2010 Engineering Excellence Call for Entries

ACEC Washington firms were sent the 2010 Engineering Excellence Call for Entries last week to firm representatives. Last year we had over 40 entries, with seven Washington firms competing at the national conference, and two Washington firms winning national Grand Awards.

The Engineering Excellence competition is a great marketing tool that can promote your firm’s services to communities, as well as prospective clients by highlighting the innovative features of your project.

If your firm has not received the Call for Entries booklet, please contact ACEC Washington offices or download the booklet here.

Important dates to remember:

October 1, 2010: Initial entry form due

November 8, 2010: Confirmation of entry and entry fee due

November 29, 2010: Deadline for all materials to ACEC Washington

January 21, 2011: ACEC Washington Engineering Excellence Awards Banquet

2010 EEA Bronze Award Winners

Bronze Awards

BHC Consultants, LLC - Fire Training Academy MBR Reclaimed Wastewater Treatment

Client: Washington State Patrol – Property Management

David Evans and Associates, Inc. - Wapato Creek Relocation and Restoration

Client: City of Fife

GeoEngineers, Inc. -   Hazel’s Creek Regional Stormwater Facility Feasibility Evaluation

Client: City of Spokane

GeoEngineers, Inc. - Knapp-Wham Irrigation Diversion Improvement

Client:  Cascadia Conservation District

HDR Engineering -     City of Redmond Well Source Improvement Project

Client:  City of Redmond/Public Works Department

HDR Engineering -     Springbrook Creek Wetland & Habitat Mitigation Bank

Client:  Washington State Department of Transportation

INCA Engineers, Inc., A Tetra Tech Company - Burien Transit Center

Client:  King County Metro Transit

J-U-B Engineers, Inc. - Crawford Reconstruction and Roundabout

Client:  City of Deer Park

J-U-B Engineers, Inc. - Wilbur Municipal Airport Safety Area Grading and Runway Extension

Client:  Town of Wilbur

Notkin Mechanical Engineers - Gray Wolf Hall

Client:  LMN Architects

Notkin Mechanical Engineers - New Lynnwood High School

Client:  Bassetti Architects

Parsons Brinckerhoff - Sound Transit Beacon Hill Tunnel

Client:  Sound Transit

Perteet Inc. - SR 167 – HOT Lanes Pilot Project

Client:  Washington State Department of Transportation

RH2 Engineering, Inc. - Riverside Drive and Piere Street Improvements

Client:  City of Wenatchee

Ridolfi, Inc. - Sha Dadx Site

Client:  National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

Sparling - Swedish Orthopedic Institute Reactor

Client:  NBBJ

WHPacific, Inc. - North Bend Way and Cedar Falls Way Roundabout

Client:  City of North Bend

2010 EEA Silver Award Winners

On Friday, January 22, ACEC Washington held its annual Engineering Excellence Awards banquet. Below are the Silver Award winners in the National and State categories.

National Silver Award Winners

Silver Award – Studies, Research, and Consulting Engineering Services

Reid Middleton, Inc. – Rapid Transit Evaluation & Assessment Program (REAP)

