About Us

Gauge Engineering (Gauge) is a full-service, certified small business, Houston-based engineering firm that specializes in providing engineering planning, design and construction management services to our public sector clients. Our core services include transportation and water resources. Gauge was co-founded by Derek St. John, PE, CFM, and Muhammad Ali, PE, ENV SP, both with a proven track record of successfully delivering challenging infrastructure projects for public agencies throughout the state of Texas.

The Gauge team is comprised of more than thirty engineers, planners, and design technicians fully capable of leading and delivering complex assignments and initiatives.The strength of the team is a combination of their keen attention to detail and long-standing client relationships founded on trust and mutual respect. This unique personal connection with clients has led to well-established professional and personal relationships.

Our People

Derek St. John, PE, CFM Gauge Engineering

Derek St. John, PE, CFM, is a Principal and Founding Partner of Gauge Engineering.

Derek St. John, PE, CFM | Gauge Engineering

Derek St. John, PE, CFM, is a principal and founding partner of Gauge Engineering. He is a professional engineer with more than 20 years of engineering experience in the infrastructure industry. His background is well balanced between technical excellence in the fields of flood control & drainage as well as client/project management.

Derek is a recognized expert in the state of Texas for finding solutions to difficult drainage problems. He has extensive experience working in urbanized areas and retrofitting existing infrastructure to solve drainages deficiencies and meet current criteria. His background includes feasibility and planning studies, PS&E, floodplain delineation, drainage channel analysis and impact mitigation, roadway and highway related drainage, and watershed master planning.

Muhammad Ali, PE Gauge Engineering

Muhammad Ali, PE, LGPP, is a Principal and Founding Partner of Gauge Engineering.

Muhammad Ali, PE | Gauge Engineering

Muhammad Ali, PE, LGPP, is a principal and founding partner of Gauge Engineering. He is a professional engineer with over 20 years of engineering experience in the areas of municipal infrastructure and highway planning and design.

His project experience includes assisting municipal clients with developing and managing multi-million-dollar Capital Improvement Plans. This includes the planning, analysis, design, and construction oversight of projects involving roadway, drainage, water, sanitary sewer, private utilities, traffic, and landscaping amenity improvements in some of Houston’s most congested business districts like Memorial City, Uptown, and Downtown. He has significant experience in complete streets design and context sensitive design.

Throughout his career, Muhammad has worked with the City of Houston, Harris County, HCFCD, TxDOT, METRO, numerous TIRZs, and special and management district clients. Furthermore, he has conducted numerous public meetings, and has served as a liaison between clients and the public. He has a proven track record of successfully delivering urban renewal projects within tight deadlines while maintaining quality.

Terry M. Barr, PE, CFM Gauge Engineering

Terry M. Barr, PE, CFM | Gauge Engineering

Terry M. Barr, PE, CFM, is a professional engineer and certified floodplain manager with over 20 years of engineering experience in drainage analysis and design with a significant focus on regional stormwater planning. He has led several large-scale watershed planning efforts in the Houston region, recommending more than $8B in regional flood reduction projects.

Terry has assisted in the development and implementation of technical guidance and quality assurance/quality control for hydrologic and hydraulic modeling efforts. Additionally, he has significant experience with communication and public outreach efforts for drainage planning and design efforts, helping decision makers and the public understand complex concepts, the benefits of flood reduction projects, and implications of changes to drainage policy.

Furthermore, Terry has led the development of multiple flood mitigation studies using InfoWorks ICM 2D and HEC-RAS 2D to develop accurate model simulations and effective capital projects. He has worked with, and served as a trusted advisor to, numerous cities and agencies, including the HCFCD, SJRA, City of Houston, City of Pearland, City of Fort Worth, Brazoria DD4 among others.

Matthew K. Zeve, PE, CFM Gauge Engineering

Matthew K. Zeve, PE, CFM | Gauge Engineering

Matthew K. Zeve, PE, CFM, is a professional engineer and certified floodplain manager with over 20 years of experience in drainage engineering and planning. He has worked on drainage feasibility studies, roadway drainage analyses, development impact analysis, FEMA floodplain submittals, and watershed master plans.

In a previous role, Matt helped lead the Harris County Flood Control District through major floods in 2016 and 2017. He led efforts related to developing a multi-billion capital improvement program including project planning, community engagement, and preparing for the increased workload. As a result, the Flood Control District went from delivering around $30M of capital improvements annually to over $40M per month.

Matt enjoys discussing drainage and flooding issues and has made multiple presentations for different business and civic organizations.

Brian Whitney, PE, CFM Gauge Engineering

Brian Whitney, PE, CFM | Gauge Engineering

Brian Whitney, PE, CFM, has over 30 years of experience providing hydrology, hydraulics and drainage design services for major drainage improvement projects. He is a recognized expert for resolving complicated drainage problems and has extensive experience retrofitting existing infrastructure to provide stormwater improvements. His approach to design focuses on the cost-effective construction, long term maintenance of the proposed infrastructure and minimizing impact and disturbance to the community. His background includes bank stabilization and channel repair, feasibility studies, major flood control planning studies, preliminary design, preparation of bidding documents, construction management, roadway corridor drainage analysis, culvert and bridge analysis and impact mitigation, drainage channel analysis and impact mitigation, and bridge scour analysis.

