Complete Streets + Pedestrian Connectivity

Ben Crawford, PE

Vice President / Transportation Director

Ben has more than 17 years of experience providing transportation solutions to improve safety and accessibility in communities across North Carolina. His depth of experience includes specialties in roadway design, Complete Streets, greenway design, traffic control, noise analysis, and signing and pavement marking.

Additionally, Ben has experience in utility conflict and relocation, site/civil design, storm drainage design, water distribution and sewer collection design, and traffic surveys. He is also certified by the FHWA for traffic noise models.

Ben’s responsibilities as Transportation Director include leading SEPI’s Hydraulic Design, Roadway Design, and Traffic Engineering groups and serving in an advisory role for a variety of complex transportation projects including traditional and design-build delivery methods.

Ben has also successfully managed numerous Federally-funded municipal projects and projects financed under the Locally Administered Projects Program (LAPP) for clients such as the City of Raleigh, City of Durham, and Town of Cary among others.

Ben holds a BS in Civil Engineering from North Carolina State University and is a member of the American Society of Highway Engineers and the American Public Works Association – NC Chapter.

Lisa Lundeen, PE

Traffic Engineer

Lisa has over nine years of experience in transportation including traffic capacity analysis, traffic impact analysis, traffic forecasting, and traffic safety. Prior to joining SEPI, she worked with the NCDOT Transportation Mobility and Safety Division as a traffic safety project engineer.

Lisa holds a BS in Civil Engineering from North Carolina State University.

Pooya Najaf, PhD, PTP, EI

Transportation Planner

Pooya has over ten years of experience in transportation engineering including travel demand modeling, traffic forecasting, traffic safety analysis, traffic simulation, CAVs (Connected + Automated Vehicles) analysis, transit planning, statistical modeling, and machine learning.

He has managed multiple on-call traffic forecasting projects with the NCDOT and is experienced in both large-scale transportation modeling (using TransCAD, GIS, and Cube) and traffic micro-simulation (using VISSIM, TransModeler, and Synchro).

Pooya holds a Doctorate in Transportation Engineering from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and a Professional Transportation Planner (PTP) certificate from the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE). He also holds a MS in Transportation Engineering and Planning from Sharif University of Technology, and a BS in Civil Engineering from Iran University of Science + Technology.

As an industry thought leader, Pooya is a Committee Member of the Standing Committee on Transit Capacity and Quality of Service (AP015) and the Special Committee for Travel Forecasting Resources (ADB45) for the Transportation Research Board (TRB), a division of the National Research Council of the United States. He also serves as an editorial board member for the Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers – Transport board.

Rajit Ramkumar, PE, LEED AP

Associate / NC Manager of Planning + Environmental + GIS

Rajit has 15 years of transportation planning and engineering experience and has managed more than 100 projects of varying complexity for clients statewide. He is proficient in state and federal policies and procedures and has completed numerous projects involving Complete Streets, multimodal design, streetscapes, and bicycle and pedestrian improvements utilizing AASHTO and NACTO guidelines.

Additionally, Rajit’s expertise spans greenway facilities, feasibility studies, SEPA/NEPA, urban planning, environmental screening, permitting, parking, traffic noise analysis, and grant assistance. A proven project engineer, he leads multi-disciplinary teams with a focus on planning, collaboration, and engaging project stakeholders effectively.

Rajit holds a MS in Civil Engineering from North Carolina State University and a Bachelor of Technology Civil Engineering from the University of Kerala. He also holds a NCDOT Complete Streets Certification.

Robbie Kirk, PE

Assistant Vice President / Roadway Design Department Manager

Robbie is a skilled civil engineer with more than 11 years of experience providing design for roadway, greenway, Complete Streets, multimodal, transit, and freight projects throughout the Southeast. His expertise also encompasses geometric design of highways, intersections, tracks, and yards.

Robbie is well versed in traditional construction and design-build initiatives for complex projects across North Carolina and is responsible for overseeing municipal and state transportation projects, business development and teaming strategies, and team development and training for the Roadway group.

As a former Captain in the US Army Corps of Engineers, Robbie served as the US Army Contracting Officer’s technical representative on multiple projects in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Robbie holds a BS in Civil Engineering from University of North Carolina at Charlotte and a BA in Political Science from The Citadel. He is a member of the American Society for Civil Engineers (ASCE), the American Society of Highway Engineers (ASHE), and is a Charlotte Tree Advisory Commission Board Member.

Steve Miller, PE

Associate / Traffic Design Manager

Steve has 16 years of experience and is highly skilled in the design and coordination of transportation management plans (TMPs), signing plans, work zone traffic control, and pavement markings. Steve is qualified in TMP work zone levels of significance 1-4 and has completed traffic control design for interstates, rural and urban road widenings, and bridge structures statewide.

Steve’s expertise spans traffic operations for multimodal facilities including detour design, temporary signing and delineation, and phased construction methods for maintaining traffic flow and pedestrian safety.

Prior to joining SEPI, Steve held civil engineering positions in the private sector and with the NCDOT’s Work Zone Traffic Control Unit.

Steve holds a BS in Civil Engineering from Pennsylvania State University and is a member of the American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC).

Sheena Green

Senior Transportation Designer

Steve Scott, PE

Senior Vice President / Chief Engineer

Steve has more than 39 years of extensive experience in diverse areas of transportation engineering from the planning stage through final plans and specifications. His current responsibilities as Chief Engineer include QA/QC review and serving in an advisory role for a variety of complex transportation projects that include traditional and design-build delivery methods.

Steve also develops and implements SEPI’s internal QA/QC Policies and Procedures based on his experience serving as the Principal-in-Charge and Project Manager for numerous signature NCDOT and municipal projects including roadway and interchange design, new location projects, bridge replacements, roundabouts, and multi-modal facilities statewide.

Steve holds a degree in Engineering Studies from Pennsylvania State University. He is the Transportation Committee Vice Chair for the American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC) and a member of the Engineers Political Action Committee (EPAC).