Bryan Kitchen, President of EPS Group, welcomed TST, Inc. Consulting Engineers to the team in June!
People. Places. Projects.
July 1, 2026
FROM VISION TO DELIVERY
In June, EPS Group, Inc.’s work and industry conversations across Arizona and Colorado pointed to a shared theme: communities are still growing, but the path from vision to delivery depends on what happens behind the scenes. That includes the people leading the work, the places being shaped, the projects moving forward, and the infrastructure decisions affecting what comes next. This month, we’re looking at how thoughtful planning, technical groundwork, and community investment are helping projects and places move forward across the regions EPS calls home.
What does your community need to move from vision to delivery?
PEOPLE.
Arizona: Transportation Leadership for Growing Communities
EPS Group welcomed Austin Brooks, PE, as Transportation Director in June. Based in Arizona, Austin brings more than 24 years of engineering and project management experience across transportation infrastructure, roadway design, utilities, land development, municipal projects, and construction coordination.
His background includes work supporting major infrastructure improvements in Phoenix, along with transportation and infrastructure projects for municipalities and agencies throughout Arizona. As Transportation Director, Austin will help support EPS Group’s continued growth while delivering transportation solutions that strengthen the communities we serve.
As Arizona communities continue to grow, transportation planning remains closely tied to land development, utility coordination, public infrastructure, and long-term mobility. Strong leadership in this area helps project teams think earlier about access, circulation, roadway improvements, agency coordination, and the infrastructure needed to support growth responsibly.
Where could transportation insight help your next project move forward with fewer surprises?
Colorado: Welcoming TST to EPS Group
EPS Group welcomed TST, Inc. Consulting Engineers to the team in June, marking an important step in the firm’s continued growth across Northern Colorado, the Front Range, and the greater Southwest. Read the press release here. Based in Fort Collins, TST has spent nearly 50 years serving Northern Colorado through civil engineering, master planning, construction services, and landscape architecture. Their team has helped shape neighborhoods, public and private infrastructure, parks, and places that reflect the character of Colorado communities.
Together, EPS Group and TST bring expanded resources, broader technical expertise, and continued local relationships to the clients and communities they serve. The opportunity ahead is not only about growth, but about building on a legacy of practical, community-focused design and trusted regional service.
How can local relationships and expanded technical capacity help communities plan for what comes next?
People Behind the Projects
June also offered a chance to recognize the people behind the work. EPS celebrated International Women in Engineering Day by recognizing the women across the organization who contribute their technical expertise, leadership, and collaboration to projects and communities. Strong communities are shaped by more than projects. They are shaped by the people who lead, listen, design, coordinate, and keep work moving.
Who are the people helping move your community forward?
PLACES.
Arizona Growth Lens: Power, Water, Mobility, and Readiness
In Arizona, June’s industry conversations continued to point toward a familiar growth question: how do communities create places that work today while preparing for what comes next?
That question showed up in several ways, including Valley Partnership’s June Friday Morning Breakfast featuring a conversation with Salt River Project around power, water, and innovation. For Arizona’s development community, the topic is timely. Growth depends on more than land availability. Power capacity, water planning, infrastructure investment, and early coordination all affect where projects can move forward, how they are phased, and what communities need to support long-term demand.
Arizona’s June activity also included infrastructure finance legislation, ADOT’s five-year transportation program, public engagement around SR 347, the proposed West Phoenix light rail extension, and continued Advanced Water Purification implementation activity.
EPS lens: The earlier infrastructure questions are asked, the more options a project team has. From civil engineering and survey to transportation, utility coordination, and site planning, early technical insight helps communities and development teams make more informed decisions.
What infrastructure or mobility question is shaping your Arizona project right now?
Colorado Growth Lens: Housing, Local Character, and Community Infrastructure
In Colorado, June’s activity continued to highlight the connection between housing, local character, infrastructure, and community investment.
Projects and conversations across Northern Colorado pointed to the same theme: communities need housing, infrastructure, mobility, and gathering places, but they also need those elements to work together. Whether the topic is master-planned community design, construction staking, survey, affordable housing, or water history, the question is not only what gets built. It is how projects support the long-term function and identity of the community around them.
Bucking Horse in Fort Collins is one example of that broader place-based thinking. The 155-acre master-planned community blends housing, recreation, local business, open space, trails, parks, childcare, green infrastructure, edible landscaping, and the adaptive reuse of historic farm buildings at Jessup Farm Artisan Village.
June also marked a meaningful milestone in Greeley’s water history. In June 1870, water was first delivered to Greeley through the No. 3 Ditch, helping shape early planning, development, and the city’s identity from the beginning. EPS Group’s downtown Greeley office serves as the Ditch Engineer for the No. 3 Ditch and continues to support water infrastructure, land development, and community growth in the region.
EPS lens: Complete communities require more than a single project type. They depend on thoughtful coordination between land use, infrastructure, public space, mobility, and the daily experience of residents and visitors.
What makes a place feel connected, useful, and built to last?
PROJECTS.
