American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC) of Colorado

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American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC) of Colorado As the state's engineering industry's voice, ACEC Colorado's mission is to advance a business environ

The values of ACEC Colorado are to:

- Advance the practice of consulting engineering
- Hold prominent the protection of the public safety and welfare
- Provide the means for furthering satisfactory business relations between members and clients
- Exchange business experiences
- Promote cordial relations among the members
- Improve the image of member firms and the Council
- Continuously improve the value of membership

Anyone who designs water, wastewater, transportation or land development projects on the Western Slope is working inside...
10/07/2026

Anyone who designs water, wastewater, transportation or land development projects on the Western Slope is working inside the Colorado River system, whether the drawings say so or not. That is why ACEC Colorado asked Amy Ostdiek, section chief at the Colorado Water Conservation Board, to open the featured presentations at the West Area Member Meeting in Glenwood Springs on Sept. 17.

Her topic was big river issues on the Colorado River, and she started where the story starts: the 1922 Colorado River Compact, the agreement that still frames how the river is shared more than a century later. From there she walked through the big river issues shaping the system today.

For engineers, the takeaway is that the river's condition sets the terms for supply planning, storage, conservation and the regulatory environment every project has to clear. Firms that understand where the hydrology and the interstate conversations are heading can advise clients earlier and design with fewer surprises. That is a competitive advantage, and it does not take a bigger staff to earn it.

The CWCB is one of the agencies ACEC Colorado meets with on a regular basis, alongside the State Engineer and the Mile High Flood District, so this conversation continues well beyond one afternoon in Glenwood Springs.

Thank you to Amy Ostdiek and the Colorado Water Conservation Board for a clear picture of a complicated river.

Members who want to stay close to these issues can join the ACEC Colorado Water Resources & Environment Forum, open to all employees of member firms: https://vist.ly/5mg96

Seats are still open in the 2026-27 ACEC Colorado Leadership Series, and regular sessions start Oct. 21 at the Denver Te...
10/06/2026

Seats are still open in the 2026-27 ACEC Colorado Leadership Series, and regular sessions start Oct. 21 at the Denver Tech Center.

The 2026-27 program runs six in-person sessions from October through April, designed for emerging and midlevel professionals, with up to 38 professional development hours available. Participants spend the program with peers from other firms, which means they come back with a network as well as a notebook.

If you meant to send someone this fall and the season got away from you, there is still time. Pick the engineer who is ready to run a project but has never been shown how to lead one, and take a look at the details: https://vist.ly/5maxz

Every bill that touches infrastructure investment, project delivery, permitting or funding eventually lands on an engine...
10/02/2026

Every bill that touches infrastructure investment, project delivery, permitting or funding eventually lands on an engineer's desk as a scope, a schedule or a compliance line item. That is why the legislative outlook at the ACEC Colorado West Area Member Meeting on Sept. 17 drew a full room in Glenwood Springs.

ACEC Colorado contract lobbyist Katie Wolf of Wolf Strategies LLC moderated a 2026 review and 2027 preview with three officials who vote on these measures: state Rep. Elizabeth Velasco (District 57), state Sen. Dylan Roberts (District 8), who also serves as majority caucus chair, and Garfield County Commissioner Perry Will (District 2).

The conversation stayed practical. The panel covered measures tied to infrastructure investment, project delivery, permitting, funding programs and regulatory changes, and gave members a clear assessment of how the 2026 session turned out and what it means for engineering work in the months ahead. For a small or midsize firm, that kind of early read is the difference between planning around a change and scrambling to react to it.

This is what advocacy looks like when it is working. ACEC Colorado keeps a lobbyist at the Capitol, tracks the bills that affect member firms and puts legislators in the same room as the people who design Colorado's infrastructure. The West Area meeting brought that access to the Western Slope, where the projects, the water and the permitting questions are very much local.

Thank you to Rep. Velasco, Sen. Roberts and Commissioner Will for making the time, and to Katie Wolf for keeping the discussion pointed at what members need to know.

