HISTORY OF SUBSURFACE UTILITY ENGINEERING
Post-72 – History of SUE in Ecuador (Part 4)
The picture is of Alejandro Rodas and Nick Zembillas.
Alejandro Rodas’ History of SUE in Ecuador (Part 4)
“Upon the news of my resignation and thinking my future career option, I reached out Nick for guidance, more specifically seeking his help to open some doors inside any SUE firm in the USA. I was convinced that all the experience I gained in previous years would help me fit into a position in the US SUE market. My thoughts were that my knowledge in the field would be appreciated there. But instead of that, Nick replied, Alejandro, we can´t throw away all that you have achieved in Ecuador, I´ll invest in you!”
“After that teleconference call, I had more doubts than certainties. The first thing I realized, was that I wasn´t going to be able to have the finances and resources from the Cardno days; this time I was going to on my own. The next thing I knew, Nick was on a plane coming to Ecuador to support and guide me with setting up a legal entity, initial investment funds, and a banking institution. So, with Nick´s commitment and support, there was no turning back. I put all my fears aside and committed to grow the young SUE Firm; SUE LATAM, as a subsidiary of SUBSURFACE UTILITY ENGINEERING, LLC in the USA.”
“Now we needed SUE equipment suitable for our conditions, and no one knew better than Gary Frazho our needs of geophysical equipment and a vacuum excavation system. Gary put us in contact with different vendors and suppliers. My initial operational step was to develop procedures and methodologies for Latin America, and that´s how we ended up having a very strong and reliable technological package. Our next step was to import and fabricate the SUE equipment. Due to previous not so good experiences with customs, I knew it wasn’t going to be an easy task and we already had two projects on the way. So, for almost six painful months, we rushed with all and managed in December 2016 to perform our very first project for a highway intersection design in Quito, which we did with only three people including myself.”
“At that point, we had limited resources and to achieve our SUE services, we developed a plan that would accomplish a project delivery that met the SUE processes and standard of care of ASCE 38-02. Following that, we had two more projects outside town, one in Ambato city for mapping a university campus and the next for the Water and Sewer Company of Portoviejo City right after the earthquake occurred on April 16 with a magnitude of 7.8 that collapsed not only most of the buildings, but the water and sanitary pipes that were the main purpose of our scope of work to map the whole system.
[Alejandro’s history of SUE in Ecuador concludes next week.]
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