2005 SPECIAL ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS
SPECIAL ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS are given for those projects worthy of special recognition of the engineer and the owner/client for achieving engineering excellence. This year, 10 Special Achievement Awards were given in six categories, as follows:
STUDIES, RESEARCH, CONSULTING ENGINEERING SERVICES
HUFF & HUFF, INC.
Noise Education Initiative
Owner: Bureau of Design & Environment, Illinois Dept. of Transportation
Huff & Huff, Inc. developed an innovative noise education program for the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) to use in explaining potential impacts of highway improvement projects. The focus of the initiative was to present complex traffic noise issues in an easy to understand format. The three distinct parts of this noise education program make the best use of available media. A web-based module includes information on noise analysis, noise abatement, and noise fundamentals; a series of three pamphlets; and a slide show presentation for use at public meetings provide the same information as the web-based module. This program may be used at over 100 public meetings held by IDOT each year and has the potential to reach 2,000,000 people through the web and print media.
BUILDING / TECHNOLOGY SYSTEMS
BURNS & MCDONNELL ENGINEERING
Murray Development Center
Owner: Capital Development Board
Consultants: Tetra Tech, Inc., Chicago
On August 2, 2001 the Capital Development Board hired Burns & McDonnell to design Boiler House Renovations at the Murray Development Center, Centralia, Illinois. The Center is a 24-hour, 7-day a week facility operated by the Illinois Department of Human Services for developmentally disabled individuals that currently houses 350 individuals in seven separate living cottages. Project scheduling and execution was vitally important to the well being of the staff and residents.
Project Highlights include:
- Keep 350 developmentally disabled individuals climatically comfortable while replacing the circulating hot water system used to heat and cool their living space.
- Schedule the replacement of vital equipment (coal and ash handling systems, high and medium temperature water pumps, stokers and stoker drives, and hot water circulating system components) for 3-500 horsepower boilers while keeping one of the three operational at all times.
- Improve reliability and sustainability of a 40-year old boiler plant.
STRUCTURAL SYSTEMS
SOODAN & ASSOCIATES INC.
Metra Pedestrian Tunnel
Owner: Metropolitan Rail Authority (Metra)
Metra selected Soodan & Associates, Inc. (Soodan) of Chicago, IL to provide architectural/ engineering design services for a new Pedestrian tunnel at the Metra Station in Aurora, Illinois. Soodan designed a push-in-place tunnel under the existing railroad tracks, which were kept in operation throughout the construction operations. The new 60 foot long tunnel was built on time and within budget.
The tunnel was transferred to Metra for occupancy in August 2004. Soodan’s design utilizes precast concrete tunnel sections, which were pushed under the existing tracks while the train traffic continued to operate above. A drainage system was devised behind the structural glazed tile walls to divert water to stainless steel trenches. Besides precast concrete, the design utilized durable products such as stainless steel trench drains, and structural glazed tiles. This resulted in a maintenance free and attractive tunnel.
SURVEYING/MAPPING TECHNOLOGY
MAURER-STUTZ, INC.
Illinois Route 8 Reconstruction
Owner: IDOT District 4
Consultants: STV, Inc., Raymond Professional Group, Shah Engineering, R.A. Cullinan and Sons, Inc., Alexander Brothers, Clevenger Contractors, Durdel & Sons, Laser Electric, PNJ Enterprises, Varsity Striping, Wards Custom Landscaping
Illinois Route 8 (Washington Street) from Caroline Street to Oakwood Road in East Peoria passes through a densely developed commercial, residential, and industrial area and serves over 25,000 vehicles per day. Due to the traffic and related safety, access, and efficiency concerns, the existing two-lane pavement was widened and a new horizontal and vertical alignment designed. Any delays during construction would affect the complex staging of the on-going reconstruction of nearby Interstate 74. Further, due to terrain, Route 8 is used as a key route by emergency vehicles and for the popular East Peoria Festival of Lights. Accordingly, no road closures could be accommodated and two-way traffic had to be maintained during the entire reconstruction. Meeting the intermediate milestones and completion date and maintaining through traffic was paramount.
WATER AND WASTEWATER
CONSOER TOWNSEND ENVIRODYNE ENGINEERS, INC.
McMurdo Research Station, Antarctica
Owner: National Science Foundation
Program Contractor: Raytheon Polar Services Company
Consultants: Antarctic Support Services, Raytheon Polar Service Company
To protect the sensitive environment at the McMurdo Research Station in Antarctica, the National Science Foundation’s Office of Polar Programs (NSF/OPP) initiated planning for wastewater treatment in the 1990s. Although the Antarctic Conservation Act of 1978 permits direct discharge of wastewater to the sea with maceration only, NSF/OPP took a proactive approach to require effluent that would meet the U.S. EPA’s secondary treatment standards.
Consoer Townsend Envirodyne Engineers, Inc. (CTE) completed a treatment alternatives evaluation in 1999 and final design in 2001 for a new secondary treatment plant that can handle 105,000 gallons per day (gpd) in the austral summer and 44,000 gpd in the winter when the resident population drops to about 200. The facility was constructed in 2001 / 2002 with start-up in early 2003. The performance to date has far exceeded the effluent design limitations, protecting the pristine environment in Antarctica.