Client: NAVFAC Northwest/Southwest

Silver Award – Building/Technology Systems

Wood Harbinger, Inc. – Savery Hall Renovation

Client: University of Washington

Silver Award – Environmental

Parametrix – Vancouver Lake Lowlands Aquifer Restoration Project

Client: Port of Vancouver, WA

Silver Award – Transportation

Puget Sound Transit Consultants – Central Link Light Rail Line

Client: Sound Transit

Silver Award – Energy

David Evans and Associates, Inc. – Pine Tree Wind Project

Client: Kiewit Pacific Company

Silver Award – Energy

Wood Harbinger, Inc. – MultiCare Central Energy Plant

Client: GBJ Architecture

State Silver Award Winners

Silver Award – Original or Innovative Application of New or Existing Techniques

BergerABAM – Sauk River Bridge

Client: Snohomish County

Silver Award – Technical Value to the Engineering Profession

Jacobs Engineering Group – King County Pump Station Main

Client: King County Wastewater Treatment Division

Silver Award – Social, Economic and Sustainable Design Considerations

Otak, Inc. – Boeing Creek Basin Infrastructure Improvements

Client: City of Shoreline

Silver Award – Complexity

Otak, Inc. – Community Transit Swift BRT

Client: Community Transit

Silver Award – Complexity

Skillings Connolly, Inc. – Chumstick Creek Fish Passage Improvements

Client: Chelan County Natural Resources Department

Silver Award – Meeting and Exceeding Owner's/Client's Needs

FSi Consulting Engineers – Charles Luke Milam Bachelor Housing

Client: Belay Architecture

Silver Award –Meeting and Exceeding Owner's/Client's Needs

Welch Comer & Associates – Colville Truck Route, Phase 3

Client: City of Colville

2010 EEA State Gold Award Winner – Reid Middleton’s Alaska Air Seismic Upgrade

Gold Award – Exceeding Client/Owner Needs

Reid Middleton, Inc. – Alaska Airlines Maintenance & Engineering Building Seismic Upgrade

Client: Alaska Airlines

Alaska Airlines’ SeaTac-based maintenance facility is critical to the airline’s regional and national 24/7 operations.  Crews use the facility to maintain and repair the airline’s aircraft fleet so departures around the nation are not delayed.  After the February 28, 2001 Nisqually Earthquake, the airline commissioned a seismic screening and evaluation study of the facility to ensure that the building would remain functional after the next major earthquake.  A seismic upgrade was the ultimate solution, and Reid Middleton was brought on board to provide structural engineering expertise.  In addition, the design and construction team was to be constrained by the requirement that the facility remain open and functional throughout the upgrade.

Typically, during an earthquake, the energy generated in a building is dissipated through the yielding of braced or moment frames, or the yielding of reinforced steel in shear walls.  But these methods of dissipating energy can cause significant damage to structures.  So Reid Middleton designed a system using state-of-the-art energy-dissipating seismic friction dampers – a series of plates tightly clamped together that absorb earthquake energy by rubbing together and generating heat, much like the brakes on a car dissipate energy in the form of heat.  The dampers allow a building to move only in specific locations, dissipating energy through friction in the damper rather than damaging the rest of the building.   This approach extends the useful life and reduces the overall life-cycle costs of the building, and reduces the demand for natural resources that would be required to build new structures.

Reid Middleton installed 56 friction dampers at 28 strategic locations throughout the building.  Where dampers were installed at existing braced frame locations, they could quickly and easily be installed without modifications to the existing gusset plate connections or foundations, allowing the contractor to move quickly in and out of spaces and minimizing the interruption to the building occupants.

Few structures today contain friction dampers, so the Alaska Airlines maintenance facility’s seismic upgrade will provide important information in future earthquakes since building displacements can easily be measured from paint scratches that result when friction dampers rub together.

2010 EEA State Gold Award Winner – Tetra Tech’s King County Admin Building

Gold Award – Complexity

Tetra Tech, Inc.  – King County South Plant Administration Building and Water Quality Laboratory

Client: King County Department of Natural Resources, Wastewater Division

When King County decided to replace its South Plant regional administration and laboratory facilities – located in a collection of aged trailers and structures in Renton – they wanted the new structure to be environmentally friendly and energy-efficient, as well as functional and comfortable for the five working groups that would be housed there.

As the Lead Architect/Engineer, Tetra Tech met the challenge by designing an aesthetic and functional work space, including 21,000 square feet of office space and a 3,500 square-foot laboratory, all in a modest footprint designed for energy savings and employee comfort and productivity:

Light – Increasing natural light to the workspaces through daylighting techniques was a primary design objective.  In the new building, over 83 percent of the spaces are daylit and 99 percent have access to views.  Integrated daylight and occupancy sensors reduce lighting energy on an as-needed basis.