Want a read on 2027 before it reaches your projects? Follow ACEC Colorado's legislative updates and bring your questions to the next member meeting. https://vist.ly/5ks2d

Roughly 46 members made the trip to Glenwood Springs on Sept. 17 for the ACEC Colorado West Area Member Meeting & Recept...
10/01/2026

Roughly 46 members made the trip to Glenwood Springs on Sept. 17 for the ACEC Colorado West Area Member Meeting & Reception at the Hotel Colorado.

The program opened with a Colorado legislative outlook, a 2026 review and 2027 preview moderated by ACEC Colorado contract lobbyist Katie Wolf of Wolf Strategies LLC. State Rep. Elizabeth Velasco, state Sen. Dylan Roberts and Garfield County Commissioner Perry Will walked through the measures tied to infrastructure investment, project delivery, permitting, funding programs and regulatory changes, and what those outcomes mean for engineering work in the months ahead.

Water took the rest of the afternoon. Amy Ostdiek, section chief at the Colorado Water Conservation Board, covered the big river issues on the Colorado River. Tyler Benton, PE, of the Colorado Division of Water Resources presented on Colorado River administration and the challenges of a 2026 dry year. Stephen Foster, PE, of the Colorado River District laid out the emergency plan to backfill shortages at Green Mountain Reservoir.

ACEC Colorado Executive Director Heidi Gordon, CAE, and Vice President Brian Valentine, PE (Kimley-Horn & Associates), closed the program with the annual update and key 2026 accomplishments before everyone moved on to the reception.

A special thank you to West Area Director Ashley Moffatt, PE (Spheros Environmental), for her help planning the meeting. Area meetings work because members on the ground put in the time to make them worth attending.

If your firm does business on the Western Slope, this is your room. Watch for the next area meeting and bring a colleague who has not been before. Learn more about ACEC Colorado forums and committees: https://vist.ly/5kpda

The ACEC Colorado Transportation Forum met on Sept. 16 with about 20 in-person attendees and another 22 who joined onlin...
09/29/2026

The ACEC Colorado Transportation Forum met on Sept. 16 with about 20 in-person attendees and another 22 who joined online. Here's a quick rundown of what came out of it.

Katie Wolf of Wolf Strategies, LLC, ACEC Colorado's contract lobbyist, walked the group through the latest on ballot measures, candidate interviews for the state legislature and more.

We also welcomed the forum's FY27 co-chairs, Anthony Pisano, PE, vice president and sector manager at AtkinsRéalis, and Colleen Kirby Roberts, AICP, co-founder and principal of Peak Consulting Group LLC. Thanks to both for stepping up to lead.

ACEC Colorado and DBIA-RMR will be co-hosting "Progressive Design Build: Risk, Results & Relationships" on Tuesday, Oct. 6, from 9 to 11 a.m. at the ACEC Colorado office (7979 E. Tufts Ave., first-floor conference room, Denver). Keith Molenaar, Ph.D., dean of the College of Engineering & Applied Science at the University of Colorado Boulder, will cover the key findings from two recent ACEC Research Institute publications: Progressive Design-Build Recommendations for Owners & Teams on Effective Project Delivery (April 2026) and the PDB Implementation Final Report (June 2026). Attendees earn PDHs through RCEP for the education portion.

The Transportation Forum is open to all employees of member firms.

Register for the Oct. 6 session: https://vist.ly/5kdd2

Learn more about ACEC Colorado forums: https://vist.ly/5kde5

Don't forget, the 2026 Salary, Benefits & Business Practices Report is now available for order, with immediate digital d...
09/25/2026

Don't forget, the 2026 Salary, Benefits & Business Practices Report is now available for order, with immediate digital delivery.

If you're trying to keep good people, recruit new ones or figure out whether your pay and benefits still hold up in this market, this is the data to have. The report covers salaries, benefits and business practices across Colorado's consulting engineering industry. It also comes with an Excel supplement covering salaries and bonuses, so you can pull the data into your own analysis instead of pouring through a PDF.

