866-217-7794

Discuss Your Project
TGB Group

Tag: design

  • TGB Group Sponsors Golf Fundraiser Event

    TGB Group Sponsors Golf Fundraiser Event

    Nearly 200 Rail Industry Golfers Participated

    For the fifth consecutive year, TGB Groups has helped to sponsor the annual golf fundraiser held by the Southwest Association of Rail Shippers (SWARS). This year’s event happened at the Trails of The Woodlands club in The Woodlands, Texas.

    The October 2, 2020 golf fundraiser event was attended by 196 golfers from companies associated with the rail industry.

    TGB group sponsored the 7th hole on the Oaks Course, one of two courses at the Trails of The Woodlands. For this hole, the winner would be the golfer who could hit the longest drive. That honor went to Mark Dearing, owner of Vertex Builders.

    Other incentives at the SWARS golf fundraiser included the longest putt, the closest approach shot and a $10,000 hole-in-one challenge.

    Golf fundraiser benefits a scholarship fund

    As in years past, the golfing event raised money for the George Elking, Jr. Scholarship Fund.

    Elking is known within the rail industry, having served as SWARS president in 1995 and then as president of the North American Association of Rail Shippers in 1998.

    TGB Group is always excited to play in the golf fundraiser event and help support the Elking scholarship. Our employs have participated for the past 15 years, and we’ve been a proud hole sponsor since 2016.

    The large turnout of nearly 200 golfers shows the unity of many companies within the rail industry. We’re like a brotherhood – and sisterhood – who have built multiple industry connections and always enjoy getting reacquainted with the folks who make railroads run.

    SWARS meetings

    The golfing event fundraisers are held twice a year, always in conjunction with official SWARS meetings. We encourage individuals and companies in the rail industry to be part of the meetings, where critical information is discussed and to get involved in the golf fundraiser as a player or sponsor, where a good time is always guaranteed.

    Here’s a recap of our last SWARS golfing event.

  • TGB Group Receives 2020 Best of Spring Award

    TGB Group Receives 2020 Best of Spring Award

    Best of Spring Award Program recognizes businesses in the Spring, Texas, area

    The Spring Award Program (SAP) in June 2020 selected the TGB Group for the 2020 Best of Spring Award in the Civil Engineering and Consulting Company category.

    This is our second year in a row to receive the award, which showcases companies that have demonstrated success in their marketing efforts within the local Spring, Texas, community and among other nominees in their business categories.

    About the 2020 Best of Spring Award, the SAP says, “These are local companies that enhance the positive image of small business through service to their customers and our community. These exceptional companies help make the Spring area a great place to live, work and play.”

    The Program committee considers a variety of data to select the companies they recognize with an annual Best of Spring Award.  Some of the data is collected internally while other data is received from third parties.

    The entire TGB team is very proud to receive the 2020 Best of Spring Award.  We enjoy being honored for all the hard work we’ve put in to growing our business.  Even more important than awards, however, is the fact that our efforts in building our company result in an ever-increasing quality of service to our clients.

    About the 2020 Best of Spring Award Program

    The Spring Award Program is an annual awards program designed to honor the accomplishments of local businesses throughout the Spring area. Recognition is given to companies that have used their best practices and implemented programs to create competitive advantages and long-term value within their markets.

    The Program works exclusively with local business owners, trade groups, professional associations and other business advertising and marketing groups. The mission is to recognize the small business community’s contributions to the larger U.S. economy.

    TGB Group also received the 2020 Topeka Award in June!

  • Railcar Storage Yard Development Project

    Railcar Storage Yard Development Project

    TGB providing design services to Texas Gonzales & Northern Railway

    Texas Gonzales & Northern Railway (TXGN) has again selected TGB Group for design services in support of its railcar storage yard development project that will add capacity to its already sizeable yard in Gonzales, Texas.

    We’re proud of our long-term relationship with TXGN and are honored to have been chosen to bring our cutting-edge services to this exciting railcar storage yard development effort.  Our team will provide survey, design and construction oversight activities for a new yard expansion that will give TXGN an additional 400 car spots for a new client they recently secured.

    TGB Group’s bottom-line objective here is to create greater efficiency and cost savings for TXGN.  We’re partnering with Shackelford Construction & Hauling, LLC of Yazoo City, Miss., to operate the project as a design build.

    Texas Gonzales & Northern Railway tasked TGB with providing a plan to complete the railcar storage yard development expansion in a very short window, something we’re quite familiar with.  We will be feeding up-to-date design specifications to Shackelford each week in order to speed up the process.  This will allow construction to start with minimal design work completed and continue quickly, cutting more than 45 days from a traditional timeline.

