CEO, Jerrod Crosby of Wooster and Associates

Jerrod Crosby is a lifelong civil engineer. Passionate about design and infrastructure, Jerrod is leading the next phase of innovation at Wooster and Associates, a company he’s been apart from for over 20 years. As Wooster and Assocaites expands, it is the unwavering integrity and straightforward solutions that Jerrod and his team bring forth to every project, large or small.

Episode Transcript

(00:05):
Hey, welcome man. This isthe CEOs You Should Know podcast. I'm
your host, Johnny Hartwell, let'ssay hello to Jared Crosby. Thank you
for joining me. Hello Johnny,thanks for having me on today. So
tell us everything we need to knowabout Worcester and Associates. Wooster and Associates
is a traffic consulting engineering firm herein the Pittsburgh area. We've been around

(00:25):
for fifty years where the leader inthe industry. We do focus work on
land development projects, building convenience orgas stations, residential homes, and providing
all the engineering services to go towardsthose projects. Is there any projects that
we would recognize here in Pittsburgh?Oh? Yeah. We did the Bakery

(00:46):
Square project, which was a bigone for us. We did the McCanles
crossing project, which was a goodjob. We do a lot of work
around here. Generally, if you'redriving through the area, you're driving through
some work that we've done. Sothere's a lot of Bakery Square. That's
an amazing it's a big one.Yeah. So when somebody asked you to

(01:07):
do something, how does it start? Well, what will happen as a
client or a landowner will start aland development project, and with the land
development project there is a lot ofengineering that goes into the background. Our
specialty for the last fifty years hasbeen the traffic end of that. We
have to do traffic analyses and wehave to do basically, we find out

(01:29):
what the impacts of that development aregoing to be and how to keep the
flow of traffic moving and service thatnew store while servicing and creating a safe
roadway for the community in which thatdevelopment. What does it mean? What
do you do? What do youfacilitate exactly? Well, what we do
is we'll go out and we dowhat it's called traffic counts. We figure
out how many cars are out thereand what they're doing and where they're coming

(01:53):
from, where they're going. Wetake the development that's coming in, whether
it's a bakery square that has restaurantsin retail, and we project out how
many cars are going to go there, and then that tells us do you
need traffic signals, do you needleft turn lanes, do you need right
turn lanes. It's their highway impacts, it's their bike lanes. So we

(02:15):
go ahead. Once we know whatthose answers are, we design it.
We go through the permitting process throughPenot, City of Pittsburgh, Allighanton County,
just depending on where we are,get the approvals, work with contractors,
get it built and move on tothe next one. How many people

(02:36):
understand exactly what you do? Probablynot many? Not many are The traffic
engineering world and land development world issmall, and we're I would say that
in the area Tri state area,we're in pa Ohio, West Virginia,
we're definitely the leading experts in theindustry. What makes you an expert experience

(02:59):
our staff, I mean we've beenaround again for fifty years, so our
engineering staff level we have probably withour six pes in the office, we
probably have over one hundred and twentyyears of experience in traffic and highway design.
So within the pe, I'm sorry, professional engineer, gotcha? Okay?

(03:21):
And so what's the history of Worcesterand Associates? Well, the history
the Worcester Associates was founded in nineteenseventy two by DAVIDY. Worcester. He
was the original owner. As afamily owned business, he was around until
he passed the job on to hisson, Chuck Wooster. They were small
upcoming, I think even way backwhen they did line striping. They actually

(03:45):
painted the lines on the road andthen that turned into traffic engineering, and
traffic engineering has become a bigger partof the development world. There's a main
focus on keeping the flow of trafficsafe and keeping it moving for the motors
on the road. So it's becomea bigger topics. We've grown and grown
over the years. Chuck Wooster retiredlast December, and we were recently merged

(04:14):
with a multinational company, CSI Global. They're focused right now. They have
a very very large presence in SouthAmerica, Central America, and they've come
in they're looking to have a muchlarger presence here in the US. So
we merged with them. We're kindof the tip of the spear for them
coming to the US and we're lookingwith that merger, they're giving us some

(04:40):
financial stability to grow and grow andgrow, and they get your expertise.
They do okay, so this mergerit's a good thing. Then that's a
great thing. Yeah, it's agreat thing, and it happened. We're
about thirteen months into the merger andlast year was our best year on record,
so we're looking to improve that.That improve that. One of the

(05:01):
things that recently happened. Like Isaid, we've been a traffic insulting engineering
firm for fifty years because we workin the land development world, and because
we had the merger, we justopened a whole land development design unit in
October. So now not only arewe doing the traffic for the projects,

(05:23):
we're doing the site development, theyou know, the everything. You know.
We're even looking to get into thearchitectural and build a building. So
oh wow, so you're you're it'severything. Yeah. With the merger,
they've given us the capabilities and someadditional expertise. They got our expertise,
but we're also getting a lot oftheir expertise in different different aspects of engineering,

(05:46):
structural engineering and building buildings, doingenvironmental projects, things like that.
So with that merger, we're ableto offer our clients a full service of
civil engineering. Well, with thefull service and with the merger, this
is this is quite an expansion.Oh yeah, yeah, we're we're currently

