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HONOR AWARDS are given for those projects which are recognized for exceptional engineering that meet the needs of the client and benefit the public welfare. This year 12 Honor Awards were given in six categories, as follows:
STUDIES, RESEARCH, CONSULTING ENGINEERING SERVICES
HDR ENGINEERING, INC.
South Tri-State (I-294) Corridor Enhancement
Owner: Illinois State Toll Highway Authority
 HDR partnered with the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority (Tollway) to conduct the South Tri-State Corridor Enhancement Project. HDR implemented a context sensitive solutions (CSS) approach, the first of its kind for the Tollway, to develop an aesthetically pleasing concept for traffic noise walls, retaining walls, and landscaped areas for the South Tri-State Tollway Widening Project. The CSS study approach was such a remarkable success that it is now being used as a model for future Tollway projects.
The enhancement project was part of the I-294 Widening Project from Illinois Route 394 to Interstate Route 80. The CSS process included continuous and extensive public and agency involvement, which resulted in the conceptual designs of walls and landscaped areas that harmonize with the environment and the community.
The most important project highlight was the final product: a unique, sustainable aesthetic design that the client, stakeholders, and community approved and supported.
BUILDING / TECHNOLOGY SYSTEMS
KJWW ENGINEERING CONSULTANTS
$65M Hospital Expansion/Renovation
Owner: Condell Medical Center
Consultants: Pratt Design Studio, Ltd., HDR Architecture, Eriksson Engineering Associates, and Thornton Tomasetti Engineers, Chicago
 Condell Medical Center, located in the northern Chicago suburb of Libertyville, Ill., underwent a $90 million 190,000 square-foot expansion and 60,000 square-foot renovation to transform the 75-year old, once rural hospital into a world-class medical center. Challenges included preserving the hospital's rate of growth while completing an enormous construction project, constructing the expansion directly on top of the existing entryway, constructing entirely new department facilities without interrupting services, matching existing floor-to-floor heights, improving system redundancy and energy efficiency, and relocating existing site utilities.
The principal challenge was matching the 11 to 12 foot floor-to-floor height of an earlier addition which left little room for ductwork. The innovative solution was to locate the ducts for mechanicals in outside buttresses. The exterior ductwork design allowed the use of precast concrete buttresses to disguise the mechanical elements as part of the building design.
The shafts are self-supporting, allowing more room for ductwork and serving as structural columns for the building. This meant that interior columns could be small to allow more usable space, and massive edge beams that often restrict expansion were no longer needed.
STRUCTURAL SYSTEMS
ALFRED BENESCH & COMPANY
I-74 Arched Pier Bridges
Owner: Illinois Department of Transportation
Consultants: Johnson Lasky Architects, Chicago
 A unique, concrete tied-arch pier supports both the University Street and Broadway Avenue bridges over Interstate 74. Alfred Benesch & Company designed the bridges as part of the massive I-74 reconstruction project in Peoria and East Peoria, Illinois. The geometrically constrained and structurally challenging tied-arch piers simultaneously support the structures and span the Dry Run Creek Flume.
The steel girder Broadway Avenue Bridge conveys one lane of traffic in the north and southbound directions across I-74. The precast concrete girder University Street Bridge encompasses four lanes of north and southbound traffic (two in each direction) and crosses the Interstate in the middle of the University Street interchange.
Benesch coordinated with IDOT in performing a value engineering study that helped devise a cost-effective solution that involves structurally innovative, aesthetically pleasing arched piers. The design complimented the architecture of the community and the I-74 reconstruction project as a whole.
STRUCTURAL SYSTEMS
TENG & ASSOCIATES, INC.
IL 47 over the Illinois River
Owner: IDOT District 3
Consultants: Delta Engineering, Chicago; American Survey Consultants, Dixon
 The new IL 47 crossing of the Illinois River at Morris responds to the needs of a growing region. Coupling the latest developments in materials with innovative and disciplined application of structural design principles, the new bridge dramatically improves the safety and capacity of the transportation network in and around Grundy County.
The previous two-lane, eleven-span structure has been replaced by a four-lane, five-span continuous girder system, employing High Performance (70 ksi) Steel in a hybrid cross section optimized for economy. The center span reaches over 400 ft, with side spans of 360' and 300'. Recognizing the critical need to continually maintain traffic at this crossing, the structure is designed for staged construction - a complex undertaking when deflections up to 9" occur during casting of each stage. The structure responds to public input, providing dedicated 10' pedestrian and bike way separated from traffic.
