Top Companies Receive Engineering Excellence Awards

Hosted by Actor/Comedian Kevin Nealon, the event recognized 162 preeminent engineering accomplishments throughout the nation and the world.

Tue May 09, 2017 - National Edition
Construction Equipment Guide

Seattle's gleaming new 1.5-mi. SR 520 Floating Bridge has won the 2017 “Grand Conceptor” Award signifying the year's most outstanding engineering achievement in the 50th Anniversary Engineering Excellence Awards (EEA) — a national juried competition sponsored by the American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC).

More than 700 attended the 50th Anniversary black-tie Engineering Excellence Awards Gala on April 25 in Washington, D.C.

Hosted by Actor/Comedian Kevin Nealon, the event recognized 162 preeminent engineering accomplishments throughout the nation and the world.

Designed by engineering firm HDR, the new SR 520 Bridge is the world's longest and largest floating bridge. The superstructure is supported by 21 of the heaviest, widest and deepest longitudinal pontoons ever built, each weighing nearly 11,000 tons. Further stabilized by 54 supplemental pontoons and cables and anchors, the bridge can resist winds of up to 98 mi. per hour and 6.3-ft. wave heights or the equivalent of a 100-year storm.

The new SR 520 Floating Bridge joins the San Francisco Air Traffic Control Tower (2016); the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge East Span (2015); Wacker Drive/Congress Parkway Reconstruction (Chicago, 2014); Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts, (Kansas City, 2013); Lake Borgne Storm Surge Barrier (New Orleans, 2012); and the Hoover Dam Bypass (2011) as recent ACEC Grand Conceptor Award winners.

Other Top 2017 EEA Winners were:

Grand Awards

• Golden 1 Center, Sacramento, by AECOM & Henderson Engineering;

• Jerome L. Greene Science Center, New York, by Jaros, Baum and Bolles;

• Pearl Harbor Memorial Bridge, New Haven, Conn., by AECOM;

• World Trade Center Transportation Hub Oculus, New York, by Buckland & Taylor International (affiliate of COWI North America);

• Foundation design for the Tappan Zee Bridge Replacement, New York, by GZA GeoEnvironmental;

• U.S. 84 Mississippi River Bridge Pin-and-Link Replacement, Natchez, Miss., by HNTB Corporation;

• Elliott Bay Sewall Habitat and Public Space, Seattle, by Magnusson Klemencic;

• Setting a New Standard for Infrastructure Renewal, Oakland/Macomb Counties in Michigan, by NTH Consultants;

• Croton Water Filtration Plant, New York, by the AECOM/Hazen and Sawyer Joint Venture;

• Claude “Bud” Lewis Desalination Plant, Carlsbad, Calif., by Arcadis & Kleinfelder;

• Palmetto Expressway and Dolphin Expressway Interchange Improvements, Miami, by BCC Engineering;

• World Trade Center Transportation Hub, New York City, by the Downtown Design Partnership of AECOM and STV;

• Kansas City Downtown Streetcar, by HDR;

• University Link Extension, Seattle, by McMillen Jacobs Associates on behalf of Northlink Transit Partners;

• Elizabeth River Tunnels, in Norfolk and Portsmouth, Va., by WSP | Parsons Brinckerhoff.

2017 Honor Awards

• National Museum of African American History and Culture, Washington, DC, by WSP | Parsons Brinckerhoff;

• Lockheed Martin Technical Research Laboratory, Denver, Colo., by STV;

• Arthur Ashe Stadium Retractable Roof, New York, by Hardesty & Hanover;

• Franklin Avenue Bridge Rehabilitaion, Minneapolis, Minn., by HNTB Corporation;

• Sellwood Bridge Replacement, Portland, Ore., by T.Y. Lin International;

• U.S. Bank Stadium; Minneapolis, Minn., by Thornton Tomasetti;

• Harry Tracy Water Treatment Plant, San Bruno, Calif., by Kennedy/Jenks Consultants;

• 130th & Torrence Grade Separation, Chicago, by Alfred Benesch & Company;

• St. Patrick's Cathedral Restoration; New York City, by Langan Engineering & Environmental Services;

• Interim Upgrade of Newtown Creek Waste Water Treatment Plant, Brooklyn, N.Y., by Michael Baker International / CB&I / Gannett Fleming, Joint Venture;

• Scioto Greenways, Columbus, Ohio, by Stantec with MKSK, Messer Construction, Resource International, Korda/Nemeth, ASC Group;

• C.W. “Bill Young” Regional Reservoir; Hillsborough County, Fla., by Gannett Fleming;

• 90 in. Water Main Hot Tap and Line Plug, Des Plaines, Ill., by GRAEF-TDW Services;

• Lake Delhi Dam, Delhi, Iowa, by Stanley Consultants;

• Cincinnati Bell Connector, Cincinnati, Ohio, by WSP | Parsons Brinckerhoff;

• U.S. 36 Boulder Turnpike Express Lanes; Denver, Colo., by HDR;

• Gay Head Lighthouse Relocation, Aquinnah, Mass., by GEI Consultants;

• Maggie Daley Park Reconstruction, Chicago, by Stantec & Infrastructure Engineering;

• Peaks to Plains Trail: Clear Creek Canyon Segment, Jefferson County and Clear Creek County, Colo., by Muller Engineering Company;

• Hydrothermal Processing Pilot System, Greenwood Village, Colo., by Merrick & Company

The American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC) is the business association of America's engineering industry, representing nearly 5,200 independent engineering companies throughout the United States engaged in the development of America's transportation, water and energy infrastructure, along with environmental, industrial and other public and private facilities. Founded in 1905 and headquartered in Washington, D.C., ACEC is a national federation of 52 state and regional organizations.