(06:08):
I mean, like I said,we've worked in Ohio, PA, in
West Virginia. We've become very heavyin Ohio recently, were actually we're doing
some work in Montana. So we'reexpanding rapidly. As your workforce expanded as
well. We've added four in thelast year. We're looking to add well,

(06:29):
hopefully as many as we can.We're looking to open new office locations
at some point. Me and thenit's a global company, do you do
you think it's going to expand beyondthe areas you just mentioned. Oh yeah,
yeah, we're hoping, you know, in due time, to be
in every state we can be,right, and then for future plans,

(06:50):
because it's a global company, totake that further and further into Europe.
You know, who knows where itmight go. Okay, So what's your
history with with Worcester and Associates.Well, I've been at Worcester and Associates
for twenty years, so I've beenthere for for a good long time.

(07:10):
Have you were you originally from Pittsburgh? Yep, born and raised born and
raised in Mckeithbort, PA of allplaces. And when you started with Worcester
where was your position would you wouldyou get hired? As when I when
I started, I was I wasthe lead in the design, so my
my my experience was highway design,traffic signal. So that's one big piece

(07:31):
of what we do at Worcester soI came in and kind of I came
from doing pendat work, which waspublic work, and came into the into
the private industry doing land development work. So I had I had a big
mountain climb to change. Those aretwo very very different industries, public and
private. But through that, throughtwenty years of experience, I mean,

(07:54):
we we developed a reputation through whatI did and what Chuck did and what
DAFT did as a large advocate forour client's positions. So we're we look
at our clients in the land developmentworld, time and money are the two

(08:16):
most important things getting a project doneon time, getting it done, meeting
to deadlines, and doing it rightand doing it right. Yes, and
I mean obviously time and money aren'tthe only two things, but to our
clients that's one of the big things. But we have to focus on doing
it right. Providing I mean,obviously we're in the roads, so our
designs have to be safe, theyhave to be you know, what the
motorist needs, what the department needs, Department of transportation. So there's a

(08:41):
we kind of play a role ofmaking sure we're providing everything that we need
to, making sure we're providing safeintersections, making sure we're satisfying the communities
in which the projects are there,but also making sure we focus on our
clients dollars as if their own,and hitting as many deadlines as we possibly

(09:03):
can, because that's the that's thebig amount. Who are generally your clients?
Who's your clientele we do? Imean our clients are anything from from
residential developers doing you know, apartments, town homes, you know, five
hundred home residential land developments, butretailers I mean auto parts stores, convenience

(09:24):
store, gas stations. You know, we do sheets, we do get
go, we do wah wah,we do you know, Miranda homes,
you know, all the big players. We do Starbucks. Anytime there's a
retail center or any retail store,fast food, they have to go through
the same process. So anytime somebody'sbuilding something, they have to start with

(09:48):
the land development process, the trafficprocess, and go through all the approvals.
And we're there too. What arethe intricacies that things that people don't
know? Oh, I'm curious,might need a long show for that.
Well, I mean I explained thetraffic stuff, but the process that you
have to go through for approvals,you have to go through approvals on the

(10:11):
municipal level. So when you're doinga land development project, you're going through
planning, you're going through all thecouncil, you're going through supervisors. There's
a lot of meetings that you haveto get through, a litany of layers
of engineering and reviews to get thoseapprovals, and then what we do mostly

(10:33):
is get the state permits. It'scalled a highway occupancy permit. Anytime anytime
a driveway or a roadway enters intothe state right of way, you have
to get permits for it. Youhave to go through a very long process.
So our specialty has been doing thatand getting permits from PENDOT, from

(10:54):
Alligan County, from local counties withMorland County, o DOT in Ohio Western
deal h. So a project fromplanning to approval probably takes two years wow,
and a staff of probably goes throughfifteen to twenty engineers by the time
it's done. So there's there's along planning process. There's a lot of

(11:18):
give and take. There's a lotof stress in it because sometimes a little
thing could could upset the apple cart, like what what what would what would
be something small that would upset thewhole. Environmental issues are a big thing.
Traffic issues, which is why we'rethe expert that's that's always a big
thing because when you go to whenyou bring a project to a municipality or

(11:41):
anywhere, one of their main concernsis houses going to impact my daily commute?
And everyone drives, so everyone's theyknow that if you put something in
it could impact them, and ourour job is to make sure that it
doesn't and then convey those folks thatit's not going to so that project can

(12:03):
come to life. You know,there's been a lot of talk of expanding
Pittsburgh. We need more people,we need more infrastructure, we need more
businesses, and so you're the tipof the spears kind of you're you're helping
facilitate. Yeah, we're the tipof the sphere. But I mean we
do probably two to three hundred projectsevery year. So there is a lot

(12:24):
of development going on in the Pittsburgharea. And again we're in Ohio and
West Virginia, but there is alot going on around here. I'm hoping
there's more coming. So what's yourbiggest challenge. I would say the biggest
challenge now in the land development worldis the amount of time that it does
take to get a project from conceptionto construction. It takes, like I

