G-002 · About
Robert Rippee, PE, and the firm
Aligned Engineering is a small civil engineering and drafting firm in Aloha, Oregon. It exists to do the work without a large firm's overhead, and to keep the engineer in the field.
What I do
I am a civil engineer licensed in Oregon (77739PE) and Washington (54469). Much of my career has been roadway work: horizontal and vertical alignment, street lighting, ADA facilities, stormwater, and plans, specifications, and estimates from the first submittal to the signed set. I have done that work for Marion County, for the Portland Bureau of Transportation as a subconsultant to Kittelson & Associates, and for private owners on jobs from a garage foundation in Portland to a multifamily site in Tacoma.
How I work
On many of my projects I have been the designer, the drafter, the project manager, and the inspector at once. That is not a staffing problem. It is the point. The person who drew the plans knows what to look for in the field, and the person in the field knows what the plans can absorb. When I draft for a prime, I draft to their standard. When I inspect for a city, the report goes out within a day, with the photos in it.
The drone
I hold an FAA Part 107 remote pilot certificate and fly a DJI Air 3S on my own projects: roofs and elevations photographed without a ladder, trenches recorded without standing at the edge, and the same waypoints flown on each inspection visit so the progress record compares frame to frame. On design work the frames go straight into Civil 3D. More on the drone work.
Where
Aloha, in Washington County, west of Portland. I work across the Portland metro area and the Willamette Valley, and in western Washington, where past projects have been in Camas, Tacoma, and University Place.
The firm
Aligned Engineering, LLC is certified as an Emerging Small Business through Oregon's COBID program, NAICS 541340. It is small on purpose. Drafting is done in house, and when a project needs a surveyor, a geotechnical engineer, or an architect, I bring one in rather than pretend to be one.
If you are a prime looking at ESB participation, here is how teaming works. If you are a homeowner who has never hired an engineer, here is how a small project goes.
| Licensed | Professional Engineer, Oregon 77739PE Professional Engineer, Washington 54469 |
|---|---|
| Certified | Emerging Small Business, Oregon COBID FAA Part 107 remote pilot ODOT certified: ADA curb ramp and pedestrian signal design, including TPARs |
| NAICS | 541340, Drafting Services |
| Software | Civil 3D, AutoCAD, MicroStation with InRoads and OpenRoads, WWHM, AGi32 |
| Office | Aloha, Oregon |