In 1968, Ralph Migliaccio was a research geologist and associate professor at the University of Alaska Fairbanks when the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS), the consortium now known as Alyeska Pipeline Service Company, consulted Migliaccio on certain geological points concerning the proposed oil pipeline from the North Slope to Valdez. It wasn’t long before TAPS began leaning so heavily on his service that Miglaccio was forced to make a choice – either remain with the University or devote full-time to his consulting work. He chose the latter and formed R&M Geological Consultants as a one-man firm.

At the time, Jim Rooney was a civil engineer specializing in cold regions geotechnics, working for the State Department of Highways. Migliaccio invited Rooney to join him at R&M. The company conducted the initial subsurface soils exploration program along the proposed alternate pipeline routes. The broad objective was to determine and make recommendations regarding the most feasible soil and geological conditions for the pipeline to follow from Prudhoe Bay to Valdez. The entire proposed alignment was subject to a drilling program that permitted identification of soils within landforms, as well as allowing the evaluation of permafrost conditions and other pertinent geotechnical considerations. The firm’s name changed to R&M Engineering and Geological Consultants in 1969.

Within six months, Migliaccio and Rooney invited Malcolm Menzies and Jim Wellman to join the firm. Menzies and Wellman joined R&M to perform engineering and related services for the design, survey and construction supervision of the original 56 miles of the Alyeska Pipeline Haul Road, now known as the Dalton Highway. This particular section, extending from the Elliott Highway near Livengood north to the Yukon River, followed a design-build approach that left no time for conventional design approaches. Project design was initiated in early June 1969, and construction engineering work was virtually completed in just over four months.

R&M supported Alyeska for many years on tasks such as construction support, erosion control, revegetation, visual assessment and restoration efforts. R&M also began to diversify, providing surveying, engineering, geotechnical, planning and environmental services on projects throughout Alaska from offices in Fairbanks, Anchorage, Juneau, Wasilla and Valdez. In 1974, the firm’s name changed to R&M Consultants, Inc.