An Albany, New York-based company with a national presence has acquired a Columbia engineering firm.

CHA has acquired Civil Engineering Consulting Services Inc., a transportation engineering firm based in Columbia with 85 employees, according to a news release.

The firm’s core services include project management, construction inspection engineering, highway design, hydraulic and structural design, traffic engineering and operations, environmental studies, and subsurface utilities engineering (SUE) and utility coordination, according to the release.

CECS will immediately rebrand and go-to-market as CHA, the release stated. This is CHA’s second acquisition of 2024.

“The acquisition of CECS is a complementary addition to CHA’s rapidly expanding southeast transportation services,” said Jim Stephenson, CEO of CHA Holdings Inc., in the release. “With continued investments being made at the federal and state levels to address aging infrastructure, CHA’s innovative and integrated solutions are positioned to deliver on these growing needs. We welcome the talented CECS team to CHA and look forward to working together to expand our combined services and address our clients’ needs.”

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

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“We are thrilled to be joining CHA, a like-minded firm that invests in its employees and is committed to the highest quality client outcomes,” CECS President Cathy Raad said in the release. “By joining forces with CHA, we see many synergies that will strengthen our presence across South Carolina and expand the breadth of services we offer our clients.”

The addition of CECS brings CHA’s staff count to over 2,000 in 45-plus offices from Canada to Florida to the Midwest.

CHA provides a wide range of technology-enhanced services to public, private, and institutional clients and was ranked the 65th largest engineering firm in the U.S. in 2024 by ENR, according to the release. CHA is a portfolio company of H.I.G. Capital, a leading global alternative investment firm with $66 billion of capital under management.

CECS was founded in 1993.

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