In a move to enhance the firm’s construction support service offerings, Urban announced the promotion of Antonio Ditri, PE, to practice leader for constructability and Moses Gaster, CEP, to practice leader for estimating. Mr. Ditri has been with the firm for more than 12 years, while Mr. Gaster has been with the firm for 10 years.
“We are excited to be announcing the promotions of Antonio and Moses to these well-deserved leadership positions,” said Jerry O'Neill, PE, CCM, an Urban senior vice president and chief construction officer. “These personnel moves enhance what was already a very capable construction department, and strengthen it to improve the quality of service we provide for our valued clients.”
Mr. Ditri is a licensed Professional Engineer with almost 15 years of experience in the construction industry. He has been responsible for performing multiple constructability reviews for projects of varying scope throughout the design phase. Mr. Ditri has worked closely with key personnel at PennDOT, the Delaware River Port Authority, the Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission, and the City of Philadelphia on major construction inspection assignments involving roadway, bridges, guiderail, traffic signals, excavation, and more. His skills also include monitoring and approving CPM schedule updates. Previously honored as a GVF Top TDM Professionals Under 40, Mr. Ditri received a bachelor’s in civil engineering from Temple University and a master’s in construction management from Drexel University.
Mr. Gaster is a Certified Estimating Professional with 23 years of experience as a construction professional. He has served as a project manager, scheduler, estimator, cost engineer, field engineer, and inspector for multi-prime contracts and large design-build projects and has estimated projects valuing as much as $1 billion. His 12 years of contractor experience adds additional value to his expertise as an estimator. He understands contractors’ perspectives, which enables him to foster trust and build partnerships among multi-prime teams. Mr. Gaster’s scheduling responsibilities include building baseline schedules and refining and updating schedules using Primavera. He also uses critical path analysis to identify and prevent potential delays and provides forensic scheduling for claims analysis. A graduate of Penn State, where he earned a bachelor’s in civil engineering, Mr. Gaster received a master’s in construction management from Drexel University.
Construction projects require flexibility and fast response. It takes an ambitious team with a proactive, results-oriented and focused plan to finish the job successfully. Urban crafts an aggressive, results-oriented program to handle the unique challenges of each project. Constructability reviews can help save time and money by identifying potential construction issues during the design phase. Urban’s integrated constructability evaluations program results in high-quality and cost-effective design documents. Urban also prepares cost estimates during any stage of a project using an approach similar to contactors. The firm identifies permanent material and equipment requirements, as well as construction equipment rates, crew sizes, crew productivity estimates, and materials prices.
