With an uncommon range of experience and abilities WYCO fills a market niche not by specializing in engineering or construction only, but by providing virtually every service within the construction and engineering industries. Our licensed engineers and contractors apply this wealth of experience and knowledge to every project, large or small, public, private or municipal, commercial, industrial, residential.
Tate Wyly, P.E.
Founder and Owner
Tate Wyly founded WYCO with the vision of providing both design and construction under one roof. The desire to start such a firm is rooted in his youth. The son of a self-employed man, by the time he was in his early teens he was shoveling asphalt, laying pipe and operating heavy equipment in his Father's company. His role wasn't limited to the field, however, as he also started performing take-offs and estimating tasks at a very young age as well. As he neared graduation from high-school he was both running construction crews for his father and also performing full estimating duties as well. This field experience provided a perspective only gained through truly hands-on work and helped him appreciate the all too common complaint that there is a disconnect between designers and the people who construct the projects.
He then moved on to a major mining company as a project manager on a flotation expansion and tailing thickener project at an open pit copper mine. From there he worked with a steel fabrication and erection company in the demolition and reconstruction of a 400' tall gas conditioning tower at a cement production facility in California, and finally his last stop before founding WYCO was at M3 Engineering and Technology in his hometown of Tucson where he worked as a project construction manager on project ranging from Billion dollar green field mines to major commercial projects and to the world's largest and most advanced terrestrial based telescopes.
His experience in construction and design has literally spanned the spectrum of design and construction both in terms of size, from tiny repair jobs to multi-billion dollar projects, and in terms of industries, from residential single homes
and T.I. work to commercial developments, to infrastructure work on roads, rail, utilities and major interstates, to power plants, to major mining operations, to solar installations and the world's most advanced telescopes.
WYCO is the culmination of a passionate life long pursuit of knowledge and excellence in construction and engineering.
His grandfather (pictured ) also devoted his career to heavy construction and this contributed greatly to Tate's interest in engineering and construction. His black and white images on these pages are of some of his projects. Though his grandfather never completed his engineering degree due to entering the war effort in WWII, he served as a project manager on some of the Nation's largest projects including the St. Lawrence Seaway, The UN Building and World's Fair in New York City, the Hungry Horse Dam in Montana among others.
As he contemplated his future, Tate heeded his grandfather's advice when he bemoaned the fact he never finished his engineering degree, and at this point his course was set: he would pursue his engineering degree and his P.E. to apply these lessons to the design side of projects.
While in college he worked full-time during school breaks for major contractors as a foreman and universal finish operator. Each summer of winter break he would work for a different contractor to learn more about the varying methodologies and cultures at different companies. These were companies such as Kiewit, Sundt and Granite, to name a few, on major projects throughout southern and central Arizona.
After graduation, he accepted a position with Salt River Project as a construction manager and Civil/Structural Engineer on a $1+ billion dollar project where over 2 years he managed $600+ million in project value. He then worked another 3 years for SRP designing and managing the construction of various projects at many different Natural Gas and Coal Fired facilities.
