Our History

One of the oldest continuously operating engineering firms in New England, Tighe & Bond was founded in 1911 to consult on broad-based civil engineering projects. Over the years, in response to the changing needs of clients in a changing environment, the firm evolved to specialize in environmental engineering, focusing on water, wastewater, solid waste and hazardous waste issues. Our experience ranges from consulting on limited projects for small businesses to designing the two largest wastewater residuals drying facilities in the world. We're proud of our history, and dedicated to continuing our tradition of smart solutions to complex challenges and personal service to every client. Today, we provide innovative engineering services to a long list of public and private clients around the country and overseas.

1911 James L. Tighe establishes private practice, focusing on the engineering of dams and water supplies.
1926 Tighe is joined by Philip E. Bond, former Holyoke city engineer.
	1927 Jim Tighe reviews design and inspects construction of the 235-foot Cobble Mountain Dam in Westfield, Massachusetts, the highest hydraulic fill earthen dam in the country at the time.
	1938 Design of drinking water treatment system for the town of Dalton, Massachusetts incorporates slow sand filtration, which will still be operating in the next century.
1951 Design Experiment Station at Lawrence for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, which will be declared a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark by the American Society of Civil Engineers in 1975.
1954 Oversee construction of the Manhan Dam in Southampton, Massachusetts, creating the third largest reservoir in the state at an elevation that permits the distribution system for the city of Holyoke to be gravity-fed, as planned by Jim Tighe in 1896. The 5 billion-gallon Tighe-Carmody Reservoir bears his name.
	1965 Begin planning and design of 34 miles of sewers, three pumping stations and a 2.85 million-gallon per day wastewater treatment plant for the town of Simsbury, Connecticut, which is ultimately completed in 1981.
	1972 Design secondary wastewater treatment plants for many western Massachusetts municipalities, including Chicopee, Easthampton, Erving, Millers Falls, Northfield, Palmer, South Hadley and Sunderland.
	1972 Design industrial wastewater treatment systems for the L.S. Starrett Company in Athol, Westfield Electroplating in Westfield, and Smith & Wesson in Springfield, Massachusetts.
1973 Design water pollution control facilities for city of Chicopee, Massachusetts – 15.5 million-gallon per day system is the first in New England to employ pure oxygen for biological treatment.
1973 Begin designing water and wastewater systems to service military city of 70,000 in Al Batin, Saudi Arabia for the US Army Corps of Engineers.
1979 Design innovative 3 million-gallon per day reverse osmosis desalination plant and large distribution system for Riyadh International Airport in Saudi Arabia.
	1979 Engineer one of the first lined landfills in Massachusetts for the city of Peabody. With a one million-ton capacity, it will support a regional refuse-to-energy project.
	1982 Complete 17.5 million-gallon per day wastewater treatment plant expansion for city of Holyoke, Massachusetts, designed to handle discharges from six major paper and textile mills, utilizing pure oxygen for secondary treatment.
	1985 Begin sewer expansion program for the town of Raynham, Massachusetts that will eventually include a collection system spanning more than 30 miles and 12 pumping stations.
1990 Conduct environmental assessment and develop remedial actions at Delta Park in Chicopee, Massachusetts to decommission 13 underground storage tanks, install recovery well/trench system to remove eight feet of floating product and system to prevent fuel oil migration to adjacent canal.
1991 Complete $90 million interim sludge-processing facility for the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority before court-ordered deadline
	1993 Design the largest sludge drying and pelletizing facility in the world for New York Organic Fertilizer Company in the Bronx, New York.
	1993 Design and supervise construction of Atkins Reservoir Water Treatment Plant for Amherst, Massachusetts, one of the first plants in New England to use ozone/biological activated carbon.
	1994 Introduce design/build groundwater remediation services. To recover and treat groundwater contaminated with chlorinated solvents, design highly automated remediation system in Asheville, North Carolina programmed for remote monitoring and control.
1996 Design/build turnkey industrial wastewater treatment system for dairy processor H.P. Hood in Agawam, Massachusetts.
1996 Tighe & Bond Conference Center in Westfield, Massachusetts opens, offering professional development seminars certified for training contact hours.
1996 Supervise demolition and remediation of one of Massachusetts’ worst fire-related disasters at Malden Mills in Methuen.
	1997 Complete multi-phase upgrade of Holyoke, Massachusetts water system, including 6-mile, 42-inch gravity-fed transmission main, treatment facility, storage tanks and pumping stations.
	1997 Design of cost-effective water treatment plant for town of Chester, Massachusetts selected by the American Public Works Association as National Public Works Project of the Year.
	1998 Oversee brownfields remediation and demolition of 29 buildings on six-acre site of the former H.B. Smith foundry in Westfield, Massachusetts, including appropriate disposal of hazardous waste and 100-year-old underground storage tanks.
	1998 Worcester, Massachusetts office opens to improve client service in Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
2000 Allan Davis Associates of Norwalk, Connecticut joins Tighe & Bond.	2000 Design begins for Lake Whitney Water Treatment Plant for the South Central Connecticut Regional Water Authority serving New Haven, Connecticut.
2001 Establish fifth office in Middletown, Connecticut.	2002 Open office on Cape Cod in Massachusetts.
2004 Consultants and Engineers, Inc. of Danbury, CT joins Tighe & Bond.	2004 Complete $15.5 million wastewater improvement project in Winchendon, Massachusetts including treatment plant upgrade designed to reduce ammonia and phosphorus, and increase capacity to eliminate combined sewer overflows and accommodate planned sewer extension projects.
2006 Provide site planning, wetlands approvals, storm water management, traffic studies, permitting and design of wastewater treatment plant expansion to enable redevelopment by Georgetown Land Development Company of former Gilbert & Bennett wire mill site in Redding, Connecticut, recipient of the 2005 EPA Award for Smart Growth Achievement.