Jason Hatcher
President
Master of Engineering - Civil Engineering
Wentworth Institute of Technology, Boston, MA
New Zealand Certificate in Engineering - Civil
Central Institute of Technology, Wellington, New Zealand
Bachelor of Science - Construction Management
Wentworth Institute of Technology, Boston, MA
Associate in Applied Science - Building Construction
Wentworth Institute of Technology, Boston, MA
Professional Memberships
American Segmental Bridge Institute (ASBI)
Concrete Reinforcing Steel Institute (CRSI)
1992 - Ormond Stock Associates (OSA), New Zealand
In 1992, Ormond Stock Associates (OSA), a thriving Consulting Engineering firm in Palmerston North, New Zealand, hired Jason Hatcher as a drafting cadet. Jason was new to the world of engineering and construction, and started work detailing drawings by hand on an old school drawing board. His first project was a small chemical storage shed with a concrete floor slab and reinforced concrete block walls. Within a year Jason was off the drawing board and drafting using CAD software.
OSA provided a perfect foundation for Jason's career, introducing him to a wide range of construction projects, big and small throughout New Zealand, Australia, Indonesia, and Guam. A broad scope of projects, from residential, commercial and industrial buildings, to dairy processing plants, and meat slaughter facilities gave Jason practical experience with many structure types and construction materials, including reinforced concrete (in-situ and precast), pre-stressed concrete, wood, steel, expanded polystyrene (EPS) panels, and fibre reinforced concrete (FRC). Each material has different engineering properties and requires specific fabrication and installation processes.
Jason was guided by respected engineering and drafting colleagues at the company who became important mentors and friends.
OSA encouraged all employees to develop their professional career with a three-pronged approach; formal education in the classroom, practical experience and knowledge from active construction sites, and exposure and responsibility for a wide range of projects designed in the office. It was at this time that Jason earned a New Zealand Certificate in Engineering (NZCE) - Civil, requiring three years of classroom study and two years of practical experience in the field of civil and structural engineering.
First Drawing - Storage Shed Floor Plan
Building Frame Elevation - Hand Drawn
John Bates Wheel Alignment, Hastings, NZ
Our Story
WMP - SMP Dryer, Clandeboye, New Zealand
Te Rapa Cheese Factory, Waikato, New Zealand
1996 - Ebert Construction, New Zealand
In 1996, Jason joined Ebert Construction as a site based Construction Manager / Foreman of the WMP - SMP Dryer project at Clandeboye in South Canterbury. This was a unique opportunity as Jason had supervised and detailed the design drawings for the project, and now he would work off many of his own drawings to supervise the construction of the project on site for the main contractor.
Jason was responsible for the day to day site management, and supervision of the general construction / erection procedures including site earthworks, in-situ concrete placement, placing precast concrete elements, erection of structural steel, EPS panelling, and the fit out of the office spaces, laboratories, and changing rooms. He supervised Ebert employees and sub-contractors, wrote specifications and quality assurance methods for some trades, and wrote and accepted tenders for sub-contractor works. Jason also liaised directly with project design consultants, process engineer design consultants, and the client / owners representatives.
As the Clandeboye project neared completion, Jason relocated north to the Waikato region to assist with site construction management of a new cheese processing building at the Te Rapa Dairy facility.
In 1997, Jason returned to Ormond Stock Associates briefly with a greater understanding and appreciation of construction techniques, management and realities. He assisted with supervising and training junior staff, and was involved in the procurement and setting up of office systems as the company switched to more sophisticated Bentley MicroStation CAD software.
1998 - Sydney, Australia
In 1998 Jason moved to Sydney, Australia.
Pre-eminent consulting engineering firm Miller Milston & Ferris (MM&F), hired Jason as a senior structural detailer. Founded in 1957, MM&F pioneered the use of computer modelling in structural engineering before the technology was readily available. The firm was renowned for having completed the structural engineering design work for Sydney's Australia Square, MLC Centre, Qantas Centre, Grosvenor Place, and the High Court of Australia and the National Art Gallery in Canberra. While at MM&F, Jason worked on the Sydney Town Hall Arcade project, alongside other commercial building projects.
