Gannett Fleming Wins ACEC Grand Award for Tempe Town Lake Dam Project

Gannett Fleming won top honors at the American Council of Engineering Companies’ 2018 Engineering Excellence Awards Gala on April 17. The Tempe Town Lake Dam Project received a Grand Award — one of only 16 projects to receive the distinction from a pool of more than 140 contenders. The Bay Park Sewage Treatment Plant Improvements, the Norchester Pump Station Replacement, and the Springfield Railcar Assembly Facility Project received National Recognition Awards at the gala.

The Grand Award for the Tempe Town Lake Dam in Tempe, Arizona, is shared by the city of Tempe and the prime contractor, PCL Construction, Inc. Gannett Fleming was the design engineer of record for the $45 million dam and provided design and construction management services. The dam is one of the largest hydraulically operated steel-gate dams of its kind, and consists of eight hydraulically operated steel gates — each 106 feet long, 17 feet tall, and approximately 300,000 pounds — that improve the dam’s durability and reliability and offer heightened safety and operational flexibility. 

Gannett Fleming shares the National Recognition Award for the Springfield Railcar Assembly Facility Project in Springfield, Massachusetts, with Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority and project contractor/design-builder, Plaza Construction. Gannett Fleming served as lead engineer and architect of record for the project, managing planning, design, construction administration, and commissioning services for the $95-million global investment project. The facility contains an open floor plan with one fixed and six portable platforms that offer access to all sides of a railcar during assembly to improve worker efficiency and space for large-scale assembly equipment, and boasts dual-rated direct current equipment to provide a variety of voltages for multiple railcar clients. Sustainable features appear throughout the facility, including insulated metal-paneled walls that create a thermally efficient building, adjustable energy-saving lighting, and on-site stormwater treatment.

The National Recognition Award for the Norchester Pump Station is shared by HRSD. Owned by HRSD, the pump station is nestled in the heart of a residential community in Norfolk, Virginia, and helps collect and transport raw sewage to the wastewater treatment plant. Originally built in the 1940s, the pump station struggled to meet customer demand and excessive microbial corrosion had caused significant damage to the facility’s wet well. The new Norchester Pump Station includes several first-in-the-region innovations, including a self-cleaning, trench-type wet well, which is efficient and easily cleaned, as well as an advanced, high-strength odor control system with a biological trickling filter and secondary carbon scrubber. The completed pump station boasts a beautifully designed façade that fully conceals the sewer infrastructure and provides aesthetic continuity with the rest of the community. National industry publication Water Environment & Technology featured the Norchester Pump Station’s technical innovation and exterior design in its January 2018 edition.