Rachel Westerfield Joins Gresham Smith’s Transportation Team
Gresham Smith is proud to announce that Rachel Westerfield, P.E., CFM, is joining the firm’s Transportation team as a senior engineer in Jackson, Mississippi.
Westerfield specializes in the planning, design and analysis of highway drainage systems, and she brings experience in hydraulic analysis and design in rural, urban and coastal locations across the state of Mississippi. She’s also active within national industry groups, including the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO). She served a five-year stint on AASHTO’s Technical Committee for Hydrology and Hydraulics, which issues nationwide guidance on procedures, experiences and other issues.
Prior to joining the firm, she spent three years as a senior project engineer at Waggoner Engineering and 14 years at the Mississippi Department of Transportation (MDOT). At MDOT, she served as the state hydraulics engineer in the Hydraulics Division ensuring that safe, economical and reliable hydraulics designs were provided for MDOT’s transportation systems across the state. Additionally, she streamlined MDOT’s hydraulics program by developing its first hydraulic manual, which included guidance for coastal regions of the state as well as the use of two-dimensional hydraulic modeling.
“I’m thrilled to have Rachel on our team,” said Randy Battey, Mississippi state transportation leader at Gresham Smith. “She elevates our drainage practice in Mississippi and beyond. While she will serve as our primary hydraulic contact with MDOT, she’s already familiar with many of our clients in other states throughout the Southeast.”
She has extensive knowledge and practice in the National Flood Insurance Program ensuring compliance with a wide variety of floodplain regulations, including federal, state and local requirements as applied to bridge and roadway crossings. In 2017, she was recognized for her work with the Association of State Floodplain Managers John Ivey Award for Superior Efforts in Certification.
Outside of the office, she’s also active with a number of industry groups, including the Association of State Floodplain Managers, the Mississippi chapter of the Women’s Transportation Seminar and the Mississippi Engineering Society. She received her Bachelor of Science degree in biological engineering at Mississippi State University.