After more than three decades building a nationally recognized civil engineering firm
with offices in every major city in Texas, Gerry Pate ’63 started selling the company
to his employees. Now, at a stage when many would slow down and enjoy their
well-earned success, he is building a booming new business that could drastically
alter the face of Texas’ transportation infrastructure.
The Galveston native founded Pate Transportation Partners three years ago when he recognized that a funding crisis in Texas highway construction created a dire need that he had the skills and experience to meet.
“This was sort of a natural evolution,” Pate said from his seat at a conference table in his
Conroe office, piled with project proposals and plans. “All the things I’d been doing all my career came together at one time in one place. I had an opportunity to use them and build on them. Even though it happened late in my career, I thought, ‘I’ve got to take advantage of this.’ ”
A period of unprecedented growth in Texas in recent years created an increased need for new highways and for additional capacity on existing roads statewide. The Texas Department of Transportation, however, has been unable to keep up with demand using the gas tax revenues that have traditionally paid for such projects. Local governments like counties and cities faced a crisis because they could not get the state to move forward on road projects of critical local importance. That’s where Pate’s new business comes in. Legislative changes that Pate has supported in the past few sessions have given local governments the option of moving forward on their own to improve and expand state highways vital to local interests. When they do, Pate Transportation is ready to assist them.
“We’ve created a business of delivering roadways to local governments all over the state,” Pate said. “In the past, local government went and asked the state to fund these roadways. Now local government—if it’s willing to fund the project—can arrange for deferred financing from the state, raise some of its own money, and actually go take responsibility for delivery of the project. When they do that, normally they’ll contract with somebody like us.”
Already Pate Transportation has about $1.4 billion in projects at some stage from development to construction. The company’s contracts include multiple projects to ease congestion close to home in Montgomery County; a project under construction in Sherman-Denison; one nearing construction in Forney, a growing segment of the Dallas metro area; a project in Mount Pleasant; a project near the border at Del Rio that is part of the Ports-to-Plains corridor; a major project in McAllen to improve transportation related to international trade; and one in the planning stages in Temple.
Alternative financing mechanisms now being used—particularly toll roads in certain locations—have drawn some criticism around the state. Pate, however, distinguishes between the projects undertaken by his partnership and more controversial projects like the Trans-Texas Corridor. Montgomery County could not afford to do some of the projects it has planned without tolls, Pate said. He also noted that tollfree routes still would be available; they just might be more congested than the toll roads. Local governments seem best suited to pursue toll projects, Pate said, because they are closest to the people, a proximity that allows them to explain projects and generate public support. Along with tolls, many of the new projects will be reimbursed at least in part by the state.
“Really, the benefit to citizens is they get the roadways they need so that they have reasonable commute times, and people can get to and from their homes. Especially with gas prices shooting up, you don’t want to be sitting in traffic for 20 to 30 minutes trying to get some place,” Pate said. “It hasn’t been an easy transition because really we’ve enjoyed a state system now at least since the era of the interstate in the 1950s. The state built all these roadways, including the freeways in your cities, but it doesn’t look like that’s going to be the way it works in the future.”
Pate’s decades of experience in civil engineering prepared him for the challenging work he handles today. He founded Pate Engineers in 1970 as a solo shop in Houston and expanded it into a respected civil engineering firm with more than 300 professionals in offices in Houston, Dallas, Fort Worth, Arlington, Austin and San Antonio. Transportation was not a major part of the company’s work. Instead, Pate Engineers handled a great deal of land development and urban infrastructure design, meeting cities’ needs for water supply, wastewater and flood control facilities. When the Texas Department of Transportation began to outsource more of its engineering work a decade ago, Pate decided to expand his business into that area. As he got into the transportation business, he realized that things were changing. “The future was not in drawing plans for roadways but in delivering the roadway itself to local governments. I could see that the state eventually was going to have to ask local government to help finance projects,” he said.
Pate already knew how government worked. Through his civil engineering firm, he had become well versed in working with government officials and regulation at all levels. He was appointed by Gov. Rick Perry to the Texas Board of Professional Engineers and served as chairman of the Governor’s Committee on Water Resources Management and as a member of the Governor’s Water Resources Use/Conservation Task Force. Pate used his knowledge to work for legislative changes starting in 2005 to allow alternative means to get state highway projects built. He created Pate Transportation Partners, where he is managing partner, to focus on the new opportunities and began selling Pate Engineers to his employees. He remains chairman of the board of the engineering firm, but his ownership will end in about three years. So far, he has found the new focus rewarding. “I’ve always enjoyed what I do. I like the legislative component of it. I like working with government officials. It’s frustrating sometimes, but overall I like it. And we know how to do it,” Pate said. “I just felt like I couldn’t pass this challenge up, and I don’t regret it. I’m really enjoying it. I don’t have any plans to retire, never really have had.”
Of course, Pate’s life has not been all about business. He married his wife, Lois, after his freshman year at Lamar. They now have four adult children and 14 grandchildren, all of whom live less than 10 miles from their home in Magnolia. By the time he graduated from Lamar in 1963, the young couple had two children, and he was eager to get to work to support his growing family. His family commitments left little time for campus activities during Pate’s days as a civil engineering major. Still, he remembers his time at Lamar fondly. He remains in touch with college friends and values the relationship he built with Luther Beale, who led the civil engineering department when Pate was a student, Pate recognized the value of his Lamar education when he went to work for a consultant in Houston in the early 1960s. Most of the other young engineers around him were from better-known schools, but he was as well prepared as or maybe better prepared than his peers. “That gave me a lot of confidence to say I can do what needs to be done in my career,” he said.
Recognizing what Lamar did for him, Pate has given generously of his time and resources to his alma mater. He serves on the College of Engineering Advisory Council and is working with other key alumni on a strategic plan for the civil engineering department. Pate also created a named scholarship in engineering this year. Pate attributes the value he places on education to his parents, who were unable to attend college but stressed its importance. “Lamar was probably a very good place for somebody like me whose family had no background of college,” Pate said. “I think it still plays a role like that. I hope it continues to try to be a place where young people—who can probably do more than they think—can go and find a place that is nurturing, if you can think of a college that way.”
The nurturing environment at Lamar certainly helped Gerry Pate get on the right road, one that he has continued to build by staying attuned to the changing world around him and taking advantage of whatever opportunities arise.
