AUSTIN, TEXAS — Bowman Consulting announced that effective Dec. 31, 2012, it has acquired Austin, Texas–based Loomis Partners, Inc. Loomis, with a staff of 27, has a 20-year history providing engineering, surveying, and environmental consulting services to both private and public sector clients throughout central Texas.

“We are tremendously excited to team up with this group that has such positive energy and is so committed to quality,” said Gary Bowman, president of Bowman Consulting. “Furthermore, this is an opportunity for Bowman to become quickly established in the fastest-growing metropolitan area in the country. It is a real boost to our national expansion initiatives.”

Since beginning operations in 1993, Loomis has performed transportation design, infrastructure, and planning projects for public entities such as the city of Austin, Bastrop County, the city of San Marcos, and Hays County, as well as numerous site and subdivision projects for prominent local builders and developers. The environmental group is widely recognized for its expertise in endangered species habitats, and it has performed a number of large-scale habitat conservation planning projects. The acclaimed land surveying group led by John Barnard, 2012’s Texas Surveyor of the Year. This new Bowman office is currently leading restoration efforts in response to the 2011 Bastrop County Wildfire, the single most destructive wildfire in the history of Texas and the third largest ever in the U.S.

“Several years ago we began looking for a larger firm with whom to partner in order to provide continuing growth opportunities for our staff,” said Tom Loomis, president of Loomis Partners. “We were immediately attracted to Bowman because we saw a good fit with their skill set and cooperative entrepreneurial culture.”

In addition to building on Loomis’ historical presence in central Texas’ commercial, residential, and municipal markets, Bowman intends to add to its recent successes serving oil and gas markets in and around Pennsylvania’s Marcellus and Utica Shale by extending those services into the Eagle Ford Shale of South Texas.