WASHINGTON, DC, Feb. 26, 2016 — CDM Smith of Fairfax, Va., has earned a National Recognition Award for exemplary engineering achievement in the American Council of Engineering Companies’ (ACEC) 49th annual Engineering Excellence Awards for the Tingey Street Diversion Sewer in Washington, D.C.
As part of DC Water’s strategy to reduce combined sewer overflows to the Potomac and Anacostia Rivers and Rock Creek, the 72-in diameter tunnel captures and stores wet weather flows for treatment at the Blue Plains Advanced Wastewater Treatment Plant. To minimize impacts to a new mixed-use redevelopment project and two subway line crossings, the tunnel was installed on an expedited schedule using a laser-guided micro-tunnel boring machine. Two diversion structures were built to direct flow away from the Anacostia River and into the tunnel. A 36-in pipe from one of the structures was installed using pilot tube tunneling methods to minimize disturbance to a nearby roadway. Instrumentation installed in two underlying subway tunnels provided real-time monitoring of structural conditions.
ACEC recognized 151 projects throughout the nation and the world as preeminent engineering achievements, and all were eligible for top national honors. Judging for this year’s awards—known industry-wide as the “Academy Awards of the engineering industry”– took place in February, conducted by a panel of more than 30 engineers, architects, government officials, media members, and academia. Award criteria included uniqueness and originality, technical innovation, social and economic value, complexity, and success in achieving goals.
Winners of the top national awards—including 16 Honor Awards, eight Grand Awards and the prestigious “Grand Conceptor Award” for the year’s most outstanding overall engineering achievement—will be revealed at the annual Engineering Excellence Awards Dinner and Gala, a black-tie event to be held Tuesday, April 19, 2016, at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel in Washington, D.C.
The American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC) is the business association of America’s engineering industry, representing more than 5,000 independent engineering firms and more than 325,000 professionals 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 1909 and headquartered in Washington, D.C., ACEC is a national federation of 51 state and regional organizations.