In 1999, Jason was recruited to work as a design draftsman in the Australian Power Transmission & Distribution Projects division of French multi-national firm Alstom. At Alstom, Jason was responsible for the design and drafting of civil and structural components of several projects, including a 500kV Terminal Station in Melbourne, Victoria, and a 330kV substation Static Var Compensator (SVC) at Armidale in northern New South Wales. Jason also supervised and provided training for less experienced drafters in the Sydney design office.
Sydney Town Hall Arcade
Armidale 330kV Substation SVC
Brooklyn Queens Expressway (BQE), NY
Boston Central Artery Project, South Station, Boston, MA
2000 - Finley McNary Engineers, USA
While living in Sydney, Australia, Jason researched engineering companies in the United States that he thought would be interesting to work for. Having found the Finley McNary Engineers website, Jason reached out to them, and was soon offered a job in the Connecticut office.
Jason got right to work on the post-tensioned precast segmental Brooklyn Queens Expressway (BQE) Connector to the Williamsburg Bridge project in New York.
This project was followed by several Boston Central Artery Bridge Project ramps and viaducts including projects C09C4, C09C2 in the South Station area, and the C19BA approach spans to the new Zakim Bridge. These bridges were all post-tensioned precast segmental superstructures, some erected using the span-by-span method, and others using the balanced cantilever method.
2001 - Parsons Transportation Group
In September of 2001, Parsons announced the acquisition of Finley McNary Engineers to the complex bridge division of their Transportation Group. Work continued as normal for Jason, leading the production of shop drawings for the Boston Central Artery project from the Essex, CT office.
The Woodrow Wilson Memorial Bridge was Jason's next priority, focusing on the complex geometry on the parabolic profiled V-piers, heavily congested with reinforcement and post-tensioning hardware where the permanent tie-beams integrated in the knuckle at the top of the V-piers. This was the first US$ Billion project of Jason's career, and was quickly followed by another, the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge twin Skyway bridges spanning 1.3 miles from the Oakland abutment to the Self-Anchored Suspension main span.
In 2003 Parsons integrated the Essex, CT staff into the Glastonbury, CT office, and Jason relocated to the Chicago, IL office. Only a few weeks after arriving in Chicago, Jason was asked to lead the shop drawing production team on the construction site of another US$ Billion project, the Benicia-Martinez Bridge in Martinez, CA. This complex project kept Jason on site in California until February, 2005, when he relocated to the Parsons design office in Boston, MA.
Having completed work on the Benicia-Martinez Bridge, Jason's next challenge was to lead the team producing the design and construction drawings for the Sheikh Khalifa Bridge in Abu Dhabi, UAE. This role required several trips to Abu Dhabi to coordinate with the engineering design team based there, while supervising drafting production teams working in Abu Dhabi, Boston, and Denver.
On August 29, 2005, while Jason was working on the Sheikh Khalifa Bridge, Hurricane Katrina made landfall on the Gulf Coast, extensively damaging the 1.2 mile long Biloxi Bay Bridge on US90 in Mississippi. In 2006, Jason joined the team producing design drawings for the new replacement bridge.
In 2007, Jason was back working on another San Francisco Bay area bridge, coordinating the construction details of the Yerba Buena Island transition structures connecting to the main span of the new San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge.
Benicia-Martinez Bridge, CA
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Biloxi Bay Bridge, MS
Sheikh Kalifa Bridge, Abu Dhabi, UAE
Yerba Buena Island Transition Structures, CA
Veterans Memorial Bridge, ME
Route 36 Highlands Bridge, NJ
Galena Creek Bridge, NV
9th Avenue Deck Cover Structure, NYC
2007 - Hatcher Technical
By 2007, Jason realized that his true passion was being involved in the construction engineering phase of large projects, working closely with contractors to help solve their constructability challenges. While there are advantages and opportunities available when working for a large engineering company, being a small company allowed Jason to always be at the coal face, working directly with site based construction crews to make an immediate, positive impact to the construction process.
With strong encouragement from supportive colleagues, Hatcher Technical was founded and a steady flow of project work for bridges in Israel and the United States began.