Structure – By building on the site of the existing facilities, 20- to 30-foot-deep site fill was reused, providing great cost savings and allowing the project to avoid the use of piles for new construction.  Also, prior to demolition, the existing buildings were carefully surveyed and usable cabinets, masonry and stainless countertops were removed for use in other facilities.

Water – Reclaimed water from the adjacent treatment plant was used throughout the building for water closet and urinal flushing.  Together with water-efficient flush and flow fixtures, this led to a 76 percent water use reduction and a 100 percent reduction of potable water used for landscaping.

Energy – A 1,000-square-foot black solar panel integrated into the south wall of the building will provide approximately 15 percent of its total heating energy.  Additionally, extensive building energy modeling, extra insulation, variable speed drive hydronic pumps and fans, high efficiency lighting and glazing, exterior sunshades, and daylight and occupancy sensors will optimize building performance and energy conservation.

Finally, 58 percent of the materials used to construct the new building were extracted within 500 miles of the site and 13 percent of the materials included recycled content.  Low VOC (volatile organic compounds) adhesives, paints and carpets were used, as was wheatboard, a rapidly renewable resource. And more than 85 percent of the construction waste was diverted from landfills.  The new South Plant Administration Building and Laboratory clearly exemplifies King County’s commitment to sustainable design solutions for their infrastructure needs.

2010 EEA State Gold Award Winner – Golder’s Rich Passage Fast Ferry Study

Gold Award – Social, Economic, and Sustainable Design Considerations

Golder Associates – Rich Passage Passenger Only Fast Ferry Study

Client: Pacific International Engineering

For more than 20 years, the City of Bremerton, Kitsap Transit, and the State of Washington have worked on initiatives to provide passenger-only fast ferry (POFF) service between Seattle and Bremerton.  Such a service, in a region dependent on waterborne transportation, was considered a cornerstone of economic development for Bremerton and for communities on the Kitsap Peninsula. However, a limiting factor in the development of this service in the past has been the potential of wake-induced erosion on the shoreline in environmentally sensitive Rich Passage, just east of Bremerton.  In addition, local waterfront property owners were some of the most vocal opponents of new ferry service, having actually taken the State to court previously, succeeding in reaching a settlement over damages to their property caused by previous ferry operations.

Pacific International Engineering (PIE) retained Golder Associates, Inc. as the lead technical consultant in developing a study for Kitsap Transit that would establish a scientific basis to identify and minimize potential impacts of candidate vessels on the shorelines along the ferry route.  Golder led a multi-disciplinary project team consisting of coastal engineers, geomorphologists, oceanographers, marine biologists, naval architects, shipbuilders, and others in developing broad physical data collection and analysis systems.  Golder also coordinated the technical review and oversight in the development of a new low-wake, high-efficiency, foil-assisted catamaran with a sophisticated hull and hydrofoil monitoring system that would be the centerpiece of the new passenger-only ferry service.

“The Rich Passage Passenger Only Fast Ferry Study” has resulted in the compilation of a rich, detailed and long-term dataset, encompassing approximately 12 miles of Puget Sound shoreline, including winds, waves, wakes, currents, sediment characterizations, seasonal patterns of beach response and long-term historical changes.  The data systems will not only provide important baseline data for future site-specific work, but they also will provide a valuable reference for other work in the Puget Sound.

Another important benefit from the Golder team efforts - they were able to tap into the concerns and experiences of the previously antagonistic waterfront property owners who now feel like they are an integral part of the process.

2010 EEA State Gold Award Winner – HWA GeoSciences’ Savery Hall Renovation

Gold Award – Future Value to the Engineering Profession

HWA GeoSciences, Inc. (HWA) – Savery Hall Renovation

Client: University of Washington, Central Projects Group

At the southwest corner of the University of Washington’s Liberal Arts Quad sits the elegant Savery Hall, constructed in collegiate-gothic architectural style between 1917 and 1920.  As part of its continuing effort to preserve and modernize their beautiful historic buildings, the University of Washington scheduled a major renovation of the building between 2006 and 2009.  HWA GeoSciences Inc. (HWA) was selected to provide geotechnical engineering services, but as new challenges arose during the project, the company’s role expanded to include construction inspection and consultation.

