(Reprinted with permission from Oklahoma Progress Magazine)
Steady and focused
Skeith Award recipient’s firm known
for civil engineering excellence
With its roots firmly embedded in the Sooner State’s red soil and its vision squarely focused on Oklahoma’s transportation future, Cobb Engineering Company is creating a virtual blueprint of the best and smartest ways to promote civil engineering excellence in the state.
Founded 83 years ago in Norman, Oklahoma by Fred Cobb, the firm is considered to be among the oldest civil engineering companies in the region. The firm steadily grew through the 1940’s and 50’s and, with the addition of Fred Cobb’s sons to the business, shifted the company’s focus toward Oklahoma’s booming turnpike construction.
By the early 1970’s, the firm’s emphasis broadened into the diverse areas that color Cobb Engineering all the way to the present: General highway design, municipal work, construction management, bridge design and survey work. Today, Cobb’s civil engineering capabilities have been expanded to include full service architectural services, allowing the firm to provide comprehensive A&E services to a growing number of clients.
Throughout the company’s existence, a unifying and stabilizing force has been the presence of Fred Cobb’s son, Jim, as the firm’s leader.
Jim Cobb, P.E., PLS – a civil engineering graduate and Engineering Hall of Fame member of Oklahoma State University – joined the firm in 1960. Jim has seen the firm’s fortunes grow, not only in terms of the total number of employees, but also in contract size and diversity.
“Our corporate philosophy has always been to do the best work and to perform our tasks the best that we know how”, said Cobb, now serving the firm as director. “We’re using our past successes to build on future successes, and trying to instill in our younger associates a sense of our work ethic and long heritage of excellence.”
Cobb Engineering Company has enjoyed quite a few successes in recent years, including massive, high profile projects like the record-setting reconstruction effort of the collapsed I-40 bridge near Webbers Falls, Oklahoma, as well as their latest major success: being named by ODOT as one of four lead contractors on the enormous I-40 relocation project. Set to break ground this summer, Cobb Engineering is over-seeing the single longest section of the highway and its’ estimated $56 million construction cost.
“Much of the credit for our role in the I-40 relocation goes to Marty Hepp, our president,” Jim Cobb related, adding that, “His expertise, diligence and attention to detail has been critical in helping us pull all aspects of the project together and keep it moving forward.”
Quick to deflect too much praise, Marty Hepp related that, through the years, no other individual has contributed more to the firm’s success than Jim Cobb.
“His vision for Cobb Engineering has been the driving force in our growth,” said Hepp. “Jim’s professional experience and his leadership, as well as the continuity of his direction; all of these have been major factors in our ongoing growth, diversity and success.”
Now in their ninth decade as a leader in Oklahoma’s civil engineering ranks, the firm continues to move forward with no hint of slowing down.
“We’re going full-steam ahead on the I-40 relocation project,” said Cobb.
“Oklahoma has given us much encouragement and we’re determined to put forth our best efforts and go the ‘extra mile’ to do whatever it takes to serve the citizens of this state and their changing transportation needs.”
|
