Calvert-Spradling Engineers Inc., a civil-engineering firm based in West Point, has merged with Neel-Schaffer, Inc. and added Clay County and West Point to the firm’s Golden Triangle operations.
Neel-Schaffer’s North Mississippi Manager, Kevin Stafford, told The Dispatch the merger took immediate effect Feb. 10 after a short acquisition period beginning in late 2022.
“Prior to the merger, Neel-Schaffer had offices in Columbus and Starkville only, and we didn’t do any work in West Point,” Stafford said.
“With the merger, we basically picked up Clay County and West Point. They complemented us because they did a lot of work in areas that we were not. However, with them being one office and one firm, they were also limited to the staff that they had, whereas we have two in the Golden Triangle (already) and Neel-Schaffer has 38 offices all over the southeast, so they can now have a much deeper pool of resources.”
Calvert-Spradling was founded by Bob Calvert and Stanley Spradling more than 40 years ago and has provided civil engineering and surveying services for municipalities, counties, state agencies, utilities and institutions.
In a press release issued after the merger, Calvert said the merger would allow him to expand its current operations while also giving himself and his partners more time to focus on other projects while it grows under the Neel-Schaffer name.
“Our commitment to clients on a local, personal level will remain unchanged,” Calvert said. “Stanley and I are eager to expand our design team, allowing us all to focus more on one-on-one client relationships and our expanded team will continue to manage our client’s project needs while also building new personal relationships, internally and externally.”
Stafford said Neel-Schaffer will also benefit from some of the rural water and sewer engineering projects Calvert-Spradling was known for in Lowndes and Clay County. Stafford also said the two companies had worked well together by subcontracting one another for projects such as the Yokohama buildout and the 2,200-acre site of Aluminum Dynamics, which was announced in November 2022.
“They’re working for counties and rural water associations with smaller systems,” Stafford said. “That’s what they brought to the table were those client bases that we didn’t have and didn’t serve in those markets.”
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