Savery Hall was built on a series of unevenly space, heavily loaded column footings on very dense glacial till soils.  Any small disruption in any footing during construction could have resulted in the destruction of the delicate building façade.  Adjacent to these footings and also in need of renovations were a series of original underground utility tunnels, part of an elaborate system of tunnels that stretch for miles beneath the university.  Renovations to Savery Hall required large excavations adjacent to and, in some cases, below the building’s column footings, which required the design of a shoring and underpinning system that would limit footing displacements to no more than the thickness of two sheets of paper.  Plus, developing a solution had to happen quickly to avoid a delay in the construction schedule and the opening of the building for fall classes in 2009.

HWA and the design team developed an unusual shoring and underpinning system that involved a highly elaborate and necessary pre-stressing application, utilizing 6- and 8-inch (in diameter) micropiles and up to five 200-ton hydraulic jacks that applied footing loads simultaneously to each of the micropiles.   The final design of 27 micropiles of varying dimensions provided vertical support for the footings and temporary lateral support for the excavations.  This solution, which went from conception to construction in less than three weeks, enabled complete renovation to critical portions of Savery Hall without causing damage to the building or delays in the schedule.

2010 EEA State Gold Award Winner – GeoEngineers’ Shoring System Design

Gold Award – Original or Innovative Application of New or Existing Techniques

GeoEngineers, Inc. & Ground Support, PLLC – 1918 Eighth Avenue Shoring System Design

Client: Schnitzer West, LLC

It was a classic “between-a-rock-and-a-hard-place” challenge.  The 1918 Eighth Avenue building, a 34-story mixed-use office/retail tower with below-grade parking in downtown Seattle, was to be constructed on a site hemmed in on two sides by major downtown streets, and on the other two sides by high-rise condominium and office buildings.  In order to buttress the construction of ground-level walls after the site had been excavated almost 75 feet down, there was a need for supporting tie-back anchors.  Traditionally, buildings under construction are supported by tieback anchors that extend below adjacent buildings.  However, on this site, the anchors would exceed the 65-foot right-of-way, or be impossible due to the proximity of the next-door condominium building.  It was a challenge that threatened cost overruns and delays.

The building owner, Schnitzer West, brought in GeoEngineers, Inc. to solve the problem.  And they did.  Next to the condominium building to the east, GeoEngineers developed an unusual two-wall shoring approach implemented in two phases.  First, two parallel walls were built, one along the property line and the second about 30 feet inside.  The space between the two walls was filled with dirt which proved sufficient to anchor tiebacks for the inner wall while it served as the shoring wall for the first phase of excavation and construction.  In the second phase, the inner wall was removed and the soil excavated, then a Peri-Formwork structure was installed to provide lateral support between the recently built building core and the outer shoring wall.  Problem solved.

Shoring conditions for the other three walls were not quite as challenging as for the east side, but they still demanded inventive solutions.  With cars whizzing by on the adjacent city streets, plus another office building under construction just 60 feet away, the critical shoring of walls would have to be approached in a non-traditional way.  GeoEngineers created a “truncated no-load zone” which involved threading tiebacks through deep foundations supporting the commercial building next door and shortening the tiebacks to prevent them from crossing over one another underground.  It was a perfect solution for the 1918 Eighth Avenue building, and it will prove invaluable for construction projects in other tight urban environments, advancing the state of the art for deep excavations in the Northwest.

2010 EEA National Gold Winner – Wood Harbinger’s ShoWare Center

Gold Award – Building/Technology Systems

Wood Harbinger – ShoWare Center

Client: City of Kent, WA

The City of Kent's ShoWare Center, new home to the Seattle Thunderbirds hockey team, is the first LEED Gold Certified, multi-purpose events arena in the United States. Wood Harbinger was the mechanical engineer and an active participant in the LEED Certification process for this energy-efficient, sustainable, and cost-effective project. The facility can adapt for events ranging from concerts and theatrical performances to hockey games and motocross races.

