Longtime Engineer Promoted to Transportation Director
(SOUTH BEND, Ind.) — Lawson-Fisher Associates P.C. (LFA), a civil engineering firm located in South Bend and Indianapolis, proudly announces the promotion of Dan Delgado, PE, to the position of Transportation Director. Delgado has been a key member of the Lawson-Fisher team, contributing his extensive experience and expertise to numerous transportation projects over the past 26 years. In his new role, Dan will direct LFA’s transportation group, overseeing client relations, providing his technical expertise, while also continuing to drive project delivery and excellence with staff members.
Founded in 1971, Lawson-Fisher Associates P.C. has provided engineering services to numerous communities and the state of Indiana over the last 53 years. LFA is a full-service civil engineering firm with staff in northern Indiana providing transportation, structural, water resources, surveying, and construction inspection consulting services to primarily state, county, and municipal communities.
Delgado joined LFA in January 1998 after graduating from Notre Dame University with a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering. Hailing from Minnesota town of less than 300, Dan was impressed with LFA’s Senior Week presentation at ND and decide to stay in the Midwest at a midsized company. According to Dan, “I’m one of the very few people I know of, and only one of all my friends, who is still with the same company they started at after college.” he said. “I seem to be a good fit!”
He said he came to Notre Dame under the same parameters. The world-class institution came on his radar in high school while watching college football in Hollandale, his Minnesota town of just under 300 people. He knew Notre Dame offered a Catholic education (Delgado always attended Catholic schools), was a self-contained campus (which he prefers, being from a small town) and was in the Midwest. As the Pacelli High School valedictorian, he applied for early entry to Notre Dame and was accepted before Christmas.
“As far as I knew, Notre Dame was the best of the Midwest,” he said.
He said he started out freshman year of college in mechanical engineering, later moving to civil engineering because he always excelled at math and knew he desired to construct larger facilities. (In fact, he designed his Mishawaka home himself, which includes geothermal energy and solar panels). Once hired at LFA, his mentors, current LFA President Paul Hummel, PE, and Chesterton’s now Town Engineer Mark O’Dell, PE, guided him in transportation engineering. He earned his Professional Engineering license four years later in 2002.
LFA President Paul Hummel said, “Dan has been with us for nearly three decades, nearly as long as I have. Over that time, he has grown immensely. Dan always has great attention to detail and, over the years, has expanded his knowledge of project management to compliment his technical abilities. Dan has had significant impact on LFA fostering and enhancing our reputation in central and northern Indiana. We are confident in his abilities to move the Lawson-Fisher Transportation Department forward for many years to come.”
Delgado’s experience at LFA includes an array of INDOT, LPA, and local municipalities’ transportation work. He has worked on bridge rehabilitation/replacements, added capacity projects, interchange reconstruction, multiple intersections, dozens of small structure improvements projects, and partial and full roadway reconstruction projects. He said the US 35 corridor project in LaPorte, which will be finished in 2027, is his crowning accomplishment thus far.
“I wrote the Letter of Interest for the 35 project and I took a chance with it, went a different direction — and we won it. It’s a very large project for Lawson-Fisher and I’m proud to have brought that here,” he said. “One of our most significant projects ever and I’ve been with it from the start.”
As Transportation Director, Delgado said he will continue his philosophy of team collaboration. “I’m always asking people for their thoughts and getting input from others. I want to receive feedback and hope to give staff the freedom to try out new ideas.”
Delgado is also a strong proponent of succinct and effective presentations for clients, the public and coworkers, he said, so he will be looking for ways to help the company get better in that regard. “People don’t realize how impactful presentations in any form can be,” he said.
To be successful at his job, Delgado said, “I did it by making focused client contacts and by being well-regarded in my field. And I am always trying to bring forward new ideas.”
In his spare time, he is known for an encyclopedic knowledge of music, with an expansive catalog he uses to generate “ultimate mix tapes,” approximately every six months, to distribute to friends.
Delgado is also LFA’s resident specialist in utility coordination, maintenance of traffic design, storm sewer design, special provision writing, ADA design, and traffic management planning. As a Transportation Director, he handles the day-to-day communication with the project team to ensure scope, schedule, and budget are all on track. He is also a member of the LFA Board of Directors and a strong contributor to ACEC Indiana (The American Council of Engineering Companies) activities.