About Us

Founded in 1997, Orion Engineering Inc. is a Missoula-based corporation providing high quality, practical, and cost-effective geotechnical solutions to government, industry, engineers, architects, developers, contractors, and individuals. Since 1997, we have performed over 200 foundation investigations, 120 pavement section designs, 60 retaining system investigations
or designs, and 50 slope stability/landslide investigations or designs. Our projects have taken place in the states of Montana, Idaho, Washington, Wyoming, and Alaska.

Orion owns and operates a drill-rig that was custom-designed and newly built in 2000. The drill is trailer-mounted and removable for skid or platform drilling. We designed the rig to be efficient and useful for a majority of our projects. When our project requirements exceed our drill capabilities, subcontract drilling is utilized. We have well-established relationships with drillers throughout the Pacific Northwest.

We have been involved in state-of-the-art design elements including micropiles, reinforced
soil slopes (RSS), mechanically stabilized embankments (MSE), and soil nailing. We have designed and performed construction inspection on several retaining wall stabilization projects on Going-to-the-Sun Road in Glacier National Park, including a design that has
been used as a demonstration project by the Federal Highway Administration in the use of micropile technology. A railroad project associated with a MDT highway project is considered a "standard of excellence" by our client, and has been presented at the annual Railway Engineering and Maintenance Association (AREMA) convention in Chicago.

Laboratory testing is provided by our in-house associate; Holman Consulting Engineers (HCE). HCE has a full testing laboratory that has been certified by AASHTO in concrete (CCRL) and asphalt (AMRL) testing. HCE has recently developed Superpave mix design capabilities.