One of the largest water and environmental engineering firms says demand in its core markets is still growing. Tetra Tech reported fiscal third-quarter results on July 29 and raised its full-year guidance. Net revenue grew 8 percent from a year earlier, setting aside the wound-down USAID and State Department contracts and disaster-response work, and both the U.S. federal and international markets grew at double-digit rates. Backlog rose about 5 percent from the prior quarter, to roughly $4.5 billion, and new orders in the quarter included commercial work for data centers and sediment-restoration projects. The firm lifted its full-year adjusted earnings guidance to a range of $1.56 to $1.59 a share and set net revenue guidance around $4.34 billion.
Source: Tetra Tech fiscal Q3 2026 results (SEC Form 8-K), July 29
POLICY A state agency revived a dormant rule and split work engineers used to sign alone. Washington’s Department of Ecology told consultants this month that it will now require a licensed geologist, not only a professional engineer, to sign the hydrogeologic analyses behind water-right changes and new wells. The agency is enforcing a 2002 rule that sat unused for more than two decades. One engineer put the effect plainly: “You’d basically need two consultants instead of one.” The story is a reminder that the line between engineering and geology on groundwater work is a licensure question as much as a technical one, and that a rule can sit dormant for years and then be enforced without warning. It rhymes with the Plumbing Board fight over where the plumbing code stops and civil site design begins.
Source: Capital Press, July 29
WORKFORCE MnDOT’s Duluth district has a new leader. Duane Hill, the District 1 engineer since 2012 and a 35-year MnDOT veteran, is retiring, and Andy Johnson stepped into the district engineer role on July 15. District 1 covers northeastern Minnesota, including the Duluth area and the Iron Range, and Hill’s tenure spanned owner-side work on the Twin Ports Interchange and the Blatnik Bridge replacement.
Source: Fox 21 (Duluth), July 2026
BIZ The economy slowed last quarter. The government’s first estimate, released July 30, put second-quarter growth at a 1.5 percent annual rate, down from 2.1 percent in the first quarter. Consumer spending rebounded to 3.2 percent, and business investment stayed strong at 8.4 percent, driven largely by spending on artificial intelligence and the data centers behind it. Inflation is still running above target, with the Federal Reserve’s preferred gauge at 3.7 percent, and the Fed held its benchmark rate for a fifth straight meeting while three of its regional presidents pushed to raise.
Source: Associated Press, July 30
BIZ A large engineering firm is expanding its office footprint in a Midwest market, and data centers are the reason. Burns & McDonnell signed a lease for about 32,000 square feet on two floors of a downtown Columbus tower, up from the 9,000 square feet it took in 2018, with more than 150 employees to be based there. A company executive tied the move to expanding capacity in the region, and the firm points to its large presence in the data-center sector.
Source: Columbus Business First, July 28
BIZ Arcadis rejected WSP’s revised takeover bid and pointed to its own record backlog. On July 30 Arcadis reported second-quarter results and its boards unanimously rejected a revised, unsolicited offer from WSP Global of €51.50 a share, roughly half cash and half WSP stock, up from an earlier €48.50 proposal. Arcadis said the bid undervalues the company and that the large stock component would bring higher leverage and a lower dividend yield, and it is backing its standalone plan behind a record €4.0 billion order backlog, 2.2 percent organic growth in the quarter, and new targets for 2027 through 2029. Watch whether WSP walks away or comes back with a higher or hostile bid.
Sources: Arcadis rejection of WSP’s second proposal, July 30; Arcadis Q2 and half-year 2026 results, July 30
Build your bench: ACEC Minnesota’s Leadership Development Series for mid-career professionals runs September 2026 through April 2027 in a 24-person cohort, and the four-session Emerging Leaders program for early-career staff runs this October and November.
The (Almost) Daily Brief publishes most weekdays: policy, funding, workforce, and industry news for Minnesota’s engineering firms, in a few minutes of reading.
