Continuing the transition of leadership at Engineering Surveys & Services, in January 2016, Ben Ross, PE, PTOE, was named Vice President-Engineering, where he oversees production of the ES&S’ civil engineering design practice. 

​Ben joined ES&S after graduating from the University of Missouri with a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering in 1994.  Ben helped ES&S open a new location in Sedalia in 2000 and managed the branch office before returning to Columbia in 2005. 

During his career, Ben has focused on design and project management of public-sector infrastructure projects.  Ben is a registered professional engineer in four states and a Professional Traffic Operations Engineer. He serves on the Board of Directors of the Columbia Regional Economic Development Inc. (REDI), the Missouri Structural Assessment and Visual Evaluation (SAVE) Coalition, and is active in numerous other civic and professional organizations. Ben became a member of Engineering Surveys & Services, LLC in 2015.  

Ben lives in Columbia, Missouri with his wife Lisa and their son Adam. Ben enjoys camping trips as with Adam’s Boy Scout troop and being involved in the community.
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Some of Ben’s engineering career highlights include:

East 24-inch Transmission Main:  Project Manager for over 22,000-LF of 24-inch water main, along Columbia’s east city limit.  Confirming the pipeline corridor was a significant issue, with open-house interested parties meeting to gain input for alignment decisions, including issues related to a shared corridor with Hominy Branch Interceptor Sewer and a shared use trail that was built as part of the City’s greenway system.

Flat Branch Watershed Relief Sewer:  Project Manager for phases 1 & 3 of a collection system upgrade replacing older, small diameter sewers serving Columbia’s downtown central business district.  Alignments ran parallel to the heavily-used MKT Trail corridor and under two busy downtown streets.

Conley Road / Business Loop-70 Extension:  Project Manager for this new corridor connecting Business Loop-70 with the Conley Road commercial district.  The project included over a mile of new I-70 & US Route 63 outer roadway, a new bridge over Hinkson Creek, and the relocation of several holes of an adjacent golf course.  The project also allowed the closure of the entrance ramp to eastbound I-70 from the Business Loop, which has been a safety issue for many years due to the vehicle weaving conflicts with the I-70 exit ramp to US Route 63.  The project was locally funded by a sales tax within the Conley Road Transportation Development District.  

Nifong Boulevard Improvements:  Project Manager for the widening of this heavily-used urban arterial serving the City's south side.  The project consists of 10,000-LF of roadway upgrades and widening, improvements to two existing signalized intersections, and addition to two additional traffic signals and access management along the commercial corridor on the project’s east side.  

Continued population growth has resulted in increased enrollment for Columbia Public Schools (CPS), creating a strain on existing buildings and infrastructure.  Since 2006, CPS has tackled this problem head-on with an aggressive expansion of facilities that has included a new high school, multiple elementary schools, and expansions of existing facilities to reduce the need for classroom trailers. Engineering Surveys & Services has been a proud participant in this process which continues with the New Southwest Middle School.

​Located in southwest Columbia on Sinclair Road, the New Southwest Middle School will be an entirely new campus on a 63-acre tract, consisting of a 127,000-sf building, athletic facilities, and future expansion area for the middle school and a future second education facility.  ES&S provided initial site selection screening of over 20 potential locations, boundary and topographic survey data collection, platting, and civil-site design services that included a mass grading plan, access drives, parking lots, turn lanes on Sinclair Road, athletic facilities, stormwater management, and offsite utility extensions.  

ES&S prepared a separate site preparation bid package in order to allow construction to begin while design of the facility continued.  This is expected to reduce the overall project schedule by several months.  ES&S also worked hard to reduce project costs.  An example of this was the elimination of a proposed  large retaining wall.    ES&S staff worked with CPS to negotiate an easement  on the adjacent property to grade a slope, which generated needed fill material for the 200,000 cubic yards of mass grading, and eliminated the retaining wall, saving approximately $100,000 in project expense.
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This was also one of the first large projects following passage of the City’s new Uniform Development Code (UDC).  Part of the new UDC requirements includes preservation of significant trees. In order to meet these requirements, ES&S trained their staff to accurately and efficiently identify and locate significant trees, measuring tree diameters using a special forestry tape and collecting tree locations using GPS.

Working hand in hand with CPS and the project’s prime designer, PWArchitects, Engineering Surveys & Services is proud to be a part of this exciting project. 

Engineering Surveys & Services is excited to announce another key hire, Ms. Diane Heckemeyer, PE.  Diane joins ES&S as manager of the Sedalia Office, after a distinguished career path that includes an 18-year tenure with the Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT), where she rose to the position of State Design Engineer.  She departed MoDOT to take the reins of the Civil Engineering Technology program at the State Technical College of Missouri (STC-MO), in Linn.  Immediately prior to joining ES&S, Diane worked for mid-Missouri based heavy contractor, Emery Sapp & Sons.

Diane received a bachelor of science in civil engineering from the Missouri University of Science & Technology and is a registered professional engineer in the state of Missouri.  While with MoDOT, one of Diane’s primary duties was to deliver the projects on the Statewide Transportation Improvement Program, which often exceeded $1 billion of construction annually.  Her understanding of project delivery and managing design production will be a valuable asset to ES&S and our clients.  She also ran an effective, practical education program at STC-MO that prepared several of the engineering and materials lab technicians that have joined our firm in recent years.
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Diane lives in St. Elizabeth with her husband, Roger, and together they raised two daughters, Kelly and Sarah.  Actually, Diane isn’t the first Heckemeyer to work for ES&S…Kelly, a graduate civil engineer from S&T, was a summer intern at ES&S while attending school.
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Diane fills a role recently occupied by Abby McMullin, PE, who joined ES&S after earning her civil engineering degree from the University of Missouri in 2009.  Abby chose to step aside from her role in the firm in February to dedicate more time to her family and farming business.  We certainly miss her and wish her well in her endeavors.

Join us in welcoming Diane to the ES&S team!

​If you’re a developer, owner, municipality, or a design firm looking to partner on a project in Sedalia or west-central Missouri, contact Diane and Engineering Surveys & Services - Sedalia at 660-826-8618 or by email. 

Engineering Surveys & Services (ES&S) has provided consistent, high-quality service to the design and construction communities of central Missouri for over 65 years. We are excited to announce the expansion of our services into eastern Missouri bringing our unique brand of commitment to clients and providing quality service to new markets.

The newest ES&S location is currently situated in the City of Wildwood, in west St. Louis County.  Strategically located to expand services eastward from our Jefferson City location, this also offers an opportunity to enhance existing relationships with other firms and expand our client base in the St. Louis metro.

Dan lives in Wildwood with his wife Katie and their two sons, Jack and Will. He serves several civic organizations: as a board member of the Meramec River Recreation Association, vice-president of the Pacific Partnership - a downtown Pacific revitalization organization and is involved professionally with the Missouri Floodplain and Stormwater Managers Association.  

He enjoys coaching baseball and soccer, spending time with his family at Table Rock Lake, and has a passion for cooking.

Join us in welcoming Dan (back) to the ES&S team!

If you’re a developer, owner, municipality, or a design firm looking to team on a project in the St. Louis area, contact Dan and Engineering Surveys & Services – Wildwood at 314-254-4498 x1001 or by email.

​All of us at Engineering Surveys & Services (ES&S), congratulate Dave Bennett on his well earned retirement!

Succeeding Dave Bennett as President of ES&S will be Ross Kasmann.  Ross joined ES&S in 2005 after receiving a bachelor of science in Civil Engineering from the Missouri University of Science & Technology. After serving in the Columbia Office for several years, Kasmann was tasked with management of the firm’s Jefferson City Office in 2011, over which time it experienced continued growth in service offerings and profitability.  Originally from Jefferson City, Ross and his wife (Michelle) now live in Columbia with their two children.  He is a licensed professional engineer in Missouri and a Certified Floodplain Manager.  After many years involvement at the state level, Ross was recently named as National Vice-Chair of NSPE’s Professional Engineers in Private Practice industry interest group.  He moved back to the Columbia Office in early 2017 in preparation for his new role.

"We thank Dave for his years of service and leadership and wish him the best in retirement and adventures yet to come. I and the rest of the leadership team and staff at ES&S remain committed to delivering the same quality and responsive service that our clients have grown to trust."
​- Ross Kasmann