Freight Rail Thought Leaders

Scott Goehri is a senior vice president and national director of freight railroads for HDR. He has more than 28 years of experience in the railway engineering field and has been responsible for preparation of construction plans, specifications and estimates for a variety of railroad projects. Scott leads a team of more than 250 rail professionals serving more than 100 rail clients. He provides technical leadership and strategic, administrative and business development assistance on HDR's freight railroad projects across North America.

Scott is leading HDR's work on heavy haul railroads. Learn more in the Spring/Summer 2011 issue of Transportation Delivered.

Jim Sheahan is a Vice President and oversees HDR's geotechnical engineering services. In this role, Jim coordinates geotechnical efforts with other design disciplines from a project's conception through its construction phase. In addition, he is responsible for pavement designs and construction control testing. Over the past 42 years in the engineering industry, Jim has prepared and reviewed geotechnical investigations for a variety of highway, bridge, railroad, transit, industrial and municipal projects.

In 1996, HDR granted Jim the title Charter Senior Professional Associate. Recognizing that professionalism, superior technical development and individual accomplishments are essential to its success, we bestow this title on extraordinary professional staff who exhibit exceptional levels of technical and professional achievement.

Mark Hemphill's 26 years in railroading has taken him from managing a locomotive repair company and dispatching trains across the Kansas City Southern Railway system, to directing the reconstruction and reconstitution of the Iraqi Republic Railways in Iraq in 2005 and 2006. Mark is now HDR's manager for railroad consulting services, in which he coordinates HDR's strategic-level, economic and business-development services to North America's rail industry.

Mark is in particular demand by states, ports and Class 1 railroads that want to explore opportunities for public-private partnerships, and to quantify and capture the externalized public benefits of rail freight and passenger transportation.

"Every day I have spent in railroading has been a day of accomplishment and satisfaction. My role is really one of interpreter, to help railroaders understand the public, and the public to understand railroads."

A senior rail project manager with more than 26 years of project management, design and construction experience, Mark Martin adds value to design teams for all modes of transportation due to his experience encompassing railroad, transit, highway and street projects. He brings expertise and knowledge of materials and construction methods within various heavy rail, transit and highway environments. He is an engineering manager focused on designing and developing transportation systems to integrate rail, highway and/or aviation facilities with focus on passenger rail redevelopment.

Learn about Mark's work on the Tower 55 project in the Spring/Summer 2011 issue of Transportation Delivered.