The story
Founded by Louis Berger in 1953.1
Background
Louis Berger was founded in 1953 by Louis Berger in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Born in 1914 in Lawrence, Massachusetts, Dr. Berger graduated from Tufts College in 1936 with a degree in civil engineering, and earned a master’s in soils and geology from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1940. In 1942, Dr. Berger joined the United States Coast Guard where he designed waterfront facilities along the Mississippi River and commanded a Coast Guard base in Greenland. Upon returning from active duty, he earned his PhD in soil mechanics from Northwestern University and joined the teaching faculty at the Pennsylvania State University. In 1952, Dr. Berger left his position at Pennsylvania State University to form the engineering consulting firm that would later become Louis Berger.
Fredric S. Berger, son of the company's founder, Dr. Louis Berger, was involved with the company since 1972 and served as chairman of Louis Berger Group from 2007 until his passing in April 2015. Mr. Berger held a bachelor's in economics from Tufts University and a master of science degree in civil engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Mr. Berger was a founding member of the American University of Afghanistan and served on the university's board from 2004 to 2015. In 2013, Mr. Berger was appointed to advisory boards for the U.S. Institute of Peace and the U.S. Trade and Development Agency.
Early years
The firm’s first major projects included design on the Pennsylvania Turnpike, the first turnpike in the U.S., and on I-80 between Denville and Netcong, the first interstate road in the state of New Jersey The firm also designed the Herat-Islam Qala Highway in Afghanistan in 1965.
International development work
Louis Berger began its first international project in 1959 when the firm was selected by USAID and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Gulf District to design a 435-mile highway between Yangon and Mandalay in Myanmar. The project was initially rejected by the Burmese government as proposed by the Corps of Engineers, but Louis Berger was able to design the project using more economical alternatives.
In December 2010, the Discovery Science Channel production team filmed thirty hours of footage of the works for the construction of a new bridge over the Sava River in Belgrade, Serbia.
In 2012, Louis Berger completed work on the Juba-Nimule Road in South Sudan under the Sudan Infrastructure Services Project. The road was the first paved highway in South Sudan and links the South Sudanese capital to the town of Nimule on the Ugandan border.
From Wikipedia’s article on Louis Berger Group, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.5