    TXGN railcar storage yard development project specs

    • More than 30,000 feet of track
    • 19 turnouts
    • Access roadways
    • Drainage for the entire site
    • Existing drainage improvements
    • Creation of a master plan for additional adjacent yard tracks that TXGN can add later

    About TXGN

    Texas Gonzales & Northern Railway has been providing rail transport, storage and operations for companies in the heartland of Texas since 1992. Located midway between Gonzales and Harwood, off U.S. 1-10, TXGN owns and/or manages 13 miles of lead track, and approximately 61 miles of storage and loop track. TXGN interchanges with the Union Pacific Railroad and handles several thousand cars carrying energy-related products: grain and animal feed meals, clay/bentonite and raw and finished heavy metal products.

    To learn more about our railcar storage yard development project for TXGN, please contact:

    Mike Murphy, president, TGB Group: (866) 217-7794

  • Survey, Design and Construction for Sugar Land Rail Facility

    Survey, Design and Construction for Sugar Land Rail Facility

    TGB Instrumental in Accredo Packaging Expansion

    TGB Group provided professional survey, design and construction services for the expansion of the Accredo Packaging North American production facility in Sugar Land, Texas.  The latest in three phases of expansion was completed in the first quarter of 2020 and provided Accredo with nearly three times more operational space.

    Highlights of the survey, design and construction expansion project include:

    • Total facility space upon completion: 550,000 square feet, which is nearly almost three times the original size
    • 165,000 additional square feet of warehouse and office space
    • 35,840 square feet of new manufacturing space
    • Work included adding a 4,000-amp underground power supply
    • Two 500t air-cooled chillers were added to serve production equipment
    • Two new rail spurs
    • 1,825 additional feet of railroad track along with a crossover and drainage accommodation

    New survey, design and construction increases capacity and creates jobs

    The expansion project will give Accredo a significant capacity increase for bag and pouch making, adhesive lamination projects and flexographic printing.  Annual flexible film production was increased to 2 billion feet from 1.5 billion feet.

    Along with greater production at its Sugar Land facility, which opened in 2009, the expansion work resulted in 175 new jobs in the area, bringing the number of Accredo employees up to 525 from 350 before the project began.

    TGB Group partnered with Railworks for much of the survey, design and construction services on this project, which supported Kingham Dalton Wilson, which oversaw the design and construction of a new building located to the south of the existing facility.

    About Accredo Packaging

    With headquarters in Sugar Land, Texas, Accredo Packaging brings packaging solutions that are both innovative and sustainable to a number of multinational corporations and specialty brands.  The firm is a member of the Houston Minority Supplier Development Council.

    Products produced by Accredo include wicketed bags, pouches and bundling; cotextured films; overwrap film; laminated barrier film rollstock and more.

    To learn more about TGB Group’s survey, design and construction services for the Accredo Sugar Land facility expansion, please contact:

    Mike Murphy, president, TGB Group: (866) 217-7794

  • BBB Gold Star Certificate from Houston Better Business Bureau

    BBB Gold Star Certificate from Houston Better Business Bureau

    The BBB is one of the many ways we connect with our community

    TGB Group has received a 2020 BBB Gold Star Certificate from the Better Business Bureau of Greater Houston and South Texas.  We learned about this honor in April 2020.

    BBB membership is one of the many ways we stay connected with our community and is an opportunity for our community to stay connected with us.  There are Better Business Bureaus throughout the United States, and each one is in place to showcase businesses and companies in its area that perform to the highest ethical and professional standards.

    We’re proud to be recognized with the BBB Gold Star Certificate.  While our membership with the Houston BBB is just one of many memberships we hold, it’s important to us, because many consumers (including our future customers) consider it important that a company be in good standing with their local bureau.

    Along with the BBB Gold Star Certificate, we maintain an A+ rating with the Houston BBB and have received 5 stars on each of our customer reviews through the bureau.

    More important than a BBB Gold Star Certificate and other awards

    It’s always nice to be recognized by organizations and agencies for a job well done.  But at TGB Group, the most important recognition comes from our customers, the people we serve and help to grow and expand their operations.  Without satisfied customers on your side, you really don’t have a business.

    Since we launched our company three years ago, certain elements have been in place to guide us in all our work.  They include:

    • Integrity
    • Honesty
    • Hard work
    • Industry expertise
    • Clear communication
    • Customer-first approach
    • On-time delivery of services

    The way we see it, when the owners of a business set the standard for everyone in the company, when they hold employees – and themselves – to these standards, things just run more smoothly and client satisfaction is guaranteed to be high.

    If you’re interested in hiring the TGB team for your next engineering or design project, give us a call at (866) 217-7794 and tell us what you want to accomplish.

  • Importance of a Feasibility Study

    Importance of a Feasibility Study

    How TGB Group helps its clients by working through all the details of a civil design/engineering project

    Of all the parts and parcels of a civil design or engineering project, the feasibility study may be the most critical.  Like the old saying, “Failure to plan is planning to fail.”  A quality feasibility study early in the planning stages allows you to address the major concerns that will be involved in doing the project and operating with it afterwards.

