Engineer born in India celebrates 45 years running his firm in Birmingham

It was 1973 when Uday Bhate, a native of Mumbai, India, who had earned a master’s degree in engineering at Georgia Tech, moved to Birmingham.

He was transferred here by his Atlanta-based employer.

It proved to be an auspicious move for Bhate, despite the fact that Birmingham had a bad reputation nationally due to civil rights strife here in the 1960s.

But Bhate arrived with “no preconceived notions,” he said.

“Birmingham really has been a wonderful place for me,” Bhate told Iron City Ink.

Bhate started his own firm — Bhate Geosciences Corporation (BHATE) — in the Magic City in 1975.

He remains here to this day, running his company from his own building on Fifth Avenue South near East Avondale, Crestwood North and Woodlawn.

This year, BHATE celebrates 45 years of providing innovative, money-saving engineering solutions for the design and construction communities in Birmingham and beyond.

BHATE provides geotechnical engineering, geophysical applications, construction materials testing and environmental services for people who are constructing buildings.

The company, with more than 90 staff members and offices in Alabama, Florida and Mississippi, has worked on thousands of large projects in Birmingham.

It is BHATE’s company philosophy that has brought it this far — hiring good people and putting a premium on client service, Bhate said.

“It’s people that make the difference,” he said.

“We have a bunch of smart people,” he said, laughing. “My goal is to have people that are smarter than I am.”

“Our goal is to help our clients succeed, but that can’t be accomplished unless you let your employees succeed,” Bhate said.

Bhate and his staff are staying busy on some of the highest-profile projects in the city.

Current projects include Protective Stadium and Legacy Arena at the BJCC, a medical office building at Grandview Medical Center and a new mixed-use redevelopment of the old Trinity Medical Center in Crestwood called Arbor Terrace.

Other jobs downtown include Bakers Row, Foundry Yards, Powell Steam Plant and the renovation of the historic Carver Theatre.

Projects that BHATE has completed recently include the Amazon Fulfillment Center in Bessemer, the bridges and ramps on the new bridges for Interstate 59/20 downtown and the Russell Hospital and Lee Building at Children’s of Alabama.

BHATE has also done many projects for St. Vincent’s Hospital, Jefferson County Board of Education, Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport and Alabama Department of Transportation.

One of Bhate’s biggest clients is UAB, where he has a long, deep connection.

Bhate earned his MBA at UAB from 1975-77 and was one of the first students in what was a new program at the time. He felt he needed a good, basic business education. “They don’t teach you a lot of business in engineering school,” he said.

The MBA was a “good learning experience,” Bhate said, in part because of personal connections he made.

“There were a lot of people who later became very prominent in the business community, so they were all my classmates,” he said.

Bhate has since been a big part of what he calls the “phenomenal, fantastic” growth on the UAB campus.

In fact, he and the firm have worked on most of the new buildings built there since the mid-1970s, including a new residence hall on 11th Avenue South.

“I know more about those buildings and the buildings’ functions than anybody that’s even there at UAB,” Bhate said, laughing. “I am probably the only consultant that UAB has consistently worked with for 45 years.”

Bhate said that he and his staff like the firm’s long-time headquarters, where they moved in 1976, because it’s easy to get to from almost anywhere.

The location allowed him to easily travel to his three big clients at the time he moved in: UAB, U.S. Steel and Baptist Medical Center Montclair.

He and his staff have enjoyed seeing the inspiring resurgence of the Crestwood, Avondale and Woodlawn neighborhoods in the past 10 years.

“I moved to Woodlawn before Woodlawn became cool,” Bhate said.

“The Avondale area has had a lot of positive change with the brewery and other things,” he said, referring to Avondale Brewing Company.

He always felt that Woodlawn had a chance to come back given its location close to downtown. “I wonder why it’s taken so long to do what it’s doing now,” he said.

BHATE worked with the Woodlawn Foundation to help facilitate Woodlawn’s rebirth with the James Rushton Early Learning Center and the Woodlawn Community School, as well as work on the First Baptist Church of Woodlawn and the Woodlawn campus of Church of the Highlands, according to a company news release.

Bhate continues to love and brag about his adopted home of Birmingham, as well.

“When people from out of town ask me about Birmingham, I tell them about how wonderful the people are,” he said.

People have “different impressions” of Birmingham, but the city has much to be proud of, Bhate said.

He mentioned UAB, as well as such attractions as Railroad Park, the Birmingham Museum of Art and the Botanical Gardens.

“The amenities Birmingham has for the size of the city is really great,” he said. “The food scene is fantastic.”

“There have been a lot of very positive changes in Birmingham, so my moving to Birmingham was a great move for me personally for business and my career,” Bhate said.

Bhate is also looking forward to a bright, busy future for his company.

“The next few years, what we hope we can accomplish is to provide new services, expand our geographic reach and by the same token not lose sight of the fundamental objective of quality service and excellence in what we do,” Bhate said.

The company also wants to put the “highest priority” on safety for its employees, he said.

Bhate, who estimates that he has worked on more than 10,000 projects, has earned numerous honors over his long career.

He is a member of the Alabama Construction Hall of Fame, was named to the prestigious UAB Excellence in Business Top 25 and received the Outstanding Alumni Award from Georgia Tech.

He has also served on boards for nonprofits like the Ronald McDonald House and the Boys and Girls Club.

However, after nearly a half-century in business, Bhate has no plans to retire from his position as senior principal engineer, at least not in the “conventional sense,” he said.

“I have the freedom to do what I love todo, which is as good as being retired,” he said.

He also wants to continue helping his staff develop their careers.

“The goal with our younger staff is to mentor then and help them succeed,” Bhate said. “That gives me a lot of pleasure.”