Copperhill Watershed Restoration Project Wins 2021 EEA Grand Conceptor Award

ACEC News / Member Firms

December 2, 2020

Copperhill Watershed Restoration Project Wins 2021 EEA Grand Conceptor Award

Barge Design Solutions’ Copperhill Watershed Restoration Project in Ducktown, Tenn. has won the 2020 “Grand Conceptor” Award as the year’s outstanding engineering achievement, in the 53rd Annual Engineering Excellence Awards (EEA).

The 20-year restoration project transformed a 50-square-mile site, severely damaged from more than a century of logging, mining and acid production, into a lush natural area where residents can fish, swim, and hike.

Restoration efforts included disposal of mining waste, construction of clean-water diversions, re-establishment of natural, healthy communities of aquatic insects; and construction of new contaminant-filtering wetlands.

A record 203 projects were entered in this year’s EEA program and all of them were celebrated at the virtual EEA Gala on December 1.

Fifteen projects received 2020 Grand Awards: Millersville University Net Zero Welcome Center, Millersville, PA, by AKF Group; New U.S. Embassy, Pristina, Kosova, by Mason & Hanger; The Shed, New York, NY, by Thornton Tomasetti; Amazon Urban Neighborhood, Seattle, WA, by Magnusson Klemencic Associates; Lower Crystal Spings Dam Bridge Replacement, San Mateo County, CA, by AECOM and WSP USA; Samuel de Champlain Bridge; Montreal, Quebec, Canada, by T.Y. Lin International Canada; Manning Crevice Bridge, Riggins, ID, by Atkins North America; Satellite & GPS Measurement to Support Groundwater Management Act, Statewide CA, by Towill Inc.; Virginia Initiative Plant Nutrient Reduction, Norfolk, VA, by HDR; Trap Rock Water Treatment Facility, Leesburg, VA, by CDM Smith; I-90 Hyak to Keechelus Dam Phase 1C, Snoqualmie Pass, WA, by Jacobs Engineering Group; Virginia Avenue Tunnel Reconstruction, Washington, DC, by Clark/Parsons; I-696 Innovative Design, Malcomb County, MI, by Tetra Tech; San Gabriel Trench Grade Separation, San Gabriel, CA, by Moffatt & Nichol; Hudson Yards, New York, NY, by Langan.

Twenty projects received 2020 Honor Awards: HDR Headquarters Multi-Use Office Building, Omaha, NE, by HDR; Hale Centre Theatre, Sandy, UT; by VBFA; Popular Street Bridge Widening and Rehabilitation, St. Louis, MO, by HDR; Marc Basnight Bridge, Dare County, NC, by HDR; Columbia University’s Manhattanville Campus, New York, NY, by Mueser Rutledge Consulting Engineers; University of Wisconsin-Madison Hamel Music Center, Madison, WI, by raSmith; 15 Hudson Yards, New York, NY, by WSP USA; SW Brooklyn Marine Transfer Station Project, Brooklyn, NY, by Greeley and Hansen; Aquifer Storage and Recovery Program Services, Hastings, NE, by HDR; Kaneohe-Kailua Wastewater Facilities Program Project, Honolulu, HI, by Wilson Okamoto Corporation; Beaver Creek Fish Passage, La Grande, OR, by Anderson Perry & Associates; East Side Coastal Resiliency EIS, New York, NY, by Hazen and Sawyer/KKRF (Joint Venture); Big Sioux River Flood Information System, Eastern SD; by RESPEC; I-235 Broadway Widening at 50^th St. & BNSF RR, Oklahoma City, OK, by Benham Design; Beehive Bridge, New Britain, CT, by Fuss & O’Neill; Reconstruction of Harlem River Drive over 127^th Street, New York, NY, by Hardesty & Hanover; Bayou Sara Swing Bridge, Mobile County, AL, by HDR; MAASTO Truck Parking Information Management System, Statewide KS, by HNTB; Rainier Square Tower Shoring Design, Seattle, WA, by Hart Crowser; ABC Weekend Superstructure Replacement, Falls Church, VA, by WSP USA.

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