Lydia Mares, PE Gauge Engineering

Lydia Mares, P.E. | Gauge Engineering

Lydia Mares, P.E. is a professional engineer with over 20 years of experience in roadway and utility planning, design, and construction. She has worked on highway roadway construction, roadway utility relocations and overall utility coordination. Lydia also serves as a commissioner on the City of Houston Planning Commission.

While with CenterPoint Energy, Lydia helped add capacity to the local distribution gas system (LDC) in the Houston metropolitan area. She executed gas main replacement designs for a Distribution Integrity Management Program (DIMP), per Texas Railroad Commission regulatory requirements. Lydia also managed a work group that facilitated all gas relocation work for roadway and drainage public improvement jobs for TxDOT, Harris County, Harris Country Flood Control District, City of Houston, and various other city municipalities in the Gulf Coast area. The annual budget for her capital gas projects was $100M. In addition to her natural gas experience, Lydia has also been a service area manager for CenterPoint Energy electric, in the west Houston area; focusing on new customer services, power quality concerns and community relations.

Lydia enjoys discussing utility coordination and service needs and has presented various presentations to Gas Associations, Public Entities, and civic organizations.

Patrick Phillips, PE, CFM Gauge Engineering

Patrick Phillips, PE, CFM | Gauge Engineering

Patrick Phillips, PE, CFM, has over 22 years of experience providing hydrology and hydraulics analysis and drainage design services for major roadway and highway projects. His transportation drainage experience is balanced by his flood control and flood mitigation expertise. Patrick has led the analysis and design of some of Harris County’s largest and most complicated flood mitigation and regional detention projects. He has extensive experience design channel improvements, performing scour analysis, and sizing and designing culvert crossings. Patrick is an expert at the use of dynamic modeling (SWMM and XP SWMM 1D/2D) to develop mitigation plans for complex highway projects.

Ian Hudson, PE Gauge Engineering

Ian Hudson, PE | Gauge Engineering

Ian Hudson, PE, has more than 11 years of project and program management experience as a civil and water resources engineer, primarily with inland flood risk management issues within and surrounding Harris County, Texas. Ian serves as a project manager for Gauge Engineering leading and delivering flood mitigation projects.

Areas of expertise cultivated through public sector experience include Harris County Flood Control District programs, as well as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Civil Works Program and USACE local-lead authorities. As a Project Manager, he concurrently managed scope, schedule, and budget of contracted work efforts, performing QA/QC of consultant work products and coordinating internal schedule controls with design/construction project management software. Along with his expertise in the USACE Civil Works Program, he supported the Flood Control District’s efforts following major flood events under FEMA and NRCS Disaster Recovery programs, and is familiar with DrChecks, HEC-RAS, HEC-HMS, ArcMap, and Geocortex for ArcGIS software.

Karam Qaddo, PE Gauge Engineering

Karam Qaddo, PE | Gauge Engineering

Karam Qaddo, PE, has over 15 years of engineering experience in the municipal infrastructure industry. He has extensive design production experience in roadway, utilities and drainage projects. He has a proven track record of successfully delivering urban renewal projects within tight deadlines while maintaining quality. He also understands the challenges with complete street design and how to account for all modes of transportation in tight rights-of-way when working in urban areas. Karam has a proven track record of working with paver projects, including multiple TIRZ 17 projects. He’s played an important role as a lead project engineer in these projects.

David Greaney, PE, CFM Gauge Engineering

David Greaney, PE, CFM | Gauge Engineering

David Greaney, PE, CFM, has 9 years of experience in the municipal and TxDOT infrastructure industry performing both roadway and drainage design. He balances drainage analysis and design experience in the public sector with roadway design experience to develop high functioning transportation projects. His drainage expertise includes storm sewer design, detention pond design, channel design, drainage impact analysis, floodplain delineation, TCEQ water quality, and utility conflict resolution.

David’s roadway design experience includes roadway horizontal and vertical geometry, bridge span and beam thickness determination, roundabout design, driveway design, and retaining wall design. In addition, he brings valuable experience working with the City of Houston, Harris County Flood Control District, TIRZ 17, the Westchase District, TxDOT, City of Cedar Park, Williamson County, Hays County, and HCTRA. This experience brings a wholistic and in-depth understanding of difficult drainage issues to address as well as an understanding of roadway design.

Mort TaShoor, PhD, PE Gauge Engineering

Mort TaShoor, PhD, PE | Gauge Engineering

Mort TaShoor, PhD, PE, has over 15 years of experience as a Transportation Engineer. The past 11 years of his career have been dedicated to delivering Plans, Specifications, and Estimates (PS&E) for various public sector clients. Mort's scope of expertise includes roadway design, traffic safety, operation analysis and design, ITS design, traffic control plan development, and constructability review.

Mort is currently serving as Gauge's Transportation Lead, managing various TxDOT projects involving PS&E and bridge on/off system replacements .