Innovative and careful engineering have delivered an exemplary and economical structure to meet the growing demands of a growing region.
WATER AND WASTEWATER
MWH AMERICAS, INC.
INAWC Lake Water Intake
Owner: Indiana American Water Company
Consultants: Worley International, Inc., Houston, TX
 The Indiana-American Water Company's (INAWC) engaged MWH to study, evaluate, and select an alternative for the replacement of the existing intake system. Selection of the preferred alternative was complicated as all feasible routes crossed the USX Steel Mill site to access Lake Michigan. As part of the intake study, MWH also prepared the preliminary design for the selected alternative and initiated coordination with regulatory agencies to expedite the permitting review process. Key to the timely approval process was the design of the lake intake shaft that minimized impacts to the lake ecosystem.
The final design consists of 15,560 feet of concrete-lined, tunnel with a diameter of 8-feet at a depth of 220 feet. The new tunnel connects to an intake shaft one mile offshore in Lake Michigan and terminates at a 30-foot diameter wet well for a new pumping station with a capacity of 60 mgd expandable to 100 mgd.
WATER AND WASTEWATER
STRAND ASSOCIATES, INC.
HMO Co-Filtration Plant
Owner: Village of Channahon
Consultants: Tonka Equipment Company, Plymouth, MN;
Testing Service Corporation, Carol Stream
 Channahon's new Water Treatment Plant uses an innovative new technology to reduce naturally occurring radium levels in their drinking water supply. The plant was the first one of its type to be permitted for construction and operation in the State of Illinois. The new technology is based on findings that radium can be adsorbed, or attracted to manganese particles. Channahon's plant uses the addition of hydrous manganese oxides (HMOs) into the raw well water supply to cause large manganese particles to form in the water. These particles attract the radium and are large enough to be filtered through conventional sand filtration. This has resulted in as much as 92 percent reduction in radium levels in the raw water supply at a much lower operating and construction cost than traditional radium treatment processes
TRANSPORTATION
CONSOER TOWNSEND ENVIRODYNE ENGINEERS, INC.
EDWARDS AND KELCEY / HNTB CORPORATION / T.Y. LIN INTERNATIONAL / KNIGHT ENGINEERS & ARCHITECTS / CIVILTECH ENGINEERING, INC.
South Lake Shore Drive Reconstruction
Co-Owners: IL Dept. of Transportation / Chicago Dept. of Transportation
Consultants: II In One, ASC American Surveying Consultants, Bauer Latoza Studio,
Civil Solutions, D.B. Sterlin, Delta Engineering, Inc., Dynasty Group, EJM, Hayden Bulin Larson Design Group, Ltd., Johnson-Lasky Architects, Knowledge Management Solutions, Mann, Gin, Dubin and Frazier, Res Publica Group, RGMA, Singh and Assoc., Tecma Assoc., Terry Guen Design Assoc., Trinal, Inc., Chicago; Accurate Group, Inc., Lincolnwood; Harbour Engineering, Plainfield; Huff & Huff, Inc., LaGrange; Nancy Seeger Assoc., Evanston; O'Brien and Assoc., Arlington Heights
 The Reconstruction of South Lake Shore Drive (SLSD) is a unique project due to its location and the level of community interest. SLSD is one of Chicago's primary commuter routes, carrying over 100,000 vehicles per day, but it is also a scenic drive located entirely within historic Jackson and Burnham Parks, alongside beautiful Lake Michigan. This created conflicting demands and opinions of the road. It was in this light that the Chicago Department of Transportation undertook a major reconstruction of SLSD (US 41) from 23rd Street to 67th Street on Chicago's South Side. Work included complete reconstruction of 6.4 miles of multi-lane roadway, replacement of the storm sewer system and roadway lighting, addition of five new pedestrian underpasses and reconstruction of another, reconstruction of two existing highway bridges and the historic stone Animal Bridge, and extensive median, gateway and pedestrian plaza landscaping.
