Embracing the Future of Freight and Logistics

Seaports are the unsung heroes of global trade, ensuring the seamless flow of food, fuel, and supplies essential to our daily lives. Our port and maritime experts have mastered the world’s most intricate programs, combining global insights with local expertise to navigate the complexities of maritime infrastructure. 

Whether your journey includes keeping pace with capacity building and accelerating technology, ensuring safety and security or maintaining networks, we’re on board to serve all aspects of high‐speed and conventional passenger rail, freight and logistics, mass/public transit and innovative bus solutions. 

Roads and bridges are more than structures; they're lifelines connecting communities and fostering economic growth. From roads and railways to rivers and sea straits, we’re building the infrastructure of tomorrow, creating pathways for social change and development. 

We work to ensure the seamless operation of ports and container terminals by managing the movement of goods, coordinating logistics, and optimizing traffic flow. We provide market and feasibility studies, simulations, design, and comprehensive program management across all engineering disciplines. With our expertise, we streamline port operations, enhance efficiency, and support the global supply chain, ensuring goods move swiftly and safely from origin to destination. 

Our portfolio of port and maritime services includes planning, engineering design, scheduling, cost estimating, construction support, maintenance and rehabilitation planning, program management, and technical support. We have successfully completed feasibility studies, assisted clients in locating financing, and designing and constructing port facilities from small boat piers to the some of the largest container, cargo, and cruise terminals in the world. We have helped our clients achieve their goals of cost-effectiveness, efficiency, safety, flexibility, and operational efficiency and sustainability. 

Locally, we have established and maintained a long and successful presence in the Greater Houston area and State of Texas providing engineering design services to private and public marine clients. Our relationship with the Port of Houston Authority (Port Houston) spans more than 20 years, bringing a team with unmatched, direct site experience and distinctive insight into the Bayport and Barbours Cut Container Terminals. We provide innovative, practical, and sustainable solutions through a proven approach that delivers technically excellent, biddable, and constructible projects, helping our marine clients develop and manage infrastructure and facilities that improve efficiency, safety, and quality of life.

Our freight intermodal operations streamline the transportation of goods using multiple modes—rail, ship, and truck—without handling the freight itself during transitions. We offer a full spectrum of freight services, from planning and operations to logistics, based in the unique operational requirements of intermodal systems.

Our services stand out due to our advanced digital capabilities, commitment to sustainability and resilience, local stakeholder engagement, and extensive project and design management experience. We ensure efficient, seamless, and sustainable freight movement, enhancing the global supply chain. Jacobs has delivered rail master planning and intermodal railway facility development services, from equipment selection to design and construction, at ports throughout the world. Our familiarity with the unique operational requirements of intermodal railway and trucking facilities, and their compatibility with port infrastructure and operations, enables us to develop efficient, economical, and appropriate designs for our clients.

Our Right of Way (ROW) survey and analysis ensures legal compliance and assesses the impact on property owners and the public for various infrastructure projects. This process includes surveying, mapping, and land valuation. By integrating infrastructure failure mode analysis, connectivity system development, and expertise in infrastructure and bridge health monitoring, we empower clients to make informed decisions.

A ROW survey involves a detailed examination and mapping of lands designated for public or private infrastructure projects. It determines exact boundaries and dimensions to avoid disputes and ensure proper land use. Our comprehensive approach considers all business aspects—from identifying critical areas to developing action plans and monitoring progress. We offer a unique blend of advisory, engineering expertise, local knowledge, and global capabilities, resulting in more efficient and cost-effective projects.

Through traffic analysis, we evaluate vehicle flow on road networks to optimize transportation system design and operation. It involves studying current traffic patterns, predicting future volumes, and assessing the impact of new developments or changes such as reducing truck traffic on roadways. Our state-of-the-art technologies and intelligent transportation systems are designed to reduce accidents, enhance road safety, and protect lives. 

Using StreetLight InSight®, our big data web platform, we measure real time and historical vehicular traffic to help transportation providers make better decisions. This enriched data provides unique insights, from pinpointing EV charger deployment to identifying road safety hotspots and diagnosing infrastructure needs for equitable access.

From real-time traffic monitoring to automated safety alerts, we provide comprehensive solutions that keep drivers informed and secure, ensuring every journey is a safer one. Our innovative solutions deliver cost and schedule savings, backed by a talented team of experts. 

Our analysis determines the load-carrying capacity of bridges, ensuring they can safely handle expected traffic volumes and vehicle types as well as impacts based on changes to loading. This is crucial for maintaining the integrity and safety of bridge structures. Leveraging our technical expertise and recent project experience in structural assessments, such as the Arlington Avenue Bridges project, we save clients time and money. 

We also integrate data and security measures to ensure critical infrastructure remains resilient for the future. 

