May 1, 2015

Emergency repairs after Oso slide win 2015 honor award from ACEC

Photo courtesy of Snohomish County Public Works [enlarge]

This aerial view shows the massive Oso slide zone along the Stillaguamish River, including the temporary SR 530 and a new roadway under construction on the lower left.

The emergency reconstruction of a mile-long section of state Route 530 following the Oso landslide in March 2014 won an honor award from the American Council of Engineering Companies.

Here is the engineering team for the Oso project: Jacobs Engineering Group, design team lead; GeoEngineers, geotechnical engineering, hydraulic analysis and construction monitoring; and Site Development Associates, drainage, stormwater and fish-passage/stream-bypass design and erosion-control services.

Atkinson Construction was the general contractor and led the design-build team. The LA Studio did planting design.

Another ACEC honor award winner was the San Ysidro U.S. Land Port of Entry in San Ysidro, California. Magnusson Klemencic Associates was the structural and civil engineer, and The Miller Hull Partnership was the architect.

This year the ACEC recognized 170 engineering projects worldwide.

The new 2.2-mile San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge East Span won the grand conceptor award — the top prize — for having what ACEC said is a revolutionary seismic design.

The bridge was designed by the joint venture of T.Y. Lin International and Moffatt & Nichol. It is the world's longest single-tower, self-anchored suspension bridge, as well as the world's widest bridge. ACEC said it was devised to withstand the most powerful earthquake that can be predicted in a 1,500-year period.

The bridge has a 525-foot-tall tower with separate steel legs that move independently, serving as giant shock absorbers during an earthquake. It also has a 1.2-mile, twin-viaduct skyway with specially designed expansion joints that allow segments to move and slide several feet, preventing major damage in an earthquake.

Other ACEC winners are at http://tiny.cc/nn1kxx/.