TRANSPORTATION
EDWARDS AND KELCEY
Metra Union Pacific Northwest Line Bridges
Owner: Northeast Illinois Regional Commuter Railroad Corporation
Consultants: CTE Engineers, T.Y. Lin International, McDonough Associates, Clark Dietz, TranSystems, Teng & Associates and DMJM, Chicago
 This extensive rehabilitation program consisted of the reconstruction of 14 bridges that carry three mainline tracks, new trackwork extending five miles and a commuter station. The badly deteriorated bridges in this section, constructed over 100 years ago, serviced 62 regularly scheduled passenger trains carrying 33,500 commuters.
As lead engineer, Edwards and Kelcey was responsible for the development of construction staging for the work, the profile and alignment of all tracks, the design of four of the bridges and construction of new retaining walls. The construction cost for this portion of the project was $25 million.
The success of this $120 million project hinged upon complex staging of the construction of the track, bridges and signal work over a nine year construction period and extensive coordination between Metra, the Illinois Department of Transportation, the City of Chicago, the former Chicago & NorthWestern railroad, other consultants and utility companies.
SPECIAL PROJECTS
KRM JOINT VENTURE
EARTH TECH & KENNY CONSTRUCTION
Midway Terminal Program
Owner: City of Chicago Department of Aviation
Consultants: Unzelman & Associates, Louis Jones Enterprises, MOTA Construction, EJM Engineering, Everest Engineering, Chicago
 In 1995, the City of Chicago began planning for a major redevelopment of Midway Airport. Once the busiest airport in the world, Midway and the surrounding community had weathered a number of economic downturns since the opening of O'Hare Airport in the 1960's Renewed interest by several airlines and studies indicating a demand for low cost point-to-point flights led to the City's planning efforts.
Without any changes to the airfield runways, it was determined that facility upgrades, along with improved access roads, terminal curb front roadways, and convenient parking areas, would support increased airport efficiency and the ability to handle additional flight operations and enplanements.
The program team's challenge was to implement this unique, time and budget constrained project, while maintaining full operations at the fastest growing airport in the country. This had to be done safely, with minimal impact to the surrounding communities, commuters on adjacent thoroughfares, the traveling public, and airport operations.
SPECIAL PROJECTS
MWH AMERICAS, INC.
Neutrinos at Main Injector (NuMI) Project
Owner: Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory
Consultants: Fluor Daniel, Chicago
 The Neutrinos at Main Injector (NuMI) Tunnels and Halls project is part of a federally funded program to investigate the properties and behavior of subatomic neutrino particles. Underground laboratory facilities were designed for Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab) in Batavia, Illinois, to house components of an experiment that will create a beam of neutrinos, which will travel 435 miles through solid bedrock to an underground detector facility in Soudan, Minnesota. The underground facilities at Fermilab include an interconnected series of tunnels, shafts, and caverns, approximately 4,200 feet in length, constructed primarily in bedrock at depths of up to 340 feet below ground.
Since the existence of neutrinos was first postulated in the 1930's, the particle has proven highly elusive to study, and the NuMI project will provide facilities for the first high-energy, long-baseline neutrino experiment in the world. Experiments and research conducted in the NuMI facilities will play a key role in our understanding of matter and the universe.
SPECIAL PROJECTS
V3 INFRASTRUCTURE SERVICES
I-74 Reconstruction
Owner: Illinois Department of Transportation
Consultants: Dynasty Group, Testing Service Corporation, JMP, Millennia Engineering
 V3 Infrastructure Services (V3IS) provided Construction Engineering services for the Reconstruction of Interstate Highway 74 in Peoria, IL. The project included the widening and reconstruction of two major urban arterial roadways, Sterling Avenue and University Street. Work also included construction of temporary widening on I-74 from east of University Street to 0.4 km west of the Union Pacific Railroad (approximately 2.5 miles) for the next phase of the overall project. Also included in the project was the construction of a 3.4m x 10.4m box culvert by 63m while maintaining flow and the removal and reconstruction of the Sterling, Gale, University, Broadway, Sheridan, and Ellis bridge structures over I-74.
The project is highlighted by several unique and somewhat complicated architectural features, including, all retaining walls, wing walls and abutments were given different architectural finishes using intricate form liners. The piers over the large drainage channel in the center of I-74 were constructed as cast-in-place arches, requiring extensive constructability and quality control reviews. The bridge superstructures are also highlighted by a black architectural wire fence, which terminates at lighted concrete bollards located at center pier and abutments.
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