WGI Announces Strategic Partnership with Data-Analytics Provider Urban SDK 

(West Palm Beach, FL – April 13, 2021) National engineering design and professional services firm WGI, Inc. is pleased to announce it has established a strategic partnership with Jacksonville, Florida-based Urban SDK. Headquartered in West Palm Beach, WGI is a nationwide leader in providing technology-based solutions for the planning and design of public infrastructure and private land development projects.

Founded in 2018, Urban SDK is led by co-founders Drew Messer and Justin Dennis. The firm is recognized for its data analytics and predictive-intelligence platforms used to improve data sourcing, reporting, and analysis -- contributing to increased safety and traffic flow on its clients’ roadway networks. Urban SDK’s clients include the Florida Department of Transportation,, and the Memphis Area Transit Authority (MATA) and the Palm Beach Transportation Planning Agency (TPA). 

The strategic partnership between WGI and Urban SDK will work with cities, Municipal Planning Organizations (MPOs), and state Departments of Transportation (DOTs) to streamline data, decision making, and planning for mobility improvements by applying predictive analytics tools to known data sets. Through combined professional expertise, WGI and Urban SDK offer clients the ability to enhance safety, improve mobility, and realize cost savings by using data analytics combined with WGI’s robust infrastructure capabilities.

WGI Ventures (the investment and innovation arm of WGI) is a participant in Urban SDK’s seed investment round. Messer and Dennis are partnering with an integrated firm that is leveraging tomorrow’s technology, today. WGI’s significant and forward-thinking investments in national thought leaders and tools supporting its work across the spectrum -- from placemaking and new mobility to heavy infrastructure -- are part of a strategic corporate plan for continued growth and success.  

WGI’s President Gregory Sauter, architect of the WGI-Urban SDK alliance, said, “I am thrilled to announce our strategic partnership with Urban SDK. Today’s mobility challenges demand that we provide our clients with flexible, data-derived engineering solutions for their transportation and mobility networks.    

“The data-analytics platform developed by Urban SDK will allow our partnership to provide public-service agencies and urban planners rapid insights for decision making, real-time dashboards, and analytic tools with automated data indexing, predictive analytics, and automated reporting of key policy and performance indicators. The result is a more efficient mobility ecosystem.”

The combination of WGI and Urban SDK also factors into multiple facets of WGI’s wide range of services and markets – beyond the initially obvious roadway and transportation operations. As the partnership develops further, Urban SDK’s technologies will enhance WGI’s complete streets, placemaking, land planning, civil engineering, community digitization, and transportation planning service areas.  

Also welcoming the partnership is Lisa Nisenson, WGI’s Vice President responsible for its New Mobility and Connected Communities practice. “The WGI mobility team looks forward to very meaningful collaboration with the professionals at Urban SDK, delivering totally complete and smart solutions to our mutual client base.”

For Urban SDK’s part, the excitement is also unmistakable. Urban SDK co-founder Messer stated, “Partnering with a multi-disciplinary engineering and professional services firm of six hundred associates, spread across a national footprint is a blessing. The partnership grants us access to more potential clients, in addition to technical design and engineering expertise, allowing us faster growth, while enhancing product delivery and product effectiveness for our clients.” 

WGI ‘s rapid and continued ascent made significant news with the acquisition and integration of Austin, Texas-based BIG RED DOG Engineering in 2019. The WGI – BIG RED DOG combination joined the fastest-growing professional services firm in Florida with the fastest-growing firm in Texas since 2013. The result is a diverse organization of 600 talented professionals serving an active client base in over 30 states. More recently, WGI welcomed Team Better Block into the fold, with the Dallas-based firm joining WGI in 2020. 

ABOUT WGI

As a multidisciplinary solutions-providing consulting firm, WGI has 18 offices in eight states, serving an active client base in over 30 states, specializing in the following disciplines: mobility planning, transportation engineering, land development/municipal engineering, traffic and transportation engineering, parking solutions, geospatial and land surveying, subsurface utility engineering, restoration and structural engineering, landscape architecture, environmental sciences and water resources, architecture, land planning, and MEP engineering. In 2020, ENR ranked WGI #187 – up 37 places -- on its list of the Top 500 Design Firms, #43 on its 2020 Top Southeast Design Firms, and #18 in the Florida market. South Florida Business Journal ranked WGI in the top 4 on its 2020 Top 25 Engineering Firms – for the fourth consecutive year, and #59in its 2020 list of Top 100 Private Companies. For more information, please visit www.wginc.com.

About Urban SDK

Urban SDK is a next-generation smart mobility platform connecting city and transportation planners to the reliable data sources they need to accelerate mobility intelligence, improve decision quality and unlock a higher quality of life for communities.

The platform enables unlimited data integrations of real-time data sources, geo-spatial analytics, workflow automation and predictive intelligence on a singular, manageable platform. It also combines leading data collection practices with performance measurement analytics to better inform decision-makers within local and state governments as they evaluate policy and projects to improve infrastructure. For more information, please visit www.urbansdk.com