Jeffery Meyers (left) serves as Director of Marketing and Business Development at PACS Construction Laboratories and Testing Services, Inc., the firm that John Ynigues (right), President and General Manager, started in 2003.

A PACS Construction Laboratories and Testing Services, Inc. technician tests subgrade for compaction and moisture content to determine whether it is compliant.

Employees at PACS Construction Laboratories and Testing Services, Inc. (PACS) are pretty unique. You’re just as likely to find employees wearing a lab coat and goggles as a hard hat and steel-toed boots.

The Houston firm—whose acronym, PACS, stands for professionals, asphalt, concrete and soils—provides construction material services and testing that enable building and infrastructure projects to move forward, knowing that the materials are safe, appropriate and durable.

The firm, which is led by President and General Manager John Ynigues, initially got its start by providing services to the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT), testing concrete, hot mix asphalts and soils for road and bridge projects. Over time, it expanded into testing services for subdivision development; facilities construction, including hospitals, hotels, manufacturing facilities and other commercial properties; and asphalt and concrete roads on both state and city roadways. PACS performs testing for Sugar Land Regional Airport, David Wayne Hooks Airport and George Bush Intercontinental Airport; as well as materials testing for suppliers, Ynigues says.

PACS’ clients include material suppliers, general contractors, subdivision developers, engineering firms, project owners and of course TxDOT—but chances are, if you’ve been in Houston or its surrounding metropolitan area, you’ve benefited from the high standards it has in place to ensure that infrastructure projects are safe and built with the appropriate materials.

‘The Place to Be’

“If you’re in the construction industry, Houston is the place to be,” Ynigues says. “It’s a boom town.”

The boom has kept PACS busy since it was founded more than 15 years ago. Its resume includes contracts for many highway projects—including the State Highway 99/Grand Parkway project that loops around metro Houston and covers seven counties and when completed will total 180 miles; asphalt testing and work for one of the nation’s busiest airports—Bush Intercontinental—as well as crucial infrastructure services, terminal improvements and additions to ensure efficiency at Port Houston, one of the world’s largest and most active port complexes.

“While we don’t build any of the structures, we test and evaluate the materials to make sure the projects can go forward,” Ynigues says.

The team at PACS is relatively small—only 12 employees—but mighty and productive. The staff includes registered professional engineers, engineering graduates, scientists and certified laboratory and field engineering technicians. “The size allows us to focus on the quality of our work and our personnel,” Ynigues says.

Speciality Services

Though there are other labs that provide testing services, PACS stands out because of the specialty evaluations it offers.

The testing capabilities at the lab, which is certified by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials and meets guidelines set by the ASTM International, are a source of pride for Ynigues.

“As the science behind infrastructure and materials continues to evolve, we stay on the leading edge with what we can do in the lab,” he says. “We offer testing services that only a handful of laboratories can provide.”

Those capabilities result in competitors sometimes turning to PACS for testing and evaluation assistance. “We do perform specialty testing for our competitors, and then our competitors become our clients,” Ynigues says. “We have a really great relationship with them. We pride ourselves on providing high-quality, accurate and timely test reports.”

Ynigues’ team specializes in mix design to determine the optimum blend of component materials for any given project. To come up with the right formula, PACS conducts detailed evaluations of aggregate, asphalt and cement and determines the optimum blending ratios.

Other services include grout testing as well as on-site inspection of concrete masonry units to test for compressive strength, moisture content and absorption.

Additional field inspection work that the technicians at PACS perform is in-place density testing. Soil laboratory testing is performed prior to field density testing to understand material properties and to ensure compliance with project specifications. Once soil material compliance is obtained, in-place density and moisture content can be verified using a nuclear density gauge. Technicians and project managers work closely with the construction team to resolve any issues with material compliance, field compaction and/or moisture.

In addition, PACS offers riprap material sampling, inspection and testing. Materials are extracted from the stockpile and then measured and tested for weight, dimension and volume. The test data is then checked for compliance with the project specifications.

Industry Experts

All those services require a high degree of expertise and knowledge from the technicians, which is one reason why Ynigues puts such a high priority on training and accreditation for his staff.

“It takes two to five years of training and mentoring and thousands of dollars to really develop and educate someone to do the job,” he says. “Investing in field and lab technicians is fundamental to operating a reliable and successful firm,” he adds.

PACS’ employees complete a series of training and accreditation programs through the National Institute for Certification in Engineering Technologies (NICET), the American Concrete Institute and the Hot Mix Asphalt Center in addition to the mentorship and learning that happens daily among the PACS staff.

“In this field, you can really start at the bottom and build a great career and nice life as a technician,” Ynigues says.

The market is very competitive for qualified technicians, but Ynigues says PACS does everything it can to retain its employees. That includes offering ongoing training and accreditations, regular pay increases and an attractive and comprehensive benefits package.

But finding the right employees to keep up with a growing workload has been a challenge. “We’ve been as busy as we’ve ever been this year, but it’s been as difficult as it’s ever been to find people,” he says.

Busy as Ever

There’s no indication that the demand for PACS’ services will be slowing. “Even during the COVID-19 shutdown, the streets would be empty on our way to work, but everyone on our team was still getting 40 hours a week and there were no layoffs,” Ynigues says. “Now, people are getting all the overtime hours they want, some putting in 50 or 60 hours a week.”

With the federal government making plans for a historic investment in infrastructure, Ynigues is hopeful to be even busier in the coming months and years.

“A major investment is necessary,” he says. “Infrastructure is crucial to our communities and the country so that we can continue to move people and goods efficiently.”

It’s also good for business, he adds.

“If you’re planning on building a road, you’re going to have it tested, there’s just no way around that,” Ynigues says.

PACS’ future appears bright as the firm tackles new challenges and evolving project opportunities. Ynigues also looks forward to training up the next generation of lab technicians and tomorrow’s experts in materials testing.