Wood Harbinger focused on sustainability throughout the mechanical design process. As an entertainment facility, ShoWare required elements that are rarely conducive to energy efficiency such as high-tech lighting, ice-maintenance equipment, and complete air flushing for smoke or vehicle exhaust. For instance, during concerts that involve pyrotechnics or motocross races, the polluted air can be completely flushed from the facility.  Also, waste heat from the ice refrigeration system is reclaimed and used to warm the ground beneath the ice rink to maintain the integrity of the foundation, and to melt ice collected by the Zamboni machine.  Even the arena’s parking lot plays a role in helping the environment – a gravel layer beneath the parking lot acts as a sponge during heavy rain to control runoff, releasing the water back into a nearby drainage system.  Wood Harbinger's creative applications of sustainable features in the heating, cooling, and lighting systems exceed national standards for low energy use by 37 percent, and provide lifetime cost benefits for the City of Kent.

Wood Harbinger's coordination with the owner, design team, and contractors supported this project in meeting strict schedule and budget goals. Facilities of this nature typically take about three years to complete; ShoWare took 27 months from start to finish.  The City of Kent recognizes Wood Harbinger's mechanical design, stating that it "supported the City's commitment to green building and fiscally responsible facility construction."

2010 EEA National Gold Award Winner – Parametrix’s Hood Canal Bridge PM

Gold Award – Special Projects

Parametrix – Hood Canal Bridge Program Management

Client: Washington State Department of Transportation

The Hood Canal Bridge, the world's largest floating structure over a saltwater tidal basin, is the Olympic Peninsula’s economic and social link to the greater Puget Sound area.  Opened in August, 1961, it is essentially two separate structures that carry 15,000 to 20,000 vehicles a day.  In 1979, the west half of the bridge sunk during a severe storm. It was rebuilt and reopened in 1982. Then in 1997, the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) began working on replacing the east half of the structure, which was nearing the end of its useful structural life.

By 2004, the project was facing severe challenges- discovery of a Native American village at the Port Angeles graving dock where the floating pontoons were to be built; engineering documents that had been completed 20 years earlier during the west-half replacement and were now inadequate; potentially huge claims from the contractor if the project had to be rebid; and a shortage of labor and resources within WSDOT because of several other mega-projects currently underway in other parts of the State.

To solve the problems, manage and deliver the project, WSDOT and Parametrix formed a "blended team", a team approach that worked so successfully WSDOT implemented the approach on the SR520 and Seattle Alaskan Way Viaduct replacement projects. The team was a true blend of WSDOT and Parametrix staff co-located in an office, working side by side, allowing both owner and consultants to work as a single unit without regard to the traditional static lines of communication. For example, state inspectors reported directly to a consultant construction manager who in turn reported to the state project engineer. Each position was filled by the person who had the most experience with the type of work being performed, and who could provide the greatest contribution to the success of the project, regardless of being employed by WSDOT or a consultant.

WSDOT then negotiated a change order with general contractor, Kiewit-General, to complete the project under a “Target Pricing/Alliance Contracting" agreement, the first application of this approach in the United States by a public agency. Through this approach, the client, contractor, and consultant formed an alliance and worked together towards the ultimate success of the project.

In May 2009 the bridge was closed, old components were taken away, and new components were brought in and assembled in conditions that included 16-foot tidal swings and 3-knot tides.  The discovery of the 2,700-year-old Native American village and burial ground posed a unique and difficult challenge, but WSDOT agreed to return the sacred ground to the tribe, and Parametrix helped expedite restoration of the site in support of tribal efforts to repatriate remains to the site.

On June 3, 2009, the new bridge reopened to traffic approximately one week ahead of schedule. The success of the project was due largely to the new teaming and contracting approaches that WSDOT was willing to try. The level of teamwork, problem-solving, and coordination set a high standard of performance that should be a benchmark for future projects.