Important Events in Ayres Associates' History

• Ayres Associates was founded in 1959 by Owen Ayres in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, as Garnock, Ayres and Loken Engineering and Surveying.



• In 1978, Ayres Associates merged with Alster & Associates, Inc., of Madison to create the photogrammetry division, which is now called the geospatial division. Photogrammetry is the art and science of obtaining measurements from aerial photographs.



• In 1979, Ayres Associates designed the $70 million, 8,400-foot-long Richard I. Bong Memorial Bridge, connecting Superior, Wisconsin, and Duluth, Minnesota. This project was recognized in 2007 as a Wonder of Wisconsin Engineering by the American Council of Engineering Companies of Wisconsin.



• Owen Ayres retired from Ayres Associates in 1981 to take the position of secretary of the Wisconsin Department of Transportation under Wisconsin Governor Lee Dreyfus. His retirement was only temporary.



• Ayres Associates expanded to the Southeast in 1988 when an office was established in Tampa, Florida. The Tampa office today is our third-largest with 40 employees.



• Ayres Associates created an Employee Stock Ownership Program in 1988, providing eligible employees the opportunity to be owners of their own company.



• Ayres Associates was awarded the design study of two sections of the Wisconsin State Highway 29 expansion project in 1990, leading to multimillion-dollar contracts through the 1990s. The final section, a 20-mile segment from Elk Mound to Chippewa Falls, opened to traffic in 2005.



• The company merged with Resource Consultants & Engineers in Fort Collins, Colorado, in 1994, giving the company a major presence in the West and a group of respected water resources specialists.



• Ayres Associates landed a major energy corridor contract in 2006, involving survey, mapping, LiDAR (light detecting and ranging), and geotechnical services for a proposed project to construct 1,000 miles of high-voltage transmission line in Colorado and Kansas.