    When the TGB Group team performs a feasibility study for our clients, we customize each area to our clients’ and the project’s specific needs.  General areas we cover include the following.

    Feasibility study components

    Market impact

    In the very earliest stages, company leaders must forecast the viability of a project in terms of how it will be accepted in the market and the impact it will have on competitors and sales.  A detailed feasibility study covering market impact projections is critical for every new project.

    Technical assessment

    Once we determine that the business idea is sound, we want to ensure that the civil and structural engineering aspects as well as design are capable of being executed in a way that supports the project throughout all its stages.

    Management

    We evaluate project management capabilities to confirm that the project will be overseen with the expertise necessary to make it successful.

    Financial feasibility study

    Paying for the many services required to complete a project is a paramount concern.  We want to investigate and determine that the client will be able to secure the necessary funding to see the project through to completion.

    Economic concerns

    The economic part of a feasibility study looks at the potential economic benefits and losses that could result if the project is developed and completed as planned.

    Cultural impact

    Part of a quality feasibility assessment is considering the impact of the project on the local community and culture.  Many problems can be alleviated by knowing what these impacts may be during the building phase and after the project is finished.

    Safety

    Safety assessments look at the wide range of possible environmental influences the project will create.  It’s important for our clients to see the “bigger picture” in this area so alterations to certain aspects of the project, if deemed necessary, can be made early.

    Permitting

    Every project requires a number of permits, licenses and approvals.  A feasibility study should determine which of these will be required, how they will be secured and who will be responsible for securing them.

    As noted, every feasibility study is unique, so the above elements are simply a general guide.  The bottom line is we want to make your project as smooth and predictable as possible from the earliest planning stages to the day you open for business.

  • 2020 TSLRRA Annual Meeting

    TSLRRA Annual Meeting in Dallas

    2020 TSLRRA Annual Meeting

    An opportunity to network and help support this important organization

    TGB Group was excited to attend and sponsor the TSLRRA Annual Meeting Jan. 23-25, 2020 at the Beeman Hotel in Dallas. We’ve been a member of the Texas Short Line & Regional Railroad Association for three years and have always considered it an important part of our professional lives.

    Among its many other activities, the TSLRRA provides us with vital details about current short line rail news on local and legislative levels.

    Why we attend the TSLRRA Annual Meeting

    It’s important for us to support an organization like TSLRRA as they continue their outreach to help smaller “mom and pop” railroads.  The annual meeting is one of the ways they do it, and every year the event includes the opportunity to network with others in the railroad industry and hear informative talks from leading speakers.

    This year’s TSLRRA Annual Meeting featured guest speaker Ed Emmett, a former Harris County Judge and Texas Department of Transportation Freight Advisory Committee member.

    Because of their smaller size, short line railroads often are overlooked, yet they’re quite important for the farms and factories that connect with large shipping concerns and exporters. Past TSLRRA Annual Meeting/luncheon events have provided us with information regarding heavy regulatory initiatives, which can stand in the way of economic growth and Austin short line tax credit.

    Short line associations are pushing Congress to make a tax credit permanent to help short lines improve infrastructure. modal equity and the benefits of membership through growth.

    About TSLRRA

    The Texas Short Line & Regional Railroad Association is a nonprofit professional organization representing the interests of the more than 40 short line railroads and industry related businesses in Texas.

    Established in 2003, TSLRRA’s purpose has been to promote the state’s economy, champion public safety issues and partner with local governments and organizations to enhance the transportation infrastructure and bring new jobs and prosperity to Texas communities. Learn more about the Texas Short Line & Regional Railroad Association.

  • Why Community Responsibility Is So Important | Doing Our Part

    Why Community Responsibility Is So Important | Doing Our Part

    Here are some of the ways we’re giving back

    From helping to feed the hungry to raising funds for St. Jude Children’s Hospital to supporting scholarship programs for deserving students, a big part of the TGB Group culture is acting with compassion to build support for many different causes in and around our community. We think of it as our community responsibility.

    Why we take community responsibility seriously

    Helping to making a difference in whatever ways we can is one of our missions. Because we care about our communities and the people who live in them, giving back is important to us. Here are some of our current areas of focus.

    Meals on Wheels, Montgomery County

    community responsibility with Meals on Wheels

    TGB Group donates funds to Montgomery County Meals on Wheels and is constructing Turkey Day treat bags for seniors. The programs operated through Meals on Wheels are vital to our older neighbors. A meal delivered by a friendly face means that seniors are not only getting the nutrition they need but a social visit they require to maintain a healthy balance in their lives.

