Tighe & Bond Wins Gold Award for Great Lakes Water Authority Biosolids Dryer Facility Project

March 22, 2017
Tighe & Bond, a leading Northeast engineering and environmental consulting firm received a Gold Award from the American Council of Engineering Companies of Massachusetts (ACEC/MA) for its $143 million Great Lakes Water Authority Biosolids Dryer Facility project entry. The award was presented on March 15 at the ACEC/MA 2017 Engineering Excellence and Awards Gala.

Tighe & Bond won praise for its role as the process/building engineer for the complex fast-track design/build/operate/maintain project led by New England Fertilizer Company (NEFCO) of Quincy, Mass. The new biosolids dryer facility – the largest facility of its kind in North America – serves approximately three million people in the Detroit, Michigan metropolitan area.

Prior to this project, sludge in Detroit was incinerated, destroying a valuable resource and generating significant air pollution. Now, liquid wastewater sludge is thermally dried into a pelletized biosolids product, which is distributed to regional farms as a renewable substitute for chemical fertilizer, or as an alternative fuel with characteristics similar to coal.

The entire project, from concept to start-up, was completed in just 30 months. The facility, constructed on a former industrial site, has greatly improved neighborhood aesthetics and benefitted the local economy with the creation of jobs during construction and operations.

The annual ACEC/MA Engineering Excellence and Awards event recognizes recent engineering achievements that demonstrate the highest degree of merit, ingenuity, complexity, and client satisfaction.

About Tighe & Bond
Tighe & Bond, Inc. provides comprehensive engineering and environmental services to hundreds of public and private clients across the northeastern United States, with emphasis on the education, energy, government, healthcare, industrial, real estate, and water/wastewater market A staff of 300 people work from offices located in Westwood, Pocasset, Worcester and Westfield, Massachusetts; Middletown and Shelton, Connecticut; Portsmouth, New Hampshire; and Red Hook, New York.

An employee-owned firm, Tighe & Bond is invested in its clients’ successes. In business for over a century, the firm never stops evolving and improving to keep pace with client needs. Tighe & Bond is an Engineering News Record Top 500 Design firm, and has been recognized by Zweig Group as a best engineering firm to work for in the United States. Vision, technical expertise, exceptional service and strong client relationships have always been at its forefront.