Phil Martin started working on job sites with his father, Russ Martin, at a young age and graduated from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1984 with a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering. After starting his career with Turner Construction Company in Chicago, he returned to Springfield in 1991 to work at Martin Engineering Company, the firm his father had founded in 1982. Phil and Steve Walker bought the company in 2003 and have now signed an agreement to sell it to employees Adam Pallai and Tyler Walker in September.
Where were you born and raised, and what was your first job?
I was born in Fort Belvoir, Virginia, but only lived there until I was six months old. My parents moved back to Illinois, and I was raised in Springfield. My first house was in Laketown.
My first job was working for my dad, also an engineer, who formed a company with a partner in the 1970s. I started going out with him when I was young, and recently one of my employees found some of my field notes from 1973 when I was 12 years old and worked with my dad on a parking lot. I have the framed notes in my office. I was also the janitor, and every Sunday we would go to the office where dad would work, and I would clean the toilets and vacuum.
I graduated from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign with a civil engineering degree, and my first big boy job was in Chicago with Turner Construction Company. My first project up there, and I’m still very proud of it, was the United Airlines Terminal One at O’Hare Airport. I was the first man on the job; we knocked down the old international terminal and built the one that’s still there today.
How has the use of the latest technology such as Global Positioning System and Computer Aided Design changed the way your company operates?
I just missed the boat on CAD. If my first job had been a design job instead of construction management, I probably would have been on CAD the whole time. I’m one of the old guys around here, and maybe the only one now who doesn’t do any CAD. I learned how to do drafting with a pen and a sheet of Mylar. But things have come a long way, and it’s amazing how much more quickly you can get a set of plans done now with CAD.
Global Positioning System is another one. I used to go out on the survey crew when I was a kid, and we did it the old-fashioned way, you had a guy with the gun on one end, and I was the one holding the orange and white pole on the other. Now my guys can stake out curbs for a project based off of satellites.
While technology can be great, will it ever replace a seasoned engineer’s experience in the field?
You have to learn through experience. Too much reliance on technology is something you need to guard against. It’s like using artificial intelligence; you have to be careful writing letters to make sure it’s writing what you intended. It’s the same thing with CAD. You have to make sure the answers you are getting make sense and they are the most efficient way to do it. You don’t want to just rely on the technology, and then you end up with two pipes running into each other underground.
What are the latest trends in engineering?
I’ve talked to people in the industry, and AI is being used more and more. We are a smaller firm and are usually late to the party on technology.
Drones are becoming more widely used, and I predict our office will be buying drones soon. That way when we have a big job, we can just fly over a field and cut down the time needed for our field crews. Right now we’re not using drones – some of the bigger firms are – but that may change soon.
Do you see engineering as a growing field with a lot of career opportunities for both men and women?
Yes. We always need more engineers. We are always looking.
What are some current projects you’re working on that may interest our readers?
We have Scheels Sports Park; everybody’s talking about that now. At Southeast High School we just did a football field, and we’re getting ready for phase two, which will be parking lots. Phase three in 2027 will be a new field house.
Way out west on Wabash Avenue by Green Nissan, we are preparing a site for SIU School of Medicine. What you’re seeing there is a new turn lane, and the beginning of the Bradfordton Road extension which will eventually go all the way up to Old Jacksonville Road.
We are doing the tiny veterans’ homes on the east side; those are under construction now. The city’s water department by where the John Hay Homes were is being dislodged by the railroad relocation project, so they’re building a new facility for them and the Public Works Department over on Clear Lake by the Adams Wildlife Sanctuary.
We’re going to do another phase of Panther Creek West next summer. We’re doing some new apartments with Corky Joyner, one of our biggest clients, over by the theater complex on Mercantile Drive. At Comer Cox Park on Martin Luther King Drive we just converted a tennis court into a parking lot, and we are resurfacing the walking paths.
Behind Cedarhurst Senior Living on Old Jacksonville Road, we are about to do some cottage homes like they have at Evertrue Concordia Village. We are also doing some new duplexes called Wellington Estates in Chatham on Gordon Drive.
What is your advice to young people who might consider engineering as a career?
First of all, make sure you like math and are good at math. If not, you’re probably not going to make it. In high school, when it comes time to select a career path, a lot of students come over and job shadow. We’ll create a day for them where they can experience drafting, surveying or a job site. I always encourage them to get an internship or two during their college years, as many as you can get.
What may people be surprised to learn about you?
I’m a C-SPAN junkie. I like to watch public hearings and things like that. It’s very interesting to me.
This article appears in January SBJ 2026.