    Harvesters Community Food Network

    community responsibility with Harversters

    Another part of our community responsibility is donating to the Harvesters Community Food Network, which provides kids in our area with healthy groceries.

    Montgomery County Association of Business Women Foundation (MCABW)

    Through donations, MCABW focuses on giving back to the community by awarding scholarships to high school seniors and supporting other local causes.

    Southwest Association of Rail Shippers (SWARS)

    TGB Group does a lot of work in the rail industry, so we make it a point to support the SWARS scholarship fund.

    St. Jude Children’s Hospital

    community responsibility with St. Jude

    An exciting part of fulfilling our community responsibility has been supporting the St. Jude Humana Rock N Roll Series fundraising event in San Antonio. It’s a 5K run happening on December 7, 2019 to raise money for pediatric cancer research.

    West Texas Food Bank

    community responsibility with West Texas Food Bank

    The final organization we support that we want to mention here is the West Texas Food Bank. This group is committed to serving the needs of children, families and seniors who struggle with hunger.

    All of us have the opportunity to give back a little – or a lot – to local and national causes that are important to us. It’s community responsibility that makes our world a better place.

  • TGB Group Attends Logistics Development Forum

    TGB Group Attends Logistics Development Forum

    Event focused on site-selection and supply chain priorities

    Our president, Mike Murphy, recently attended a Logistics Development Forum event in Vail, Colo., that focused on helping leaders in the trade and economic development industries learn more about site selection and supply chain management priorities.

    TGB Group also was a sponsor for the golf event connected to the forum, which was held August 5-7 at Sonnenalp Hotel in Vail.

    Highlights of the Logistics Development Forum

    One of the key functions of the 2019 Logistics Development Forum was to give economic developers and site consultants the opportunity to share information on the many elements involved in determining the optimal location for manufacturing distribution centers and warehouse operations.

    Attendees participated in individual meetings, took part in educational sessions and built valuable networking relationships with industry peers.

    On the Logistics Development Forum Program Overview page for the upcoming 2020 edition of the event, advantages of attending this forum are explained and include:

    • The chance to hear industry experts speak about logistics-intensive projects
    • Special sessions focused on the role of logistics in deciding on the location of a new site
    • It’s the only conference that deals with the importance of the site-selection process and supply chain
    • An excellent way to forge partnerships and build relationships with other industry professionals

    Mike and the rest of the TGB Group team reserve time throughout every year to attend and sponsor these types of events.  Meeting and talking with experts in our industry helps us to keep abreast of the latest developments and advanced techniques, which in turn allows us to continue to deliver superior results to our clients.

    Other conferences on our schedule

    In addition to the Logistics Development Forum, our representatives also will attend the following 2019 conferences:

    SWARS (Southwest Association of Rail Shippers) in Phoenix

    AREMA (American Railway Engineering and Maintenance-of-Way Association) in Minneapolis, Minn.

    TEDC Annual Conference (Texas Economic Development Council) in San Antonio, Texas

  • TGB Group Again Named a Top 10 Railroad Engineering Services Company

    TGB Group Again Named a Top 10 Railroad Engineering Services Company

    Honor given for second consecutive year by Commtrex, managers of a leading rail services company directory

    Commtrex, creators of a popular online Rail Services Directory, has for the second year in a row named TGB Group as a top-10 railroad engineering services company.  The announcement was formally made in September 2019 on Commtrex.com.

    Our entire team is proud of this honor, because it tells us we’re doing things right and providing the quality railroad engineering services that help our clients meet and exceed their construction and expansion goals.

    This year’s Top 10 Railroad Engineering Services Company award went to leading engineering firms across the USA in places like Matthews, N.C., Brentwood, Tenn., Louisville, Ken., Greely, Colo., and Beaumont and Houston, Texas.

    We thought it was interesting that three Texas-based railroad engineering services companies made the list – the most from any state.  But it’s not surprising: Texans have always been known for doing jobs right.

    About Commtrex

    railroad engineering services company award 2018

    Commtrex is the only open online marketplace serving the U.S. and Canadian rail industries.  The company provides its extensive directory as well as a forum where rail cars can be bought, sold and leased.

    The Commtrex directory is a central place where project managers and business developers throughout the country can search for just the right railroad engineering services company for their project.

    Winning this award and being aligned with Commtrex will only be a step in the right direction for TGB Group as we continue to streamline our services and add to our expertise.  Our listing on Commtrex.com notes our affiliation with BNSF and Union Pacific railroads and our expertise in engineering track design, track construction services and track design services.  We consider that excellent publicity!

    We’re proud to be a railroad engineering services company right here in Texas

    As a Texas-based railroad engineering services company, we strive to bring positive benefits to all the neighboring communities where we work.  We believe that positive business dealings and exceptional results can help communities grow and prosper.  We’re committed to doing our part to serve the great state of Texas and other great states throughout the country.