Irish consulting engineering and project management company RPS has secured new engineering design contracts with a value of over €30m.

The company has recently been acquired by Tetra Tech, a leading global provider of consulting and engineering services with 27,000 employees worldwide.

And with many of its 470 staff working nationwide, plus an additional 295 in Northern Ireland, RPS is opening a new regional base in the Kilkenny Enterprise Centre, Purcellsinch to add to its existing office locations in Dun Laoghaire, Cork, Galway and Sligo.

The €30m in new projects secured include contracts for the Metrolink advanced works, the new Eastern Garvoge Bridge in Sligo and a scheme on the A66 Trans-Pennine roads project in the North of England.

In Ireland, RPS delivers consulting and engineering solutions for complex projects across key service areas in infrastructure design and development, energy, water and environmental services and project and programme management.

“We have built a large client base among Ireland’s key state bodies such as Uisce Éireann, TII, Iarnród Éireann, EirGrid and local authorities,” said Willie Madden who, after 28 years with the company, was appointed Managing Director in July 2022.

“We are an engineering and project management company, but our biggest project is ourselves. We work tirelessly on our structure,” said Mr Madden.

“We have always encouraged the flexibility to move if your circumstances change, and setting up a nationwide hub network of smaller and more agile offices is our way of being responsive and meeting the real needs of our employees. The Kilkenny office, for example, serves as a hub for staff living in this general area and otherwise commuting to Dublin and Cork several days a week. It is something that staff appreciate, and we hope to open up a market in the southeast area and attract new recruits as a result.”

Mr Madden is one of three members of the current management board who came through the company’s graduate programme.

“Graduates play a crucial role in our company, and we have a strong focus on investing in their development. We look at interns as the next graduates and the next graduates as the ­next senior engineers,” he said.

“We have a very active graduate mentoring programme, and, because of the size of our business, we can offer them a wide range of project opportunities in Ireland and abroad. We offer a rotation option to our graduates – they can move across different areas, such as transport, water or structures and this benefits both the graduates in their development and us as an employer, he added”

RPS’ Irish presence was founded as MCOS by Michael O’Sullivan in Cork in the 1960s, the company is one of the largest multidisciplinary consulting engineering and environmental companies to originate in Ireland.

It went on to open offices in Dublin and Galway before being purchased by RPS in 2002.

Its acquisition by Tetra Tech sees it join an organisation with a strong focus on water, environment, sustainable infrastructure, renewable energy and international development.

“We have built a large client base in Ireland and the UK which has been established through our consistent client-centric approach, our track record in project delivery and the commitment and excellence of our staff,” said Mr Madden.