Pricing: $559 for ACEC Colorado-member firms, $239 for member firms that participated in the survey and $949 for nonmembers. If your firm participated in this year's survey, email ACEC Colorado for your priority code before ordering.

Order your copy today: https://vist.ly/5jukm

Voting for the People's Choice Award is still open at awards.acec-co.org, and there is time left to make your pick befor...
09/22/2026

Voting for the People's Choice Award is still open at awards.acec-co.org, and there is time left to make your pick before it closes Oct. 4.

Most awards in the Engineering Excellence Awards program are decided by a judging panel. The People's Choice winner is chosen by popular vote. So the result depends on who takes a few minutes to weigh in.

That's worth thinking about this week. The people best placed to judge a project aren't always engineers. They're the city staff who managed it, the clients who funded it, the commuters who drive on it every morning and the neighbors who live next to it. The People's Choice Award is one of the few chances in this industry for those people to weigh in on the work that shapes their communities.

So when you share the voting link, think beyond your own team. Send it to the client contact who championed the project. Post it where your community partners will see it. Drop it in the group chat with the friends who still aren't sure what you do all day. Every verified vote counts the same, and a little sharing goes a long way toward getting this work in front of more people.

Now in its second year, the People's Choice Award is part of the 60th annual ACEC Colorado Engineering Excellence Awards. The entries come from teams across the state and span transportation, water, buildings, environmental work and more.

The project with the most verified votes will be recognized at the EEA Luncheon on Nov. 6 at the Hyatt Regency Denver Tech Center.

Take a look at the entries, cast your vote and pass it along: awards.acec-co.org

Thank you to Peter Marxhausen, MS, PE, Senior Instructor, Department of Engineering and Construction at University of Co...
09/17/2026

Thank you to Peter Marxhausen, MS, PE, Senior Instructor, Department of Engineering and Construction at University of Colorado Denver and Anthony Pratt, Mobility Planning & Design Practice Builder at Kimley-Horn for teaching future engineers the importance of Qualifications Based Selection (https://vist.ly/5iw8e).

One week left to enroll before ACEC Colorado's Leadership Series begins Sept 24.Every one dollar invested in leadership ...
09/17/2026

One week left to enroll before ACEC Colorado's Leadership Series begins Sept 24.

Every one dollar invested in leadership development returns an average of $7 in business impact, according to industry research. The return on investment is worth it.

Last call for seats: https://vist.ly/5iw7c

The People's Choice Award is live. Voting is open right now at awards.acec-co.org.Every other award in the Engineering E...
09/15/2026

The People's Choice Award is live. Voting is open right now at awards.acec-co.org.

Every other award in the Engineering Excellence Awards program gets evaluated by a panel of judges. This one is different. The People's Choice winner is selected entirely by popular vote, and every vote carries the same weight whether you are a firm principal, a project engineer or someone in the community who benefits from the work these teams do.

Now in its second year, the People's Choice Award is part of the 60th annual ACEC Colorado Engineering Excellence Awards. The entries represent some of the strongest project work happening across the state, from transportation and water infrastructure to buildings, environmental solutions and everything in between. These are the projects that solve problems people actually deal with every day.

Here is what makes this worth a few minutes of your time: you get to look at work your peers are doing across Colorado and weigh in on what stands out. Not based on technical scoring criteria. Based on what hits you as innovative, impactful or just plain impressive.

The project with the most verified votes will be recognized at the EEA Luncheon on Nov. 6 at the Hyatt Regency Denver Tech Center.

Browse the entries. Pick one. Share the link with your colleagues and your networks so more people across the industry can weigh in.

Cast your vote at awards.acec-co.org.

Address

7979 E. Tufts Avenue, Ste. 230
Denver, CO
80237

Opening Hours

Monday 7:30am - 5:30pm
Tuesday 7:30am - 5:30pm
Wednesday 7:30am - 5:30pm
Thursday 7:30am - 5:30pm
Friday 8am - 12pm

Telephone

(303) 832-2200

Website

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