Freese and Nichols Adds Blake Cotton to Expand Our Geotechnical Expertise
Freese and Nichols has added Blake Cotton, PE, LEED, AP, to our water resource design team, where he’ll bring his long experience with soft soil geotechnical engineering to our dams and levees work and support for projects across multiple other disciplines.
Blake’s expertise includes more than 30 years as a geotechnical engineer in Louisiana and Texas, giving him insights into the entire Gulf Coast region and the challenges facing communities served by our Stormwater, Environmental and Urban Planning teams.
His experience includes extensive work rebuilding and improving levees and other flood control structures in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. His knowledge about the special needs surrounding structures in areas with soft soils will be especially valuable on coastal sites.
Blake will be based in our New Orleans office and will work with teams across the firm, including the Gulf Coast region.
“Beyond his expertise in soft soils, Blake brings strong leadership and mentoring that will benefit our clients and our project teams,” said Cody Cockroft, Freese and Nichols’ Water Resource Design Group Manager in Houston.
Blake served as the President of the Greater Houston Chapter of the Texas Society of Professional Engineers in 2002 and was named Distinguished Engineer of the Foundation by the Texas Engineering Foundation in 2018. He is currently the Geotechnical Committee Chairman for Geoprofessional Business Association.
Blake received his Master of Science in Civil Engineering and Bachelor of Science in Architectural Engineering from The University of Texas at Austin.