SPOKANE VALLEY, WA— Whipple Consulting Engineers of Spokane Valley was one of several local organizations to donate their time and services to a complete redevelopment of the parking lot and facilities at St. Mary’s Catholic Church and School this summer.

           Todd Whipple, owner of WCE and St. Mary’s parishioner since 1993, volunteered his company’s engineering expertise to redevelop the church parking lot in addition to adding more sidewalk, extra storm drainage facilities and updated handicap stalls.

           Assigned to the project was Ryan Andrade, Civil Engineer in Training for WCE since February of 2015.

           “The Whipple family uses the services of St. Mary’s on a weekly basis, so it made perfect sense for this project to be WCE’s charitable contribution for this year,” said Andrade. “Part of being a civil engineer is improving the safety and well-being of the public and the facilities they use, and St. Mary’s was in desperate need of the work we did.”

           Andrade stated that before the parking lot was redesigned it had drainage issues which resulted in several cracks and large puddles. The changes made to the St. Mary’s campus greatly improved the safety of the facilities.

           “The parish gave us a lot of freedom and trusted us to do the job correctly- that made it an easier, more streamlined project,” Andrade said.

           Other organizations to donate to the project were Cameron-Reilly Concrete, Alan Zeutschel Inc., and Schimmels Construction.