GEOTRACK, INC. – SUBSURFACE UTILITY ENGINEERING

#Subsurface Utility Engineering
Post 17 — Geotrack, Inc.

GEOTRACK, Inc.

So far as we knew at FHWA, there were four providers of SUE services in 1992. Three of these providers – So-Deep, Geotrack, and TBE Group — stopped by our office in Washington, DC to introduce themselves and came back frequently. We met a few other providers at conferences and got to know their representatives. Today I want to introduce Geotrack.

The following is the Geotrack story as told to me by John Krause and Jonathan Tan (see picture):

JOHN KRAUSE: “Geotrack was founded in 1989 Rick Quickle, David Quickle, and Barbara Torterelli and was based in Beltsville, MD. Its first SUE contract was with the Maryland State Highway Administration (SHA). Soon thereafter, Dr. Galo Tan, a Chicago Neurologist, invested in and eventually acquired all ownership of Geotrack. His son, Jonathan was made CEO and President of Geotrack.

Offices were established in 10 states between 1990 and 2005 and Geotrack provided SUE services at various times to (a) 15 state DOTs (primarily MD, NY, NC, AZ, VA, TX, NM, NV, and IL); (b) around 30 municipalities, and (c) several large private utility companies.

Geotrack was a Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) firm. This helped them to grow the company and improve products and services and helped clients meet federal and state small business goals. The goal was to always follow its technical and professional process. They did this by not only locating utilities but consulting on mapping and utility site engineering solutions for plants, rail, airports, seaports, or site improvement and remediation or about anything.

Dave Husher PLS (AZ); Samir Moody PE (NJ); John Krause PLS (US); and Robert Mullin (East Coast) all served in key senior leadership and technical roles in the 1990’s and early 2000’s. Other associates that contributed significantly to Geotrack’s success were Seamus Lowry (VA, DC, MD), Mark Krause, (NY, NJ and VP of East Coast), Bob Mullin PE (TX), Gordon Hans LS & PE (TX), Marty Cawley PE (IL), Paul Cravotta (SUE manager and VP in NJ and NY), Carlton Sellars (Chief SUE manager, national), and last but certainly not least, Faith Welling our marketing director.”

JONATHAN TAN: “We always tried to do high quality work and exceed our client’s expectations. I believe we did that. During the 23 years that Geotrack was providing SUE services, no utilities were ever hit as a result of information we provided or failed to provide. Consequently, no claims were ever filed against our professional liability insurance. I am very proud of that and of all the members of the Geotrack team during those days.”

After the Geotrack days ended in 2012, Jonathan Tan went on to become a consultant to many companies on real time analytics, GIS, CPO, and C-Level Technical digital product management. John Krause caught on with the Florida DOT and became a leader of their surveying, mapping, and civil integrated management efforts.