Moody Engineering Inc. (MEI) is a full service Forensics and Civil Engineering Company that provides professional consulting, planning, and design services to clients throughout Texas and the Southwestern United States. Since 1997 MEI has provided comprehensive services to clients in civil/forensic engineering and motor vehicle accident reconstruction. With the recent addition of key staff, MEI now offers a complete suite of services in civil and water resources engineering.
MEI has investigated and reconstructed thousands of motor vehicle accidents involving passenger cars, commercial vehicles, pedestrians, motorcycles, UTVs, and construction equipment. Our team is ready to deploy on short notice. We pride ourselves on our quick response, thorough investigations, and objective analysis. Our clients find great satisfaction in knowing their case is being properly handled by our experienced team of forensic engineers and reconstructionists.
Our areas of specialty include:
Forensic Engineering is the investigation of materials, products, structures, or components that fail or do not operate or function as intended, causing death, personal injury, or damage to property. At MEI, this includes: Weather Events (hydrologic and meteorlogic events); Engineering and Construction Practices; and the Application of Technical Criteria and Guidelines (Federal, State, and Local).
Our areas of specialty include:
The heart of our civil expertise is stormwater. Decades of experience in the design and construction of civil projects reinforce for us that the success of the total project begins with how stormwater is handled. In short, we recognize that drainage planning that defines the project vs project planning that defines the drainage.
Our capabilities here include:
Planning is the process of resource prioritization by multiple stakeholders, across a long frame of time. Land and water are the two key resources which are impacted in land and community development. Whether a private or public undertaking, there are regulatory processes and local community input processes which direct investment and seek to minimize risk. With a common understanding of the relative risks and trade-offs, communities and private investors can make smart investments. At MEI, our planning staff offer an understanding of these processes developed in decades of direct experience, and supported by deep technical understanding of engineering principles and methods.
Key capabilities in planning include:
In a civil society, engineering is relied upon in the interactions between the built environment, the natural environment, and the human agents acting within them.
Dr. Eric Moody, P.E. founded Moody Engineering, Inc. (MEI) in 1997 rooted in his passion for problem-solving through disciplined examination and analysis of evidence. In 2016, Eric’s cousin Keith Moody, P.E., CFM joined the firm. Moody Engineering, Inc. is now a full-service Forensics and Civil Engineering Company that provides professional consulting, planning, and design services to clients throughout Texas and the Southwestern United States.
MEI’s experience includes engineering, design and project management in the areas of hydrology, hydraulics, watershed master planning, stormwater management/water quality, erosion control, flood control, water quality engineering, and vehicular accident reconstruction. Additionally, MEI provides forensic engineering and expert witness support across the State for matters relating to vehicular accidents, flooding, and property damage claims.
9225 Bee Cave Road
Bldg. A, Ste. 200
Austin, Texas 78733
Toll Free: (800) 821-9112
Office: (512) 502-8333
Fax: (512) 502-8334
Creek and drainage systems are part of the viability of a valuable natural regime. Changes to flow characteristics – such as increasing flowrates or velocities, or adding impoundments or creating restrictions or areas of low slope – can have a prodound impact on the health of the creek, in terms of its ability to sustain riparian life and support a healthy diversity of species. Particularly urban or urbanizing creeks are at risk of experiencing degradation. Additionally, we also know that the riparian natural system performs a number of critical functions, such as filtration and flood mitigation. MEI actively seeks to incorporate design strategies which protect and preserve sensitive areas. This begins with an ability to assess with knowledgable field guidance and detailed mapping capabilities, and through careful analysis, results in design solutions which retain natural function as well as character, without compromising hydraulic and hydrologic performance.
Water and sanitary sewer infrastructure system expansions or rehabilitation/replacement require careful planning in order to ensure that the design and implementation meet a broad array of community objectives, including maximizing community and ratepayer benefit, and minimizing risk in many forms. MEI staff’s experience with grant funding, master planning, and with capital improvements planning provide a complete set of capabilities to guide water and sewer infrastructure projects.
MEI draws on decades of experience working with local governments and special districts contemplating how to best allocate their resources to protect communities from flooding. We are adept at describing “community risk” and flooding, in many ways, so that the community can truly understand what is at stake. Ultimately, our ability to work through the technical details and communicate them effectively, allow decision makers to have all of the best information available to them.
MEI provides expert consulting on municipal land use issues, including Future Land Use planning, and zoning administration. MEI has experience in the development of municipal comprehensive plans for small-/mid-sized cities.
As upstream watershed conditions change over time, and as flood events occur within the community, MEI prides itself in being able to envision and implement natural systems protection solutions, such as stream restoration. This begins with master-level understanding of the hydrologic and hydraulic systems and the influences of a changing flow regime and sediment transport on the natural creek systems.
As the need for reliable clean water to supply agriculture, cities, industry and recreation increases – and especially in Texas – we can offer technical policy guidance on various best management practices, and design strategic low-impact development (LID) projects to protect surface and groundwater sources. We have a keen eye for marrying these objectives into the details of a complex building or site design.
Whether the mainstem of the city’s river or a tributary channel in a neighborhood, we create solutions to control flooding. We are experienced in the analysis, design, policy considerations, and implementation of flood control projects across the State of Texas, working with small towns and big cities, or even special purpose districts. Most importantly, we help direct a discussion within the community about flood risk, so that the community can make informed decisions about major projects or project alternatives to fix legacy flooding problems, as well as new ones, to meet the demand of growing populations.
