Before 1986, the Faculty of Engineering in Earth Sciences was called the Department of Geology, Mines and Petroleum, IGMP (existing since 1964 as such, and since 1959 as the Department of Mines). In 1977 the Geotechnical Engineering career was created, the same one that replaced, including a new curriculum, the career called Geological Engineering, orientation towards Civil Works. Previously, ESPOL had sent scholarship holders, both to Europe and to the United States of North America, to specialize in Geotechnics, a domain that is little known in the country.
The Geotechnical Engineers who began graduating in 1983 had special training in the fields of Soil Mechanics, Rock Mechanics, Construction Materials, Analog and Numerical Models, and Geohydrology. However, these professionals were not able to enroll in the College of Civil Engineers and thus became part of the College of Mining and Petroleum Geology Engineers.
This situation motivated the directors of the Mining and Petroleum Geology Department to initially propose two changes: first, to transform the IGMP Department into the Earth Sciences Engineering Faculty (FICT) in 1987. On the other, to analyze and study a profound change in the Geotechnical Engineering curriculum in order to expand it towards one of Civil Engineering, taking into account previous recommendations suggested by the Polytechnic Council, based on the ESPOL-BID II project, and the needs of the national labor market at that time.
After the corresponding work and by resolution of the Polytechnic Council of May 9, 1989 (CP-89-5-058), the Civil Engineering career was established in the specialties of Geotechnics and Hydraulics. In addition, it was arranged that the Geotechnics branch work in the ICT Faculty, while the Hydraulics branch, in the Aquaculture and Marine Sciences Faculty. For this purpose, a new group of professors was convened. The initial objective of the ICT Faculty was to allow students, graduates and even geotechnical engineers to take the missing subjects to become graduates of Civil Engineering. This is how the first professionals of the career graduated.
In view of the fact that there were no enrollments of Civil Engineering students in the Faculty of Aquaculture and Marine Sciences, the Course began to be taught, from the mid-90s, only in the Faculty of Earth Sciences Engineering and was generated a unique curriculum of the Career, with the possibility that graduates obtain specializations in Geotechnics, Road Works, Hydraulics, Structures, Sanitary, and Construction. At the same time, ESPOL signed an agreement with the Concrete Technical Center (then La Cemento Nacional, today HOLCIM), so that Civil Engineering students could carry out practices in the subjects of Concrete Technology, Special Concrete, and Similar.
With this new proposal, and following the trend of the construction market (growing at the end of the 90s and after the year 2000), the population of the major gradually increased, from 30 students in the mid-1990s, around 70 until 2004, up to more than 500 students at the moment.