(12:50):
said, it takes about two yearsbefore you know, ten years ago it
might have took eighteen months. Sowith the different permitting and different traffic that
we have to do environmental permitting thathas to happen, it takes a little
bit longer. So that's that's thechallenge. This is the clientele realize how

(13:11):
difficult it is to maybe change somethingsmall, but it could be two years
in development. They realized that theydon't they don't want to accept it because
obviously getting these projects off the groundfaster is really what what what drives the
economics of it. So yeah,that time. We would love to do
anything that we can to reduce thetime it takes to do that. And

(13:35):
one of the reasons why we startedthe land development and trying to offer the
full service out of our office.Like I said, there could be you
know, you have a team engineeror any project, that team a lot
of times consists of four or fivedifferent companies, so there's a lot of
coordination and back and forth, andsometimes that coordination, if it's not under
one roof, things get messed.So what we're trying to do with our

(13:58):
merger with CSI Global and with ourexperience in Worcester, get all that under
one roof so that we don't haveto change the system to shrink that time,
but we can change how we dothings, shrink the coordination time to
deliver projects faster for for our clientele. All right, you've been with the
company for over twenty years. Youwere just named CEO not too long ago.

(14:20):
What's what's What was the first thingthat you wanted to tackle. What
was the thing you wanted to say, I want to put a Jared Crosby's
fingerprint on a project. What didWhat was the first thing that you thought
was a priority for Jared? Itwasn't It wasn't a project. It was
it was adding the land, developingit. Okay, that was when when

(14:41):
we're looking at our future growth andwhat we want to do, that was
a very very big piece to beable to offer our clients, with the
help of our with our new partnerat CSI Global, more services, and
and that would with those more services, we can hire more people, we
can grow faster and add more andmore services. On top of that,

(15:03):
are you looking to expand as faras the infrastructure you're building. Oh yeah,
yeah, yeah, yeah. Imean we're in December. We were
eleven this December, we're fifteen,about to be sixteen in I think March,
so we've added five. Our goalis to double in two years,

(15:24):
so we're hoping to be twenty twoby next year net well this coming December,
and then from there obviously we wantto we want to expand as aggressively
as we possibly can. All right, so tell us about the future.
Where do you see Worcester and Associatesfive years, ten years, fifteen years
down the line. Well, whatwe're looking at right now is we're trying

(15:46):
to you know, our industry isfocused around economic development, so the area
is that are expanding or the areasthat we'll be interested in expanding into.
So we're looking and trying to developthe you know, determine where those areas
are going to be, where thathotbed is going to be five years from
now, ten years from now,and we're starting to try to get a

(16:10):
reputation in those areas so that wecan we can expand there and when the
economy gets hot and the projects come, you know, hopefully by then our
reputation and areas outside of the Tristate area that we're to go to traffic
and development consel. Do you seesomeplace in Pittsburgh that is that may be

(16:30):
underdeveloped that you're going to see someexpansion. I don't do a lot of
the site selection for the developers.That's that's that's kind of there area.
I mean a lot of places.I mean, obviously Cranberry is exploding,
a lot of a lot of thecity of Pittsburgh and around at the Hayes
developments and everything's going on down there. There's a lot of things that are

(16:52):
coming to Pittsburgh. So is thisyour passion? Yeah, yeah, I've
been I've been an engineer for well, I've been trying to be an engineer
and an engineer for over thirty years. When I worked in the in the
public sector, those projects are youknow, if you're designing twenty miles a

(17:17):
road, they might take five sixyears. I'm sure you've heard of the
man Feed Expressway. It's still notdone. That thing's been going on for
twenty years. I actually worked onthat. So you never in that industry,
you never got to see something cometo life what I do now,
you know, I'm involved at thevery start of the project all the way

(17:38):
to the ribbon cutting ceremonies on theseSo seeing projects come to life is it's
a pretty cool thing. Okay.You mentioned Mont Valley Expressway in twenty eight
What takes so long? Why isit? Why does it take so long?
Well that they that that was avery aggressive plan, but I think

(18:00):
they ran into a long time ago. Is is right away issues in historical
buildings going through some of those pieces. You need a lot of right away
to build that road. You hadto buy a lot of properties to build
it, and I think they ranin the issues there and it's expensive.
Okay, So tell me about Jared, what what other than engineering and Wooster?

(18:22):
What else do you? What doyou? What do you like to
do? I play a lot ofgolf when I can if I'm not working,
which is very rare uh wintertime,I ski hike hunt fish. Had
three daughters, married, three daughters, daughter, oldest daughters in Kent State

(18:45):
second year. So three pretty coolkids. Keep me busy, all right?
What's tough for being a CEO orraising three girls? Girls? Jared
the CEO you should know. Jared, thank you so much. This has
been fun. Thank you it hasbeen This has been the CEO's you Should
Do podcast showcasing businesses that are drivingour regional economy, part of iHeartMedia's commitment

(19:07):
to the communities we serve. I'mJohnny Heartwell, thank you so much for listening.