WASHINGTON, DC – Stantec Consulting Services, Inc., of Rochester, Minn., has earned a National Recognition Award for exemplary engineering achievement in the American Council of Engineering Companies’ (ACEC) 55th annual Engineering Excellence Awards (EEA) for designing the replacement of the Baudette/Rainy River International Bridge.
Stantec Consulting Services, Inc., of Albany, N.Y. also won an award for leading the New York Thruway Authority’s conversion to cashless tolling systems.
The Baudette/Rainy River International Bridge in Baudette, Minn., completed in October 2021, is a new 1,350-foot-long, five-span haunched continuous steel girder structure located immediately upstream of the existing bridge. The structure includes two travel lanes and accommodations for pedestrians and bicycles.
Stantec led project co-ordination efforts for the Minnesota Department of Transportation and Ontario Ministry of Transportation, addressing issues such as developing a staging plan to maintain traffic during construction to preserve emergency vehicle access, sustaining regional commerce and preserving the day-to-day activities of communities on both sides of the border, including the 24-hour Ports of Entry, states a release.
As a jointly owned crossing, decisions were made co-operatively to integrate the requirements of two countries into a single, cohesive process which required co-ordination with more than 90 stakeholders, meshed separate environmental studies and addressed permitting requirements, design criteria, construction planning, agency involvement, historical issues, border security and public participation.
For the New York Thruway Authority’s conversion to cashless tolling systems project, Stantec teamed up with KC Engineering and Land Surveying P.C. to design the authority’s $355-million effort to implement cashless tolling along 450 miles of roadway. Using the innovative design-build project delivery approach, the project team installed 70 steel gantries along the roadway to capture E-ZPass tag or license plate data.
The new system went live in November 2020, states the release, adding as well as the strategic placement of sensor-mounted gantries, the project included the removal of toll plazas at more than 50 thruway interchanges and barriers, including pavement repairs, positive separation of traffic flow, and elimination of conflicting traffic moves.
Reconstruction work was completed in fall 2021 by the construction team of A. Servidone, Inc./B. Anthony Construction Corp., JV; Rifenburg Construction, Inc.; and Economy Paving Co., Inc.
The projects are part of 195 entries this year representing engineering excellence from throughout the nation and the world. Judging for the awards program, known as the “Academy Awards of the engineering industry,” took place in February and was conducted by a national 27-member panel of built environment leaders, along with experts from government, the media and academia. Award criteria focused on uniqueness and originality, technical innovation, social and economic value and generating excitement for the engineering profession.
Winners, which includes 20 Honor Awards, 16 Grand Awards and the Grand Conceptor Award for the year’s most outstanding overall engineering achievement, will be recognized during the 2022 EEA Gala, which will be held in Grand Hyatt, Washington, DC, on Tuesday, May 24.
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