Type Private Founder Tung-Yen Lin Parent organization Dar Al-Handasah | Website Official website Founded 1 June 1954 | |
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Industry Civil and Structural Engineering Key people Alvaro Piedrahita, P.E.
(President)
Man-Chung Tang, Dr., P.E.
(Chairman of the Board) Headquarters San Francisco, California, United States Subsidiaries Medina Consultants, P.C. Profiles | ||
T. Y. Lin International (TYLI) is a global, multi-disciplinary infrastructure services firm. Headquartered in San Francisco, TYLI established its business in the design of long-span bridges and specialty structures.
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The firm provides a range of planning, design, construction and project management services to the aviation; bridge; facilities; mobility, planning, and management; ports and marine; rail and transit; and surface transportation industries. TYLI operates from more than 50 regional centers across four continents, and employs a professional staff of more than 2,500 engineers, planners, architects and scientists.
History
1950s: TYLI was founded on June 1, 1954 by Tung-Yen Lin, a Chinese-American structural engineer recognized worldwide as an innovator in bridge design, engineering, and construction. Lin is credited with standardizing the practical use of prestressed concrete. He is also known for his emphasis on the structural aesthetics aspect of engineering, regardless of a project’s economic limitations.
1960s–1970s: Lin continued to expand his firm’s specialty in prestressed concrete to broader consulting services, with projects that included conventionally reinforced concrete, structural steel, masonry, and timber-framed structures. In 1967, he designed the 18-story shear wall Bank of America building in Managua, Nicaragua. The reinforced concrete tower was one of only two structures left standing after the country’s 1972 earthquake. Lin also became known for his design innovations, such as the Rio Colorado Bridge, an upside-down suspension bridge spanning a deep gorge in Costa Rica. In the early '70s, the firm also established offices in Taiwan and Singapore.
1980s: TYLI expanded with new offices in Kuala Lumpur and a merger with Maine-based Hunter-Bellow Associates in the U.S. In 1986, when U.S. President Ronald Reagan presented Lin with the National Medal of Science, he responded by handing the former president a detailed plan for a 50-mile long “Intercontinental Peace Bridge” connecting Alaska and Siberia across the Bering Strait. In 1989, TYLI was acquired by the Dar Group, an international network of professional service firms located in 45 countries.
1990s: Following the Loma Prieta earthquake in California in late 1989, TYLI helped in the development of advanced techniques, engineering tools, and design standards for bridge assessment, the seismic retrofit of existing structures, and the design of new bridges. The firm also completed several acquisitions, including California-based McDaniel Engineering, Chicago-based BASCOR, Washington State’s DGES Consulting Engineering, and New York’s DRC Consultants. Additionally, the firm opened a new Asia-Pacific office in Chongqing, China.
2000s: U.S. expansion continued with the acquisition of Miami-based H.J. Ross Associates, Inc., Northern California’s CCS Planning and Engineering, multi-location FRA Engineering and Architecture, and Medina Consultants on the East Coast. The acquisitions strengthened the firm’s services in the areas of ITS/traffic engineering and transportation engineering through its aviation and rail and transit line of businesses for such projects as Miami International Airport’s expansion project. In Asia, TYLI oversaw the design of major bridges in China’s fast-growing central region, including the Shibanpo Bridge and the Caiyunba Bridge in Chongqing, and the Second Wujiang Bridge in Fulin.
2010s: TYLI oversaw the design of 25 elevated bridges across Taiwan for the island’s new High Speed Rail system and the Hoover Dam Bypass Bridge, which is downstream of the Hoover Dam; the Port Mann Bridge in British Columbia, Canada (2012); and the new Eastern Span of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge (2013).
Services
TYLI provides services on all phases of project development and delivery, including:
Industries
TYLI provides services within all major sectors of the infrastructure industry, including:
Projects
Select project list: