The Bayonne Bridge won the 2018 “Grand Conceptor” Award.
(HDR photo)
Design and construction of new roadway within the steel-arch Bayonne Bridge — 64 ft. above an existing highway it was to replace — has won the 2018 “Grand Conceptor” Award signifying the year's most outstanding engineering achievement. The award was earned as part of the 51st annual Engineering Excellence Awards (EEA) — a global competition sponsored by the American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC).
More than 650 attended the black-tie EEA Gala in Washington, D.C., hosted by Actor/Comedian Kevin Nealon. The event recognized 146 preeminent engineering accomplishments throughout the nation and the world.
Challenged that the bridge's previous 151-ft. navigation clearance was too low to accommodate anticipated influx of huge “Panamax” cargo ships on route to the Port of New York and New Jersey, the project increased clearance to a needed 215 ft. by constructing a roadway above the existing one, while the existing road remained in operation, before it was subsequently demolished.
Designed by the joint venture of HDR and WSP USA, the project added more than 4,000 tons of steel strengthening plates to support the structure's temporary double-road condition during construction. In addition to increasing navigation clearance, the new bridge now has wider lanes, concrete medians, a shared-use path and can incorporate a light rail line in the future.
The new Bayonne Bridge joins the SR 520 Floating Bridge in Seattle (2017); the San Francisco Air Traffic Control Tower (2016); the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge East Span (2015); and the Wacker Drive/Congress Parkway Reconstruction in Chicago (2014); as recent most outstanding engineering achievements of the year winners.
Other Top 2018 EEA Winners recognized were:
2018 Grand Awards (Project and Engineering Firm)
150 North Riverside, Chicago, Ill., by Magnusson Klemencic Associates;
Second Avenue Subway-Phase 1, New York City, by AECOM & Arup (Joint Venture);
Town Lake Downstream Dam Replacement, Tempe, Ariz., by Gannett Fleming;
Dixie Drain Phosphorus Removal Facility, Parma, Idaho, by Brown and Caldwell;
Univ. of Massachusetts Design Building, Amherst, Mass., by Simpson Gumpertz & Heger;
Lotte World Tower, Seoul, South Korea, by Syska Hennessy Group;
35th Street Pedestrian Bridge, Chicago, Ill., by EXP;
Crum Creek Viaduct, Swarthmore, Pa., by Figg Bridge Engineers;
Water Jet Peening Bridge Crane System, Burlington, Kan., by Merrick & Company;
Bahá'í Temple of South America, Santiago, Chile, by Simpson Gumpertz & Heger;
Augmentation & Relief Sewer, Columbus, Ohio, by DLZ Corporation;
Basin Creek Water Treatment Plant, Butte, Mont., by HDR & Robert Peccia & Associates;
Washington Wabash Elevated Train Station, Chicago, Ill., by EXP;
I-91 Brattleboro Bridge Improvements, Brattleboro, Vt., by Figg Bridge Engineers
Chicago Riverwalk, Chicago, Ill, by Benesch
2018 Honor Awards
Interstate 80 Automated Corridors Planning Study, Statewide, Iowa, by HDR;
Interdisciplinary Science Engineering Complex, Boston, Mass., by Arup;
Davis Barracks, U.S. Military Academy, West Point, N.Y., by Clark Nexen;
The Bridge at Cornell Tech, New York, N.Y., by Thornton Tomasetti; Weiss/Manfredi | Turner Construction;
Olin Library Transformation, St. Louis, Mo., by Alper Audi & Geotechnology Inc.;
California Incline Bridge & Idaho Ave. Pedestrian Overcrossing, Santa Monica, Calif., by T.Y. Lin International;
Biosolids Dryer Facility, Detroit, Mich., by Wade Trim Associates & NEFCO;
Lake View Dual Zone Reservoir, Madison, Wisc., by Short Elliott Hendrickson;
Meriden Green, Meriden, Conn., by Milone & MacBroom;
New York Harbor Water Siphon, New York, N.Y., by Mott MacDonald & CDM Smith;
Division 14 Rail Operations and Maintenance Facility, Los Angeles, by HDR & Maintenance Design Group;
The Left Overloop, Lexington, Ky., by Qk4;
South 200th Link Extension; Seattle/Tacoma, Wash., by HDR;
St. Croix Crossing; Oak Park Heights, Minn., & St. Joseph, Wisc.; by HDR and COWI
Dallas Horseshoe Design-Build, Dallas, by WSP USA;
Union Station Western Expansion, Kansas City, Mo., by Burns & McDonnell;
Governors Island Park and Public Space, New York, by Hart Crowser;
Space Launch System Test Stands, Huntsville, Ala., by Merrick & Company;
Marshalltown Generating Station, Marshalltown, Iowa, by HDR;
St. Patrick's Cathedral Geothermal Heating & Cooling System, New York, by P.W. Grosser Consulting & Landmark Facilities Group
For further information about ACEC's 2018 Annual Engineering Excellence Awards, contact Alan D. Crockett at 202/682-4301 or by email at [email protected]
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.
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