Featured Member: Crafton Tull

In 1963, after serving eight years with the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department, Bob Crafton and Lem Tull set out to build their own engineering and surveying firm in Rogers. Founded on experienced infrastructure design and excellent client service, Crafton Tull steadily built a reputation for reliability and quality, expanding its capabilities beyond its original disciplines to meet the evolving needs of a rapidly developing region. What started as a modest local partnership gradually transformed into a nationally recognized, multi-disciplinary professional services firm committed to its roots. Matt Crafton, son of Bob Crafton, is president and CEO. Jim Tull, son of Lem Tull, is chief strategy officer.

Today, Crafton Tull operates as a comprehensive engineering, planning, design, and surveying firm headquartered in Rogers, Arkansas, with an expansive footprint that includes numerous offices across Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Texas. The firm's current operations span a diverse array of services, including civil and structural engineering, architecture, surveying, landscape architecture, environmental, and city planning. By providing everything from critical highway and water system design to community master plans and commercial site layouts, the firm serves as a vital contributor to the regional built environment. Its multidisciplinary structure allows teams of engineers, architects, and planners to collaborate seamlessly, delivering holistic solutions for both public and private sector clients.

A pivotal milestone in the company’s history occurred in September 2019, when Crafton Tull announced its transition to a 100% Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP). At the time of the announcement, it became only the third company headquartered in Arkansas to achieve total employee ownership. The transition allowed the company to remain entirely independent. Funded through corporate earnings rather than individual employee investments, the ESOP provides a federally regulated retirement plan where staff members automatically receive shares of company stock based on their tenure.

Crafton Tull’s partnership with ARDOT dates back to its founding in 1963, and that partnership continues today. Notable recent ARDOT projects for the firm include design services for the Highway 71B / Interstate 49 Single Point Urban Interchange in Rogers and Bentonville, and survey support services for approximately 13.6 miles for the Future I-49 Extension from I-40, crossing the Arkansas River to Highway 22 in Crawford and Sebastian Counties.

Propelled by this internal momentum and the rapid economic development of its primary markets, Crafton Tull has experienced notable expansion in both scale and revenue. From its foundational strength in Northwest Arkansas, the firm has pursued a successful strategy of organic growth supplemented by strategic regional acquisitions, such as expanding its state footprint through the acquisition of Hot Springs-based B&F Engineering. Additional recent acquisitions include Prism Design Studio, which offers landscape architecture services, and Laneshift, which offers active transportation consulting. Today, the firm's growth enables it to take on increasingly complex infrastructure and community-shaping projects while strictly preserving the local ownership, community involvement, and independent legacy envisioned by its founders. What began over 60 years ago as two engineers with a vision to serve the transportation markets of states and local communities has grown to a firm of well over 300 people fulfilling that vision.