Parsons Corporation (Parsons) is a digitally enabled solutions firm headquartered in Pasadena, California, founded in 1944 by engineer Ralph M. Parsons.
Video Parsons Corporation
History
Parsons was founded by Ralph M. Parsons. During the Cold war era, Parsons provided process engineering, facility design, construction and operation of various jet propulsion facilities--nuclear, chemical, and heavy fuels, provided electronics, instrumentation, and ground checkout systems design & engineering for aircraft, missiles and rockets.
Maps Parsons Corporation
Founder's legacy
In 1961, Parsons founded the Ralph M. Parsons Foundation as the charitable giving arm of the company; when he died, he left the foundation 600,000 shares of the company and $4 million in cash. The foundation soon became entirely independent from the company.
Markets
Parsons is a digitally enabled solutions provider focused on the defense, security, and infrastructure markets. The firm serves federal, regional, and local government agencies as well as private industrial customers.
Signature Projects
Notable Parsons projects include:
- MDA, Engineering and Support Services
- Titan and Minuteman ICBM bases, sites and silos (together with another California-based contractor--Daniel, Mann, Johnson & Mendenhall)
- Pershing MRBM miss-distance indicators
- NASA, Goddard Space Flight Center, Maryland
- DTRA, Syrian Chemical Weapons Elimination Program
- Salt Waste Processing Facility, Phase II, South Carolina
- Vimy Memorial Bridge, Ottawa, Canada
- Los Angeles International Airport Tom Bradley International Terminal, California
- Dubai Metro, Dubai, UAE
- Doha Expressway, Doha, Qatar
- Foothill Gold Line, California
- City of Bakersfield Wastewater Treatment Plant 3 Expansion, California
- GlassPoint Solar Miraah 1000 MW Solar Steam Plant, Amal Oil Field, Oman
- San Antonio Water System Brackish Water Desalination Program, Texas
- Covanta, H-POWER Facility Expansion, Hawaii
- Ohio River Bridges Project project between Louisville, Kentucky and southern Indiana.
- NYCT Canarsie Line (2007) and Flushing Line (2017) - CBTC (Communications-based Train Control) Signaling System Technology
Controversial projects
Parsons was awarded a contract for a $243 million project to build 150 health care centers in Iraq in March 2004. By March 2006, $186 million had been spent, with six centers complete and accepted by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), 135 centers only partly complete, and one reassigned to another contractor. USACE progressively terminated the contract from September 2005 to March 2006, eventually requiring Parsons to complete a total of 20 centers with the others to be completed by other contractors. The estimated cost for the completion of the other 121 centers was $36 million.
Parsons and USACE disputed the degree to which the final 20 centers were completed. A report by the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction cited problems, including "high turnover among government personnel... directions... given without agreement from the contractor... program managers' responsiveness to contractor communications, cost and time reporting, administration and quality assurance".
References
Further reading
- In-depth Company History (from Funding Universe)
- Biography of founder Ralph M. Parsons (from the Ralph M. Parsons Foundation website)
External links
- "Crucial Iraq police academy 'a disaster'", The Seattle Times, September 28, 2006
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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