Public engineering firm profile
Stratford, CT
Unmatched Expertise Where Water Meets Land(TM)
RACE Coastal Engineering is a Stratford, Connecticut-based practice founded in 1999, specializing exclusively in coastal resiliency, design, and engineering along the New England and Mid-Atlantic coastlines. It combines coastal, structural, and geotechnical engineering with environmental permitting and hydrographic survey capabilities to serve residential homeowners, marinas and yacht clubs, commercial properties, municipalities, and major port facilities. The team guides clients end-to-end from initial site assessment and permitting through construction administration.
Comprehensive engineering solutions for shoreline restoration, coastal resiliency planning, flood risk assessment, and coastal modeling.
Design and planning of waterfront structures including piers, docks, floats, seawalls, bulkheads, jetties, groins, and boat ramps.
Structural analysis and design for marine and waterfront facilities, framing, foundations, and reinforced concrete.
Subsurface investigation, soil testing, and foundation analysis supporting waterfront structures.
Comprehensive planning and engineering for marinas and yacht clubs, including layout, travel lifts, boat ramps, and mooring fields.
Dredge planning, design, and execution for navigation improvements, beach nourishment, and sediment management.
Condition assessment, underwater diving inspections, and rehabilitation design for existing waterfront structures.
Procurement of state and federal regulatory permits and compliance coordination for coastal projects.
On-site construction oversight, monitoring, and administration for waterfront and marine projects.
Engineering services for inland water bodies, including lake and pond design and pool engineering.
East Haven, CT | Victoria Beach Condominium Association | Residential
Following storm damage from Storms Irene and Sandy, designed and permitted an armored stone revetment, seawall, and beach replenishment to protect fifteen residential units located within 10 feet of an eroding slope. Managed coordination with local officials and CT DEEP, prepared final engineering documents, and provided construction administration services.
View project sourceAllen Harbor, North Kingston, RI | Safe Harbor Marina | Marine
Permitted and designed a lift well for a new 35,000-pound forklift, including bulkhead design, cut/fill surface modeling, dredging, and shoreline modifications. Coordinated soil sampling and regulatory permitting with Rhode Island's Coastal Resource Management Council (CRMC).
View project sourceStamford, CT | HPHV Direct, LLC | Commercial
Designed a new 1,260-foot public access boardwalk structure and replaced 250 feet of failing timber bulkhead at an adjacent private marina. The design oversheeted the failing bulkhead with steel sheet piles and anchored deadmen into a nearby parking garage, allowing the public boardwalk system to safely continue atop the new bulkhead.
View project sourceNew England / Mid-Atlantic | Marine
Waterfront facility improvement project for a yacht club client.
View project sourceNew England / Mid-Atlantic | Ports & Harbors
Structural assessment and replacement design for a port terminal bulkhead.
View project sourceNew England / Mid-Atlantic | Government
Dredging and beach nourishment project for a municipal waterfront.
View project sourceNew England / Mid-Atlantic | Government
Geotechnical and coastal engineering for stabilization of an eroding municipal bluff.
View project sourceNew England / Mid-Atlantic | Commercial
Civil and coastal engineering for a mixed-use waterfront development project.
View project sourceVice President of Coastal Engineering and Partner
Azure Dee Sleicher joined the team in 2016 bringing her extensive experience in analyzing, designing, and permitting coastal erosion protection and living shoreline projects. She is well-versed in the determination of coastal flood hazard areas in accordance with FEMA's Guidelines and Specifications.
Partner and Project Manager
PE
Matthew Rakowski is a structural engineer with experience in the design and analysis of waterfront structures, foundations, and buildings. He maintains thorough knowledge in the design of structures and is proficient with modeling applications such as Carlson, Land Desktop, AutoCAD, RISA, Shoring Suite, and Allpile. He was elected Partner in 2022.
Partner and Project Manager
Steve Sternberg is a dedicated professional with a strong history of successful collaboration with clients, vendors, and colleagues. He was elected Partner in 2022 and promoted to the Leadership Team.
Founder
John Roberge founded the precursor of the practice in 1999 to provide responsive, quality coastal engineering services to clients while maintaining high standards of excellence and integrity.
Partner
Devin Santa joined the professional staff in 2001 and co-founded the formalized partnership in 2004, working together on a wide range of waterfront projects and establishing a supporting hydrographic surveying company.
Project Engineer
PE
Jeff joined the practice as an Engineer in 2021. After receiving a Bachelor's Degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Connecticut, he gained valuable experience performing site investigations, preparing design drawings, and managing construction administration on multiple infrastructure projects.
Project Engineer
E.I.T.
Suzy Bradford joined the team after graduating from Texas A&M at Galveston. She has extensive experience with the regulatory processes of several Northeastern States and has completed coastal modeling and marine design across the region.
Project Engineer and Coastal Resiliency Specialist
CFM, WEDG
Hailey has a focus in physical oceanic processes and works on a variety of coastal design projects and coastal analysis studies, performing wave transformation analysis, wave load calculations, and coastal flood mapping studies.
Engineer
E.I.T.
Brady graduated from Manhattan University with a degree in Civil Engineering. He has hands-on construction experience from several roles including subsurface investigations, foundation installation monitoring, and groundwater testing.
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View publicationOur relationship with RACE has spanned the past 20 years and included projects of critical importance to our members. These have included dredging of marina and fairways, replacement of our iconic and historic pier, monitoring and management of site storm water issues, FEMA compliance and flood insurance related issues, hydrographic surveying and monitoring of navigation depths, and overall facility planning incorporating our marine and waterfront. RACE has proven to provide valuable expertise and responsiveness for our marine projects and is a true partner with RYC in the management of our waterfront.