Engineering hydrology is a quantitative study of the relationship between rainfall and runoff over a set period of time. In the design of systems to control runoff, we employ a number of techniques to estimate peak runoff within a watershed (or catchment) area. Our engineering staff utilizes state of the art software applications, such as HEC-HMS, to generate hydrographs which most closely describe a hydrologic system. Similarly in the design of systems to convey storm runoff, we utilize engineering methods and analyze with hydraulic modeling software to determine the behavior of water within a channel, pipe network, pond, or pressurized system.
Engineering and Construction
-Analysis, Calculations, Design Assessments
-Construction Quantities
-Contract Document Review
Meteorological Events
-Flood frequency and statistics
-“Detention” vs. “Flood Control”
-Dam safety and risk assessment
Erosion and Sediment
-Streambank Erosion
-Fugitive Sediment
-Sedimentation Controls
-Bridge Scour
MEI’s provides qualified staff to inspect concerns related to building envelope, foundations, water damage and wind damage. We assist private parties, property managers, insurance companies, and if needed, perform this work in the capacity of an expert witness.
Our engineers are well-versed in providing deposition and trial testimony. We provide expert technical opinions based on accepted engineering principals and grounded by physical evidence. We are confident in our presentation of the facts and remain steadfast in the support of our findings. Moody Engineering has participated in thousands of cases since our inception in 1997. Our reputation for providing precise, accurate, and thorough analysis and expert testimony is widely recognized in the industry.
Vehicle inspections are a routine part of accident investigations. Understanding the various types of damage and how they occur can aid in our understanding of how two vehicles interact during a collision. This is often used in tandem with EDR (Black Box) Downloads.
Passenger Vehicle Inspections
When applicable the amount of deformation or “crush” can be quantified in order to understand energy loss during a collision. With a wide range of tools available we digitally image and measure crash vehicles for permanent record and subsequent analysis.
Commercial Vehicle Inspections
We routinely inspect all types of commercial vehicles including tractor-trailer combinations, refuse trucks, dump trucks, and heavy construction equipment. When necessary we inspect these commercial vehicles to determine compliance with the North American Standard Out-Of-Service Criteria.
EDR (Blackbox) downloads are described in more detail here.
In an ever-evolving technological world, evidence is no longer limited to roadway skid marks and vehicle crush damage. Many vehicles on the road today have the capability of recording event data that often yields critical information. Moody Engineering makes it a priority to stay on the cutting edge of this technology. We employ a multitude of software packages and data collection systems to download and preserve this digital evidence. Our experts can perform forensic downloads on the vast majority of vehicles on the road today.
Commercial Motor Vehicle ECM Downloads
Our firm has the capability to download Detroit, Mercedes, Cummins, Caterpillar, Paccar, and International engines to name a few. These engines are standard in the majority of commercial vehicles on the road today.
Passenger Vehicle Data Downloads
Moody Engineering is well versed in the Crash Data Retrieval tool by Bosch, Kia/Hyundai EDR tool, and the Tesla tool. New vehicle models are routinely added, and we make it a priority to stay up to date with the latest software, firmware, & hardware.
Animations
There is no better way to represent the facts of a crash than a forensic animation. Our team of experienced technicians work alongside our experts to incorporate field data, physical evidence, simulations, and other analytical data to prepare accurate courtroom ready animations. Our animations are meticulously engineered for precision and accuracy while yielding photo realistic representations.
See our YouTube page for more examples
Simulations
In contrast to animations our simulations utilize advanced physics models to accurately calculate and predict accident parameters. In parallel with our animations we can incorporate collected field data and other real-world properties for accurate results. Our engineers utilize software packages such as Human Vehicle Environment (HVE) and msmac3D.
See our YouTube page for more examples
Diagramming
We develop comprehensive diagrams of all motor vehicle accident scenes. These diagrams are often pivotal in developing an immediate understanding of how and why an accident occurred. These diagrams routinely include information pertaining to roadway geometrics, site distance, pavement markings, signage, traffic signals, gouge marks, scrape marks, tire marks, and vehicle positions.
The preservation of all roadway evidence, scene geometry, and vehicle locations is a vital part of our accident investigations. Our teams are available to deploy to accident sites with short notice. Our firm utilizes a combination of state of the art surveying tools and digital photography to thoroughly and accurately collect all relevant data.
UAV (Drone) Aerial Mapping
Moody Engineering is an early adopter of commercially available UAV technology. Our staff is trained and licensed through the FAA to safely and legally fly UAVs for investigations. Utilizing advanced photogrammetry software packages, we are able to process our aerial photographs and prepare high precision mappings of roadway geometry and physical evidence.
3D Laser Scanning and Imaging
3D Laser scanning technology enables the timely and accurate preservation of accident scenes and vehicles alike. Utilizing the most advanced laser scanners to date, we can capture millions of high precision data points for further virtual analysis. We find that the ability to revisit an accident scene or crash vehicle in a digital format is highly useful and cost effective.
Forensic Photography and Videography
All accident scenes are documented with a comprehensive set of photographs and video that encompass pertinent roadway evidence. These photographs and video are not only referred to during our analysis, but are routinely used as courtroom exhibits. Our Animation, Simulation and Diagramming capabilities are described in more detail here.