The next six years saw a continuous work flow with a wide range of segmental bridges, precast and cast-in-place, span by span erection and balanced cantilever construction methods. Highlights included the Galena Creek Bridge (NV), I-35W / HWY 62 Crosstown Bridges (MN), Route 36 Highlands Bridge (NJ), Nalley Valley Bridges (WA), MIC / Earlington Heights Connector Metrorail Extension (FL), Pearl Harbor Memorial Bridge (CT), Veterans Memorial Bridge (ME), and the South Island Line (East) Rail Project in Hong Kong.
Jason was proud to have worked extensively on the innovative 9th Avenue Deck Cover Structure in NYC for the Brookfield Manhattan West development project.
2013 - Finley Engineering Group
In 2013 Jason began working on the Bayonne Bridge project with Finley Engineering Group. Finley asked Jason if he would join their team in Tallahassee, FL as a project manager with the dual role of managing the Finley drawing office for all projects.
Jason took on the challenge and was soon deep in the construction details of both the substructure and superstructure of the complex Bayonne Bridge approaches, working closely with the main contractor, Kiewit and design engineers Parsons Brinkerhoff (substructure) and HDR (superstructure).
While with Finley Engineering Group, Jason supervised production of construction drawings for the Dresbach Bridge (MN), Ironton-Russell Bridge (OH / KY), and the design and construction drawings for the Motza Bridge in Jerusalem, Israel.
As the construction drawings for the Bayonne Bridge project neared completion, Jason returned to Massachusetts and Hatcher Technical.
Bayonne Bridge, NJ
Motza Bridge, Jerusalem, Israel
Dresbach Bridge, MN
Ironton-Russell Bridge (OH / KY)
Sarah Mildred Long Bridge, NH / ME
US-54 Canadian River Bridge, NM
Champlain Bridge, Montreal, Canada
Frederick Douglass Memorial Bridge, DC
2015 - Hatcher Technical
Hatcher Technical roared back into business with the challenging Sarah Mildred Long Bridge spanning the Piscataqua River between Portsmouth, NH and Kittery, ME. Jason worked closely with main contractor Cianbro to resolve congestion and constructability issues, eventually providing over 5,000 fully integrated shop drawings for all of the bridge, including the substructure, two level superstructure and main span lift towers.
This project was followed by three-dimensional CAD modeling of the unique pier caps on the New Champlain Bridge in Montreal, Canada. These pier caps had a complex geometry, and integrated substructure post-tensioning hardware with heavy reinforcement all contained within a permanent structural steel forming system.
Bridge construction engineering work continued many projects including the Park Road Bridge in Iowa City (IA), the I-59 / 20 CBD Bridges in Birmingham (AL), the cast-in-place balanced cantilever US-54 Canadian River Bridge (NM), the I-74 Mississippi River Bridge between Bettendorf (IA) and Moline (IL), and the new Frederick Douglas Memorial Bridge in Washington DC.
Non bridge projects included work on a large sports stadium, and the entrance structure to the Super Flood Basin at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard.
2022 - 15 Years of Hatcher Technical
Hatcher Technical celebrated 15 years of involvement on many exciting and challenging projects as Jason continued work on two large projects, the P-381 Portsmouth Naval Shipyard Dry Dock #1, and the I-395 Miami Signature Bridge.
Jason worked with the P-381 PNSY Dry Dock project main contractor (381 Constructors) as a consultant to review areas of heavily congested reinforcement, developing three-dimensional CAD models to illustrate the congestion and constructability challenges. He then worked with the contractor to liaise with the structure design team to resolve the conflicts and ease constructability difficulties.
The Miami Signature Bridge project kept Jason very busy as Hatcher Technical passed 15 years of service to the industry. This project is challenging and exciting technically and aesthetically. It is a true "once-in-a-lifetime" bridge project that any engineer or detailer would love to have on their resume. Jason has worked through many construction details for the main contractor on every facet of the signature bridge, including the foundations, precast arch segments and post-tensioning system, and the massive, complex center pier structure that is the common meeting point of all six arches.
2022 also marked Jason's 30th year working on engineering and construction projects.
P-381 PNSY Dry Dock #1 Design Rendering
Miami Signature Bridge - Center Pier Construction
Miami Signature Bridge - Arch 2 Erection
The Future Awaits ...
Hatcher Technical is always looking forward to challenging new projects.
Please contact Jason if you need help with your project.