Irvine and Novato, CA – October 3, 2013 – Noble Consultants, Inc., an engineering firm specializing in coastal, structural, harbor, and water resources engineering, has been acquired by Louisiana-based G.E.C., Inc. (GEC), a leading provider of engineering, planning, and environmental services.

Noble Consultants brings to GEC over 40 years of national and international experience providing a wide array of engineering services on shoreline and other marine projects. Ronald M. Noble, P.E. will continue to serve as President of Noble Consultants overseeing the California operations while taking a large role in expanding GEC’s coastal client base. The California operations will continue to run as Noble Consultants.

Mr. Noble said, “This joining with GEC vastly expands the services that Noble Consultants can offer to its clients.”

The acquisition of Noble Consultants also greatly enhances GEC’s capabilities in coastal restoration and engineering.  With the addition of Noble Consultants’ offices in Irvine and Novato, CA, the acquisition also significantly extends GEC’s national reach.

GEC and Noble Consultants have a business relationship dating back to the 1990s.  Noble Consultants has teamed with GEC over the years on its past Louisiana environmental and coastal restoration contracts as well as numerous Army Corps of Engineers contracts including Los Angeles, San Francisco, Alaska and New Orleans districts. Currently Noble Consultants is a teaming partner with GEC on both its coastal engineering and its environmental sciences contracts with Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority (CPRA).

GEC is headquartered in Baton Rouge, and office locations include Metairie, Lafayette, and Mandeville, Louisiana; Jacksonville, Florida; Irvine and Novato, California; and Gulfport, Mississippi.

The site of the current Hamilton Wetlands Restoration Project was historically a tidal salt marsh until a levee was constructed along the Bay margin and the land reclaimed for agricultural purposes in the late 1800s. Funds were appropriated for the construction of Hamilton Army Airfield in 1931 and the facility was in operation until 1974. The base has been in the process of closure under the Defense Base Realignment and Closure Act since 1988.

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The Buena Vista Lagoon is a two hundred acre Ecological Reserve located along the northwest boundary of the City of Carlsbad and the southwest boundary of the City of Oceanside. In 1991, the Buena Vista Lagoon Foundation proposed building a boardwalk at the lagoon’s western end that would run beside the lagoon connecting the Audubon Nature Center in Oceanside with Maxton Brown Park in Carlsbad alongside the Carlsbad Boulevard – South Coast Highway roadway. (read more…)