Complex permits. Contaminated sites. Contested projects. Solved.
Complex permits. Contaminated sites. Contested projects. Solved.
Deep expertise in civil and environmental engineering spanning MassDEP's Commissioner's Office, including environmental oversight of the $14.5 billion Big Dig and service as the state's lead landfill engineer, followed by an extensive private consulting career managing over 150 municipal and private clients across New England.
Murphy & McMahon Engineering LLC provides expert civil and environmental engineering consulting to municipalities, private developers, and waste management companies across New England. Having served inside MassDEP’s Commissioner’s Office, including environmental oversight of the $14.5 billion Big Dig, and nearly three decades in private consulting, David brings an insider’s understanding of the regulatory landscape and a track record of getting the hardest projects permitted, designed, and built.
MassDEP, BOH, and other state and local permitting, landfill design, operations assistance, inspections, groundwater/surface water/landfill gas sampling, site assignment permitting, expert testimony, peer review, site survey management.
Soil management, site development, ACO negotiation assistance, soil package reviews, inspections. Currently co-leading the Massachusetts Soils Coalition, collaborating with MassDEP on the state's “soils crisis.”
Assisted with permitting management of the Muddy River, Boston Harbor Navigational Improvement Project and Big Dig-related dredging. Managed Crystal Lake dredge, Peabody MA.
Navigating multi-agency review across local, state, and federal jurisdictions. MEPA, ACOE wetlands, Chapter 91, coastal zone management, environmental impact review.
Site design, stormwater management systems, infrastructure design, construction oversight.
Project and program management, grant applications, RFP preparation, contractor submittal review, owner's project management for public works.
Decades of materials management, complex permitting, and post-disaster reconstruction. These three projects define the practice.
Helped manage environmental oversight of the largest infrastructure project in American history from MassDEP's Commissioner's Office: stormwater permitting, wetlands remediation, dredge disposal, and the characterization and placement of over 22 million tons of contaminated soils.
State program manager for this 400+ acre project that combined four landfills, filled two underwater quarries with Big Dig excavate, and survived 26 lawsuits: every one dismissed. Upwards of 30k tons per day. Today it's a PGA-level 27-hole golf course overlooking the Boston skyline.
Featured as one of the Top 100 Golf Courses in the world →
Regulatory oversight of the 121-acre Boston Harbor park project. Received over 3.7 million cubic yards of contaminated Big Dig excavate and is now the centerpiece of the Boston Harbor Islands National Park.
$22M assessment and corrective action turning a 95-acre urban hazardous waste site into 6 megawatt solar farm. 2.5 million cubic yard excavate used to reshape the landfill prior to final capping.
66-acre landfill assessment and capping; capping prompted a major rewrite of Massachusetts wetlands regulations.
Client service manager across landfill expansions and closures; trusted advisor to senior Covanta leadership.
Ground-mount solar on closed landfills on over a dozen New England communities, 750 KW to 8 MW each.
“Dave is known in DEP as the ‘person to go to’ if you need a project expeditiously processed and competently managed.”Steven G. Lipman, PESpecial Projects Coordinator, MassDEP Commissioner's Office
All quotes are from signed letters written to the White House Personnel Office, the Governor of Massachusetts, or directly to David Murphy.
The McMahon name has been added as a placeholder to allow his daughter Jess and his grandchildren the opportunity to join the firm in the future if they choose.
Murphy & McMahon is a civil and environmental engineering firm. David Murphy is a PE with deep expertise in major design and construction, post-disaster reconstruction, complex permitting, and domestic and international environmental programs.
David spent nearly a decade in the Commissioner's Office of the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, where he helped manage the environmental oversight of the $14.5 billion Central Artery/Tunnel Project (the “Big Dig”), served as the state's lead landfill engineer, oversaw annual review of hundreds of Environmental Impact Reports, and helped rewrite the MEPA regulations. He was recognized within DEP as the “person to go to” for projects requiring expeditious processing and competent management.
In the aftermath of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, David served as engineering and construction program manager for Catholic Relief Services in Banda Aceh, Indonesia, helped oversee the $128 million reconstruction program: 2,100+ homes, a hospital, an airstrip, roads, bridges, water systems, schools, parks, septic systems, harbor dredging, mosques, churches, and numerous complete village rebuilds from the ground up. He brought his entire family, took a 70% pay cut, and stayed for nearly three years. NBC Nightly News featured his work in a national “Making a Difference” segment.
David has served as Vice President of Tighe & Bond, managing over fifty municipal and private clients throughout New England. He currently serves as President of the Cashman Family Foundation, directing its international engineering and humanitarian work in Haiti. He also serves on the board of the Parish Twinning Program of the Americas.
He holds a B.S. in Civil Engineering from Northeastern University and is a licensed Professional Engineer in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Maine.
Post-disaster reconstruction, in-kind infrastructure donations, and humanitarian engineering across Indonesia, Haiti, and Central America.
President. Highway bridge designed and constructed in Haiti, two additional bridges designed, pedestrian bridge designed and constructed, earthquake response (10 days search-and-rescue, 30 days debris clearance, drone-based structural assessments), water well drilling, 30 solar-battery and Starlink systems installed in Catholic churches.
Engineering and construction program manager for Catholic Relief Services' $128M post-2004 tsunami program. Personally directed the rebuild of 12+ villages, 2,100+ permanent homes, a Mothers & Children's Hospital, an airstrip, 20+ miles of roads and bridges, seven mountain water systems, mosques, churches, piers, and harbor dredging. Featured on NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams.
Road and bridge manager, responsible for keeping a critical 103km coastal highway open for reconstruction efforts. Managed a large fleet of heavy equipment and hundreds of laborers.
Initiated and directed the largest in-kind donation of 29 bridges and heavy construction equipment to Central America. Liaised with US Southern Command, the presidents' offices of Nicaragua and Honduras, the Clinton White House, Cardinal Law, and senior Catholic hierarchy.
Complex permits, contaminated sites, contested projects. If your work falls in any of those three categories, or all three, start a conversation.
