Who We Are

At Brierley Associates, our staff of over 50 ground engineering professionals enjoy what we do and spend a great deal of time doing it. We believe that trust is the greatest form of human motivation and we strive to make clients glad that they came in contact with our firm. The partners of Brierley Associates are committed to providing accurate and highly focused information in a timely and cost effective manner. All of us at Brierley Associates, share a common business vision; one that is dedicated to the service of our clients, as we "Create Space Underground".

Corporate Management | Regional Managers | Senior Consultants | Office Managers

Corporate Management

Arthur "AJ" McGinn, Ph.D., P.E. – President, CEO (Syracuse, NY Office) with over 20 years of working on a variety of complex projects, is widely respected as an expert in the areas of numerical ground modeling, particularly in connection with ground modification methods such as soil mixing and jet grouting.

Gregg Sherry, P.E. – Vice President, Tunneling Manager (Littleton, CO Office) has over 30 years of experience in design and construction of civil engineering projects including dams, water projects, tunnels, transportation projects, railways, pipelines, and canals. He is a specialist in underground engineering, and groundwater hydrology.

Steven Kuehr, P.E. – COO (Denver, CO Office) specializes in geotechnical engineering as it relates to water supply, sewerage, water resources, commercial, industrial, highway, bridge, and land development projects. With a career spanning more than 30 years, Steve has worked on all aspects of foundation engineering, slope stability, expansive soils problems, ground modification, retaining walls, landslide evaluation and repair, dam design and groundwater collection trenches and slurry wall design.

Eric Lindquist, Ph.D., P.E. – Director of Engineering (Moraga, CA Office) has almost 20 years in the design of heavy construction facilities for owners, engineers, and contractors, with an emphasis on underground structures. He specializes in the geotechnical engineering, rock mechanics, designs involving excavation shoring, slope repairs, tunnels, shafts, trestles, retaining walls, cofferdams, shallow and deep foundations, and pipelines.

Regional Managers

Alan L. Howard, P.G., C.E.G. – Vice President (Moraga, CA Office) has worked on numerous underground projects, geotechnical investigations, hydrogeology, geohazard evaluations, rock mechanic assessments and aggregate mine zoning and permitting, for over 25 years.

Robin Dornfest, P.G., C.P.G. – (Fort Collins, CO Office) has a broad base of project and design experience involving geotechnical engineering, engineering geology, geologic mapping, slope stability, expansive soils, ground modification, earth retention systems, landslide and rock fall evaluation and mitigation. During his 10 year career, Robin has participated in value engineering and has been called upon as an expert witness.

Jay Perkins, P.E. – (Cambridge, MA Office) career of over 30 years has included management of geotechnical and multi-disciplined projects at the local, national and international levels. Jay's technical experience encompasses geotechnical investigations and instrumentation programs, providing design recommendation of commercial and industrial buildings, earth embankment dams and slopes, landfills, cutoff walls, wastewater treatment facilities and the application of geosynthetic materials.

Senior Consultants

Gary S. Brierley, Ph.D., P.E. – (Littleton, CO Office) has worked on major projects that Create Space Underground for over 40 years. He is considered an industry expert in tunnel design and construction, geotechnical reports for underground construction, and risk management in the heavy civil construction industry.

David Berti, P.E., S.E. – (Moraga, CA Office) For the past 29 years, Mr. Berti has been an engineering consultant to owners, contractors, and engineers for the design of heavy construction facilities. His design experience includes tunnels, shafts, land and marine cofferdams, pipe jacking and microtunneling, caissons and retaining walls and design support of excavation systems.

Ray Henn, Ph.D., P.G. – (Denver, CO Office) is an expert in all aspects of grouting and has more than 40 years of heavy and underground construction experience with a concentration in shafts and tunneling, hydroelectric, water and wastewater, and transportation projects. Additionally, Dr. Henn has served on 29 Dispute Review Boards and as an Arbitrator on construction cases.

Tracy Lyman, P.E., P.G. – (Denver, CO Office) has over 35 years of progressive experience in geological and geotechnical engineering specializing in rock and soil engineering and hydrogeology. He has applied his knowledge base to a variety of tunneling, water and wastewater infrastructure, trenchless technology, highway and bridge, mass transit, water development, hydroelectric, power, mining, and industrial waste management and remediation projects throughout the United States and abroad.

Brian C. Dorwart, P.E., P.G. – (Bedford, NH Office) has more than 30 years experience in heavy civil projects and specializes in horizontal directional drilling projects. He has a wide range of project experience with underground utilities and transportation tunnels and drills, slope assessment and remediation, storm water system design, shoreline stabilization, and the interaction of subsurface conditions on construction activities. In addition, Mr. Dorwart has served as technical expert to contractors and owners for claim negotiation and resolution.

Bruce Weber, P.E. – (Elkhorn, WI Office) has managed engineering, exploratory drilling and construction materials testing operations for Regional and National firms for over 40 years. His project experience includes planning and implementation of investigation programs, engineering analyses and design and quality assurance testing and forensic engineering.

Lewis Yates, P.E. – (Austin, TX Office) during his career of over 36 years, Lewis has completed assignments involving all facets of geotechnical engineering throughout Texas. He served as principal investigator on projects involving earth and concrete dams, machine drilled tunnels and open cut excavations, bridges, and water and wastewater treatment facilities. Mr. Yates has also served as an expert witness for a variety of cases.

Office Managers

Russell "Russ" Jernigan, Ph.D., P.E., P.G. - (Austin, TX Office) has more than 27 years of experience in soil and rock mechanics, tunnel design, dam design and hydroelectric projects.

Mohamed Gamal, Ph.D., P.E. – (Savoy, IL Office) specializes in computational studies for pavement performance, slope and retaining wall stability, deep foundations, underground excavations, ground movement behavior, and other geomechanic analyses. Through his career of almost 25 years he has gained the experience to help our clients with forensic analyses of pavement failure; geo-construction difficulties associated with building damage and geotechnical field and laboratory investigations.

Nick Strater, P.G. – (Bedford, NH Office) has over 19 years of engineering geology and geotechnical consulting experience. His specialties include rock and soil tunnels, horizontal directional drilling, rock slope design and remediation, rock blasting and forensic geology.

Phillip "Phil" Burgmeier, P.E., - (Syracuse, NY Office) has been providing geotechnical design services to private and public owners and contractors for over 15 years. Phil's primary emphasis is underground construction, foundation and underpinning support, and landslide remediation design. He also specializes in structural and geotechnical designs to support underground construction projects.

Joseph Wiedemann, P.E. – (Elgin, IL Office) has been involved with design-build projects for highway, civil and commercial building projects. During his career of almost 30 years he has managed multiple ongoing projects for Regional and National firms across the United States and has been involved with all aspects of design, analysis and construction quality assurance.