Ross Bryan Associates, Inc. 

(Music City Center)
Nashville is widely known as Music City USA, and when the city of Nashville proposed a new convention center, they aptly named it the Music City Center. Nashville is located in the rolling hills of middle Tennessee, and the architects incorporated both the Music City and the rolling hills themes into the design of the building. The grand ballroom is shaped like a guitar. The eight-acre Exhibit Hall roof is curved in two directions, and half of it is a vegetated green roof to mimic rolling hills. These features resulted in a stunning building, but they presented significant design and construction challenges for the structural engineers.

S&ME, Inc. 

(Paw Paw Creek Mitigation - Water Resources Category)
S&ME overcame numerous funding and design challenges during permitting and compensatory mitigation for the H.T. Hackney Facility in Roane County, Tennessee. Mitigation for stream and wetland impacts occurred onsite, and included restoration of approximately 3,800 feet of Paw Paw Creek and an adjacent tributary, and 10 acres of adjacent wetlands within the Paw Paw Creek watershed. S&ME overcame funding challenges through phased implementation and worked closely with the contractor, modifying the proposed design to address excessive sedimentation from adjacent grading activities. The highly successful mitigation site enhances the Industrial Park and facilitated development of property containing numerous jurisdictional waters.

Congratulations  to all of the 2014 Engineering Excellence Award winners!

ARCADIS 

(City of Chattanooga Area 2 Closure Construction - Water & Stormwater Category)
Working closely with the City of Chattanooga and others, ARCADIS transformed an uncovered 32-acre portion of Birchwood Pike Municipal Solid Waste Landfill, Area 2, into a grassy landscape by repurposing material from Moccasin Bend Wastewater Treatment Plant – a convenient, yet unconventional solution.
Beginning in August 2011, biosolids (solids derived from wastewater treatment plants that meet EPA 503 class B regulations for land application) were used to amend the soils requiring a closure cap. The desired vegetative growth soon began to sprout and the landfill boasted an abundant vegetative cover. The project received closure certification of Area 2 in October 2013.

LDA Engineering 

(Founders Park -Water Resources)
The downtown district of Johnson City, Tennessee is located at the intersection of two large urban streams, King Creek and Brush Creek. For many decades, the district has been plagued by flooding, resulting in limited economic and cultural utilization. City leadership developed a Master Plan to address economic and cultural revitalization, along with flooding issues. The first phase of the Plan is the recently-completed Founders Park project. This project consisted of removing 700 feet of triple barrel box culvert located beneath an old warehouse, constructing an environmentally-enhancing channel, and a 5-acre greenway park along the banks of the improved stream.

EnSafe Inc. 

(TDOT Facility Surveying & GIS Data Management - Surveying & Mapping Category)
In support of the TDOT Statewide Environmental Services contract, EnSafe surveyed and mapped 72 TDOT facilities—totaling over 850 acres—using a Topcon Pulse Total Station, complete with our custom data dictionary of feature entry codes, to collect site attributes. The data were uploaded to a Microsoft Access database for QA/QC and then into an ArcSDE database. ArcGIS ModelBuilder routines were run to build lines and polygons from the survey point data, and our custom Python script applied symbolization that was stored in the database as representation.
EnSafe’s workflow design and custom automation offered a cost savings to our customer—the equivalent of one full-time employee for one year—by significantly reducing draft and field survey time.

Smith Seckman Reid, Inc. 

(Wolf River Boulevard Connector - Transportation Category)
The final segment of Wolf River Boulevard consists of approximately two miles of four lane roadway with shoulders and bike lanes, two bridges with protected pedestrian crossings, five oversized box culverts, one pedestrian underpass, and two new traffic signals. Wolf River Boulevard is enrolled in Audubon International’s Silver Signature Sanctuary green certification program. The program blends wildlife habitat conservation, water use efficiency, water quality preservation, and other areas of environmental protection with human use of the project. In August 2013, Wolf River Boulevard was the first roadway in the world awarded Silver Certification for accomplishments in sustainable design, construction, and management.

Geotechnology, Inc. 

(The Memphis Pyramid - Special Projects Category)
Geotechnology performed the initial study and detailed seismic evaluation of the ground conditions, liquefaction and seismic slope stability for the iconic Memphis Pyramid. Geotechnology faced difficult site conditions but used unique approaches to provide seismic information and develop performance criteria for specialty design-build foundations. Geotechnology continued its role during Below Ground Seismic Construction to monitor the work and provide input when changes resulted from varying ground conditions Throughout the construction, the work is estimated to create roughly 16,000 construction jobs and an additional 300 -400 jobs once the facility is opened, providing a huge boost to the area’s economy.

EnSafe, Inc. 

(Stormwater Runoff from TN Highways - Studies & Research Category)
EnSafe was asked to characterize contaminants on the Tennessee Department of Transportation’s right-of-ways and determine if those contaminants were transmitted through stormwater runoff.
EnSafe proved that contaminant levels generally met applicable water quality standards. This allowed our client to successfully challenge three Total Maximum Daily Load analyses from the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation which listed our client’s Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System Permit as a contamination source. EnSafe also revealed a significant paradigm change, proving that pathogen contamination in stormwater does not require a warm-blooded animal source but can simply result from pathogens living in the ecosystem.