Arizona Spotlight: Litchfield Square | Litchfield Park, Arizona
Creating a Civic Gathering Place for Everyday Use and Community Events. Designed as a destination for community gathering, recreation, and future growth, Litchfield Square serves as the centerpiece of Litchfield Park’s evolving city center vision. As part of the larger 33.5-acre development, EPS Group provided design services for the 4-acre City Center Park, helping create a space that supports both everyday use and large-scale community events.
The park features flexible event lawns, an amphitheater, food truck accommodations, a playground, memorial plaza, palm plaza, educational garden, and pedestrian-focused gathering spaces designed to encourage connection and engagement. Thoughtfully integrated shade structures, seating areas, educational nodes, and walkable connections help create a welcoming environment for residents and visitors while supporting the City’s vision for economic vitality and long-term community investment.
Why it matters: Civic spaces help define how people experience a community. They support recreation, social connection, events, walkability, and local identity while giving residents and visitors a shared place to gather.
What public spaces are helping define the next chapter of your community?
Colorado Spotlight: Shields Protected Infrastructure Design Survey | Fort Collins, Colorado
Surveying as the Foundation for Safer Streets. Surveying is more than lines and measurements. It is the foundation for safe, efficient, and connected communities.
In Fort Collins, EPS Group completed the Shields Protected Infrastructure Design Survey to support improvements to cycling and pedestrian safety at Shields Street and Prospect Road adjacent to Colorado State University. The team completed topographic and right-of-way survey along nearly a mile of the Shields Street corridor, covering 12.5 acres. Working with the Kimley-Horn design team, EPS established a control network for aerial mapping, developed a detailed point cloud and 3D model, and delivered CAD files used for design and construction drawings.
Why it matters: Early survey work gives project teams the accurate data they need to plan, design, and deliver infrastructure with greater confidence. From roads and utilities to neighborhoods and schools, precision surveying helps communities move from ideas to implementation.
Where could better early data help reduce risk on your next project?
INDUSTRY ENGAGEMENT: WHAT WE’RE HEARING IN THE MARKET
Arizona: Infrastructure Finance, Transportation, Water, and Power
Several June developments in Arizona are worth watching because they connect directly to infrastructure readiness, housing delivery, mobility, and long-term growth.
Arizona’s HB2999 created a new infrastructure finance district framework. For development and municipal teams, the important takeaway is practical: communities are looking for additional tools to help align housing growth with the roads, water, sewer, and public infrastructure needed to support it. This should be framed carefully as an infrastructure-finance tool, not as a guarantee that housing costs will fall.
ADOT’s 2027–2031 Five-Year Transportation Facilities Construction Program was approved in June, with major statewide investment planned for roads, bridges, and airports. For growing Arizona communities, continued transportation investment affects access, safety, freight movement, commuting patterns, and development feasibility.
June also included continued public engagement around the SR 347 corridor between I-10 and Maricopa, as well as the proposed West Phoenix light rail extension. Both efforts reinforce the same point: transportation corridors are community-shaping infrastructure.
Water also remains central to Arizona’s growth conversation. ADEQ’s Advanced Water Purification implementation update and stakeholder engagement reflect the ongoing importance of water reuse, long-term supply planning, and regulatory clarity.
EPS lens: Arizona growth depends on the alignment of land, infrastructure finance, transportation, power, water, and early project planning. The more clearly those pieces are understood at the beginning, the stronger the path to delivery.
What Arizona infrastructure issue is showing up first on your projects: power, water, roads, utilities, funding, approvals, or timing?
Colorado: Housing Delivery, Review Timelines, and Community Capacity
In Colorado, June conversations continued to focus on housing delivery, permitting timelines, infrastructure investment, and long-term community capacity. Denver’s 90-day review pathway for qualifying affordable residential projects is one example of process reform tied directly to housing delivery. Creekside Flats, a transit-oriented affordable housing community at Sheridan Station, offers a project-level example of housing, transit access, and public-private coordination coming together.
At the local level, EPS team members also engaged in housing and business conversations through ULI Colorado’s Discussion Lab: Housing Solutions in Action and the Fort Collins Area Chamber of Commerce State of Business event. EPS’s community involvement in June also included support for housing-related efforts such as Habitat Build Day and the Loveland Housing Authority + Aspire Scholarship Fund Golf Tournament. These efforts reinforce a broader point: housing is not only a project type. It is connected to infrastructure, workforce stability, education, mobility, and long-term community vitality.
EPS lens: Colorado communities are balancing housing need, development predictability, infrastructure capacity, and the practical work of keeping existing systems functional.
Where are Colorado projects getting slowed down first: approvals, infrastructure, land, cost, or coordination?
LET’S BUILD WHAT COMES NEXT
What are you planning next: a public space, housing project, roadway improvement, mixed-use development, infrastructure upgrade, or site acquisition? EPS Group supports communities and development teams from early due diligence and survey through civil engineering, transportation, utility coordination, construction staking, and long-term infrastructure planning. The best time to solve a project challenge is before it becomes the issue slowing everything down.
Start the conversation.
We’d love to chat!