About the firm
We've been engineering Louisiana, from Louisiana, since 2011.
Melancon Engineering Group is a small firm by design. We keep the team lean so the principals stay in the work — at the calc sheet, at the site visit, on the phone with the parish.
Our founder
Virginia F. Melancon, P.E.
A graduate of LSU's College of Engineering (B.S. Civil, 1996; M.S. Structural, 1999), Virginia spent a decade with two of the largest infrastructure firms in the South before opening her own practice in 2011 to do the work the way she had always believed it should be done: client-direct, calc-honest, and stamped by the engineer who actually drew it.
She is a licensed Professional Engineer in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas, an active member of ASCE and SEAoL, and a frequent reviewer for parish floodplain administrators throughout South Louisiana.
- · Louisiana P.E. License No. PE-32114
- · Mississippi P.E. License No. 24187
- · Texas P.E. License No. 118402
- · LEED AP BD+C · ENV SP
Our story
Built on a single conviction.
In 2011, Virginia took a hand-drafted business plan, a borrowed plotter, and a single contract for a small commercial elevation in Donaldsonville and opened the doors of Melancon Engineering Group on Chiaramonte Street in White Castle. The plan was simple: do excellent work for clients within driving distance, refuse the projects that didn't fit, and let the rest take care of itself.
Thirteen years later, we've sealed designs for school districts, parish governments, industrial owners, real-estate developers, and homeowners from Lake Charles to Bay St. Louis. The plan has not changed. We still answer our own phones. We still drive to the site. And every drawing that leaves our office still gets a second set of licensed eyes before it is sealed.
Values
What we believe, in plain language.
Excellence is non-negotiable
If a number is wrong on a drawing, it doesn't matter how pretty the rendering is. Calc accuracy is the floor, not the ceiling.
Honest scope, honest fee
We tell clients what a project will actually cost to engineer — and what it won't — before the contract is signed.
Local knowledge, local accountability
We live where we work. The bridges we design carry our neighbors' children to school.
Mentorship matters
Every junior engineer at Melancon works directly with a P.E. on every project. That is how the profession survives.
The team
A small bench of senior practitioners.
Today the firm employs eleven people: four licensed Professional Engineers, two engineers-in-training, two CAD/Revit technicians, a survey crew chief, and two office staff. Average tenure of our P.E.s is over fourteen years of post-licensure practice. We are deliberately the size we are: large enough to staff a $40M industrial program, small enough that the principal still signs every fee proposal.
- 4Licensed P.E.s
- 11Team members
- 3States licensed
- 240+Projects sealed
Want to work with us?
Whether you are an owner with a project, a contractor needing engineering support, or a young engineer looking for the right firm, we'd like to hear from you.
Get in touch