KANSAS CITY, Mo. (November 2, 2009) – Eugene Skoropowski has joined HNTB Corporation as passenger rail services director for the South East Division, based in the firm’s Lake Mary, Fla. office. He brings more than 40 years of experience gained in a career that spans the nation from Boston to Oakland, Calif.

“HNTB is extremely proud to add Gene to our roster of high-speed rail professionals,” said Peter Gertler, HNTB high-speed rail services chair. “His extensive domestic and international experience and talent will add significant value to the services we provide our clients as we continue to lead the industry in bringing high-speed rail to America.”

In his new role, Skoropowski is responsible for serving clients of HNTB’s passenger rail services and providing management and technical services for the firm’s current and future projects in the South Eastern states.

Before joining the HNTB team, Skoropowski served as managing director of the Capitol Corridor Joint Powers Authority (CCJPA) since August 1999; 10 months after the CCJPA took over the administrative management of the Capitol Corridor service from the Caltrans Division of Rail. He announced his retirement from the CCJPA in September 2009. At that time, Capitol Corridor had become the third busiest route in the national Amtrak system with more frequent service than any route outside the Northeast Corridor and the highest “on-time” record, at 92.4 percent, of any Amtrak Corridor.

For ten years prior to joining the CCJPA, he was director of rail projects for Fluor Corporation, where he managed rail construction and operations projects in Los Angeles (MetroRail) and Florida High-Speed Rail (Florida Overland eXpress), as well as public-private partnership for TGV high-speed rail services in France — and lead Fluor’s successful 25-year franchise proposal to design-build-operate-maintain all track, signals and other related infrastructure for the HSL Zuid Project in the Netherlands—TGV-type, ‘Thalys’ high-speed trains running from Brussels to Amsterdam.

He served ten years as assistant general manager of the Philadelphia regional transit system and was chief railroad services officer for Boston's sprawling commuter rail system for five years. While practicing as a private architect and planner, he also served six years on the Boston transit system's budgetary board and regional planning commission.

He is a founding member of the American Public Transportation Association Commuter Rail Committee and is a current member of the APTA High Speed/Intercity Rail Committee and Legislative Committee. He is also a member of the Intercity Rail Working Group supporting the National Commission Study on Transportation Policy and Investment submitted to Congress in 2008.

Skoropowski holds a bachelor of architecture degree from The Catholic University of America School of Architecture & Planning in Washington, D.C.

HNTB Corporation is an employee-owned infrastructure firm serving federal, state, municipal, military and private clients. With nearly a century of service, HNTB has the insight to understand the life cycle of infrastructure and the perspective to solve the most complex technical, financial and operational challenges. Professionals nationwide provide award-winning planning, design, program management and construction management services. For more information, visit www.hntb.com.