Our bridge engineering and design solutions involve planning and creating structures that balance aesthetics, functionality, and environmental considerations to meet all safety, regulatory, and client requirements. We design all bridge types including suspension, cable-stayed, arch, truss, girder, segmental, and movable bridges. Our projects often receive public and peer recognition for innovative design and engineering, and client recognition for delivering cost and schedule savings. 

We offer specialized design and technology services across various fields, leveraging advanced design, engineering, program management, and urban and transportation planning expertise. , Our services include bridge replacements, bridge strengthening, bridge widening, bridge inspections and ratings, feasibility studies, constructability reviews, cost estimations and value engineering. Our bridge team has planned, procured, designed, and delivered some of the world's most prestigious and technically demanding structures, including the Ohio River Bridges East End Crossing and the Brent Spence Bridge Corridor projects. 

Our roadway engineering and design services encompass everything from initial concept to final construction, ensuring roads are safe, efficient, and environmentally sound. Locally, we’ve designed several Houston roadway projects including the Port Road Expansion Project, Grand Parkway GEC Project, and the North Houston Highway Improvement Project Segment 2. Our comprehensive solutions and innovative approaches address complex challenges, while focusing on innovation and reliability. 

We combine cutting-edge technology with sustainable practices to address capacity needs based on truck volume, access, and loading. Our Houston-based team supports TxDOT, stakeholders, and the community with a number of project services including engineering consulting (CEC and GEC); planning, specifications, and estimates (PS&E), schematic/environmental (S/E); and construction, engineering, and inspection (CEI).  From planning to design to construction, we pave the way for connections that meet today’s demands and anticipate tomorrow’s needs

Designing elevated guideways involves developing alignments that meet operational and cost effectiveness requirements for rail systems. Our services focus on creating elevated guideways with careful planning to ensure structural integrity and minimal environmental impact. This includes ensuring speed and configuration while minimizing impacts on adjacent facilities, utilities, and environmental areas during the implementation of the guideway structural system. 

What sets our elevated guideway engineering design apart is our global design capability and full-service approach. We offer comprehensive solutions from design and construction to operation, leveraging our multidisciplinary expertise to deliver exceptional results.

Systems engineering for signals and communications involves designing and integrating complex transportation systems to ensure seamless operation of traffic signals, communication networks, and other components. Using StreetLight InSight®, our big data web platform, we measure historical vehicle, transit, bike, and foot traffic to help transportation agencies and consulting firms make better decisions. This enriched data provides unique insights, from pinpointing EV charger deployment to identifying road safety hotspots and diagnosing infrastructure needs for equitable access.

Our tunnel engineering and design services involve specialized planning and construction, requiring expertise in geotechnical engineering, structural design, and safety systems to ensure tunnels are safe and durable. With decades of experience and countless projects delivered safely worldwide, we manage and mitigate ground risk across various markets, including transportation, water, environmental, energy, and cities & places.

With nearly 900 tunnel and ground engineers worldwide, we are one of the largest global providers of such services. We work across a range of primary disciplines including tunnel engineering, geotechnical engineering, geosciences and engineering geology, trenchless engineering, and tunnel fire and life safety engineering. Our tunnel engineering team includes world-leading subject matter experts in all of these disciplines, giving us industry-leading expertise across a full range of services - from feasibility studies and investigations, through preliminary and detailed designs, to construction management and asset management services.  Our portfolio features iconic projects like the U.K.'s Thames Tideway, Sydney Metro’s West Central Tunnels, the U.S.'s California High Speed Rail, Singapore’s Deep Tunnel Sewerage System, and New Zealand’s Central Interceptor.

Managing and resolving utility and civil infrastructure issues ensure that utility lines such as electricity, gas, water, and telecommunications are properly designed, relocated, or modified to avoid conflicts with transportation projects during construction, thereby preventing delays and additional costs. Integrated planning and coordination ensures seamless and efficient infrastructure development, minimizing risks and preventing costly damage and retrofits. 

Aligning these services with transportation projects fosters sustainability, enhances public safety and convenience, and leads to significant cost savings. Our sustainable business model, PlanBeyond 2.0, and our social value and equity solutions, demonstrate how aligning infrastructure with societal goals can improve quality of life and drive economic growth. By integrating these services, we create functional, sustainable, and connected urban environments.

Designing facilities for trucking operations involves the logistics of accommodating truck movements, berthing, unloading, as well as fueling and light maintenance. Designing facilities for truck drivers involves several key considerations to ensure safety, efficiency, and comfort, including a welcoming place where drivers can rest and relax with their fellow drivers. Amenities should include Wi-Fi, showers, a dedicated driver lounge, workout rooms, laundry, retail, and truck maintenance shops.  Our experience includes projects with TxDOT, Amazon, and related delivery / distribution centers. We’ve also designed maintenance facilities for our clients’ service vehicles and buses and understand the requirements of crew, operator, and maintenance staff.