Richard Dethlefs

PE, SE

Biography

Rich has been an executive at YA Group since 2017, heading up our Northwest property consultant group. In January 2009, Rich founded YA Engineering Services, our partner professional engineering firm. Rich is a licensed professional and structural engineer with over twenty-five years of experience working with the insurance industry performing structural investigations, repair designs, litigation support, and code upgrade analyses. Experience includes the evaluation, cause analysis, litigation support and courtroom testimony in various projects including the collapse of a 210-foot tower crane in Bellevue, Washington; claims related to the Seattle Tunnel Project; Seattle Sea Wall builder’s risk claim; Carpenter’s Tower construction defect and corrosion damage litigation in Seattle, Washington; collapse of the Robinson Road Bridge in Nampa, Idaho; dozens of condominium defect claims and progressive rot claims in western Washington and Oregon; Dillingham, Alaska water tank roof collapse; evaluation of failure of the Homer, Alaska sea wall; non-destructive testing and evaluation of concrete bridge piers for the Korean High Speed Rail Authority construction of the South Korea High Speed Rail System; modeling, evaluation and load testing of post-tensioned concrete parking garage beams at Miami International Airport; evaluation of cracking and damage to concrete water containment structures including the Seattle Public Utilities underground water reservoirs, Lake Michigan Water Filtration Plant, and the Post Point Water Treatment plant in Bellingham, Washington; and evaluation of earthquake damage to dozens of structures following the 2001 Seattle earthquake, including the SODO Center / Starbucks Building in Seattle, Washington. In addition, Rich has experience on over 100 fire damage and/or code-upgrade analysis projects.

Credentials

  • PE | Professional Engineer
  • SE | Structural Engineer

Professional Experience

  • 2019 - Current | President | YA Engineering Services
  • 2017 - Current | Executive Partner | YA Group
  • 1995 - 2017 | Principal | Wiss Janney Elstner Associates Inc.
  • 1994 - 1994 | Engineer | Arvid Grant Associates Inc.

Education

  • University of Washington - Bachelor of Science - Civil Engineering

Affiliations

  • American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE)