Underground
CADD techs, designers, and even engineers rely on these two design programs when laying out duct bank alignments.
What is Civil 3D and MicroStation?
This term describes the measured current a transmission line can carries based on specified design parameters.
What is ampacity?
How many Global Practices are there at Burns & McDonnell?
What is 10?
Got a boat to clean? Or a basement to finish? Name this UG EO who is Supposedly "Ray's Right Hand Man"
Who is Austin Hall? (I'm so sorry)
Long before it became a major engineering firm, “Burns & McDonnell, Consulting Engineers” began in this year under founders Robert E. McDonnell and Clinton S. Burns.
1898
These man-made paths are dug into the ground to place duct banks and underground conduits safely.
What are trenches?
These electrical facilities act as the “middlemen” of the grid, stepping voltage up or down and routing power across the system.
What are substations?
Some Burns & McDonnell Global Practices rely on this enterprise-wide digital platform that houses engineering standards, discipline libraries, design templates, and quality tools—supporting consistent delivery across aviation, energy, T&D, water, and environmental projects.
What is Project Wise?
Spam! Or is it not? Name the company that was used in this spam email that got the people going!
What is Honey Baked Ham?
When was the ESOP at Burns & McDonnell founded?
What is 1985?
Designers use this type of drawing to show the layout, elevation changes, and profile of underground conduit runs for construction purposes.
What is a plan/profile drawing?
This common Burns & McDonnell delivery method integrates design and construction under one contract.
What is EPC?
In the early 2000s, Burns & McDonnell worked on this large utility project in Kansas City that involved multiple Global Practices—including T&D, environmental, and civil engineering—showing how the firm manages complex, multi-discipline projects.
What is the Kansas City Power & Light (KCP&L) Transmission and Distribution Expansion Project?
This CEO introduced the motto “We hire for attitude, train for success.”
Who is Greg Graves?
Burns & McDonnell nearly closed during this historic event that drastically cut municipal engineering budgets.
What is the Great Depression?
When speed matters in Civil 3D duct bank design, CADD users in Underground rely on this specialized program.
What is Dynamic Profiles?
This decade marked a key milestone for Burns & McDonnell’s T&D growth, when the firm completed one of its first large-scale 345-kV transmission projects—solidifying its reputation as a high-voltage leader and setting the stage for future expansion into EPC delivery and grid modernization programs nationwide.
What is the 1970's?
In the late 1990s, Burns & McDonnell’s Aviation Global Practice helped modernize this Midwestern airport, integrating terminal design, electrical systems, and airfield engineering into a single project delivery.
What is Kansas City International Airport (KCI) Expansion?
The McDonnell daughter known for her golf involvement often played at a club founded in 1896 in Kansas City. Name the club.
What is the Kansas City Country Club?
The company expanded its EPC capabilities significantly through joint ventures in this country’s booming energy market.
What is Canada?
This term describes the phenomenon that forces engineers to derate underground conductors when multiple circuits share a single duct bank.
What is ampacity derating (or mutual heating effect)?
To safely increase grid capacity, utilities often upgrade these specialized devices that protect lines from faults and isolate dangerous conditions.
What are protective relays?
Although Burns & McDonnell was founded in 1898, over the years it has expanded into these worldwide areas of expertise, now called Global Practices.
What are 1898 & Co., Aviation & Federal, Construction, Environmental Services, Global Facilities, Oil, Gas & Chemical, Power, Transmission & Distribution, Transportation, Water?
What is the KCI Airport Debacle?
Before the modern world headquarters campus existed, Burns & McDonnell operated out of a lesser-known Midtown Kansas City structure whose 1940s renovation introduced one of the firm’s earliest in-house mechanical system designs. This building—later sold as the company expanded south—served as a proving ground for BMcD’s post-war growth and early multidisciplinary integration.
What is the Penn Street (or Penn Avenue) Office Building?