WATER AND WASTEWATER
FARNSWORTH GROUP, INC.
Microfiltration Water Treatment Plant
Owner: City of LeRoy
Consultants: Testing Services Corporation, Bloomington
With the continued growth and the desire for improved water quality, the City of LeRoy began planning in 2001 for water treatment improvements to meet these needs. The resulting treatment facility is the first of its kind in the State of Illinois. It is the first treatment plant to use a Microfiltration process on a groundwater supply in the state. The planning process included a feasibility study examining five different water treatment options and pilot testing of microfiltration units from two different manufacturers. Based on the treatment goals set by the City, the Microfiltration process emerged as the most cost-effective, though unconventional treatment choice. The end result is a 1 MGD facility that removes iron, manganese, arsenic, color, ammonia, and hardness from the groundwater supply without placing an undue cost burden on the City or requiring any upgrades to related infrastructure.
TRANSPORTATION
CRAWFORD, MURPHY & TILLY, INC.
Rt. 29 -- A Grassroots Drive for Safety
Owner: Illinois Department of Transportation - District 6
Consultants: Lin Engineering, Chatham; U of I-Springfield Dept. of Economics;
Prairie State Landscaping, Springfield
What started with a grassroots movement to make a dangerous rural highway safer for commuters developed into a project whose design provides benefits to farmers, environmentalists, and fitness enthusiasts.
Crawford, Murphy & Tilly, Inc. (CMT) was retained by the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) to provide Phase II design services for the expansion of a 5.2-mile section of Illinois Route 29. CMT had previously completed prior project phases including the feasibility study, Phase I design, and environmental assessment.
The transformation of a treacherous stretch of IL-29 from a two-lane highway to a four-lane expressway was met triumphantly by a group of citizens that had fervently advocated a safer route. Detention ponds, an uncommon feature on rural highways, are used as part of a unique drainage system that provides flood control in an agricultural area with little natural relief. The highway’s shifting alignment carefully avoids areas of endangered Illinois native prairie grass. And an abandoned railroad that runs along the roadway will find new life as a bike trail.
SPECIAL PROJECTS
BURNS & MCDONNELL ENGINEERING CO., INC.
Indian Hill Substation
Owner: City of Naperville - Department of Public Utilities
Consultants: Roake and Associates, Naperville
The City of Naperville was under a tight deadline to provide additional high voltage electrical capacity to serve the Lucent High Tech Campus. The existing substation site that served the area was scheduled for redevelopment, so the new Indian Hill facility needed to be on line to accommodate the anticipated peak loads for Lucent and other area businesses prior to the abandonment of the existing site. The team, consisting of numerous stakeholders including the City, consultants, Lucent and numerous agencies, worked together to develop an economical solution that met the electrical needs of the tech campus, while blending the aesthetics of the site into the existing attractive campus. The substation was enclosed in an architectural wall with low profile equipment that maintained the well-appointed style of the campus and preserved the vast majority of mature vegetation on the site.
SPECIAL PROJECTS
DAILY & ASSOCIATES, ENGINEERS, INC.
Bardeen Engineering Quadrangle
Owner: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Consultants: Joe Karr & Associates, Chicago; U of I Facilities and Services Division
The culminating project of a Master Plan involving major projects tied together by the creation of a quadrangle honoring University of Illinois Professor John Bardeen, the only two time Nobel Prize winner in Physics. The quadrangle is bounded on the west by the formal Burrill Broadwalk, reestablishing the University’s original north-south axis, and on the east by the less formal, curvilinear Kingshighway Broadwalk and newly remodeled Mechanical Engineering Laboratory. On the north lies Grainger Engineering Library, and to the south the recently improved Boneyard Creek. Circulation patterns between engineering campus buildings dictate the location of intersecting crosswalks. A plaza at the entrance to Mechanical Engineering Laboratory forms an outdoor cafe. Four building entrances are improved, and service plazas are added at Talbot Laboratory and Engineering Hall. A Lannonstone meditation garden featuring falling water honors John Bardeen and Lannonstone memorial gardens honor past professors Stanley H. Pierce and Ross J. Martin.
SPECIAL PROJECTS
V3 COMPANIES
Elfstrom Stadium Parking Lot
Owner: Kane County Department of Environment
Kane County Forest Preserve District
Consultants: Conservation Design Forum
The Kane County Department of Environmental Management, the Kane County Forest Preserve District, along with the Kane County Cougars baseball organization approached V3 Consultants, Ltd. to discuss development of environmentally sensitive alternatives to the standard impervious surface parking lot model. The current ten-acre parking site consisted of a worn gravel surface and inadequate lighting. A life-cycle cost estimate was performed for various permeable pavement alternatives. From the results of this study, construction of three different pavement sections was agreed upon.
Two alternative pavement sections consisted of Uni-Ecoloc® pavers on one lot and experimental Gravel-Grass surface on another. The third pavement section consisted of a standard bituminous concrete base and surface, graded such that the run-off from this lot sheet-flows over the Gravel-Grass lot and is absorbed into the subsurface drainage system. The subsurface drainage system was designed to convey water to a vegetated swale system before being discharged off site.
