.S. federal, and buildings. Heery International, a long-time Balfour Beatty firm, now operates as Parsons Brinckerhoffs’s buildings division.
Parsons Brinckerhoff's comprehensive range of services, extend virtually across the complete spectrum of construction endeavours serving both the public and private sectors include buildings, telecommunications, transportation, power and energy systems, industrial facilities, urban infrastructure, safety and risk management, and environmental projects.