About Us
Tharp & Associates, Inc.'s professional engineering and technical staff work together as a team to satisfy the needs of our clients. Our geotechnical consulting team assesses the impacts of the site conditions on capital improvement projects and has the experience and background to provide engineering solutions to resolve potential geotechnical constraints. Abbreviated resumes of our key personnel are presented on the following pages.
DONALD M. THARP. P. E. Principal Engineer
Our Principal Engineer, Donald Tharp, has over 18 years of geotechnical engineering experience in Arizona and Southern and Central California. His education in Civil Engineering with emphasis on Geotechnical and Hydraulics combined with his years of experience has resulted in a diversified background, which includes the preliminary planning, design management, quality control, and certification of numerous projects in both the public and private sectors. Geotechnical projects designed and constructed under the responsible charge of Mr. Tharp include subdivisions, large and small scale hillside grading, highways, overpasses, bridges, grade separated interchanges, dams, light and heavy commercial complexes, multi-story office and parking structures, municipal improvements, and numerous custom residential structures. Flood control projects successfully designed and constructed include scour, bank retreat and sediment transport analysis, erosion control systems, channel energy dissipation structures, check-dam systems, channel improvements, and drainage control.
Mr. Tharp possesses a wide range of experience as a consultant for attorneys, architects, city and county agencies, civil and structural engineers and insurance firms.
Mr. Tharp's background has also included responsibility for the field and laboratory testing of soils and construction materials, construction monitoring, field inspection, and supervision of Western Technologies' soil mechanics laboratory. This has provided Mr. Tharp with a well-rounded knowledge of the design and testing of Portland cement and asphalt concrete, soil-cement, roofing materials, and masonry components. This background also includes a thorough knowledge of ASTM, CAL TRANS, UBC, and HUD specifications.
