ASCE has selected five finalists in the competition for the 2013 Outstanding Civil Engineering Achievement (OCEA) Award. The Executive Committee of the Society’s Board of Direction approved the selections on August 28—including the 2013 OCEA Award winner—but the winner will not be announced until the 2013 Outstanding Projects and Leaders (OPAL) gala, which will be held on March 21 in Arlington, Virginia, at the Renaissance Arlington Capital View Hotel. The five OCEA finalists will be presented with award of merit trophies during the gala before the winner is announced.
The five 2013 OCEA finalists are My Waterway@Punggol, Singapore, located in Punggol Town, Singapore, and submitted by the Housing and Development Board of Singapore; the William Jack Hernandez Sport Fish Hatchery, located in Anchorage, Alaska, and submitted by HDR Alaska, Inc.; the Lake Oswego Interceptor Sewer, located in Lake Oswego, Oregon, and submitted by the City of Lake Oswego; the Brightwater Treatment Plant, located in Woodinville, Washington, and submitted by the team of CH2M HILL, of Englewood, Colorado, and Brown and Caldwell, of Walnut Creek, California; and the Alvarado Water Treatment Plant Ozone Upgrade and Expansion Project, located in San Diego and submitted by Malcolm Pirnie—of Highlands Ranch, Colorado—the water division of ARCADIS.
Freshwater-tolerant mangroves were introduced along the waterway to rehabilitate native mangrove species and enhance biodiversity. Housing and Development Board, Singapore
My Waterway@Punggol, Singapore, is Singapore’s first man-made waterway. Construction of the 4.2 km long waterway began in April 2009 and was completed in October 2011 at a cost of S$225 million. The waterway was envisioned as the “river of life” for the Punggol community and as a way of celebrating the concept of “green living by the water.” It meanders through Punggol Town, opening up opportunities for the public to enjoy waterfront living. Communal spaces, recreational facilities, and educational panels have been integrated seamlessly along the waterway to create a vibrant and sustainable place that can be enjoyed by Singapore residents. As part of the design intention to reflect the history and heritage of Punggol, allusions to the poles and stilts of fishing villages have been incorporated into a footbridge that forms part of a heritage trail leading to Punggol Point. The three-pronged design approach involved innovative technologies to improve soil conditions, the use of green construction practices, and the implementation of measures to promote environmental sustainability.
The 141,000 sq ft facility includes essentially 35 minihatcheries set on a tiny three-acre footprint. HDR Alaska, Inc.
The William Jack Hernandez Sport Fish Hatchery is the largest hatchery of its kind in North America, and the facility’s story demonstrates how innovations in engineering and project delivery can confer remarkable environmental gains, impressive cost savings, and tangible community benefits. While meeting the critical salmon and trout production goals set by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game and the budgetary strictures of the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities is a testament to engineering excellence, the innovative design and delivery led to a dramatic reduction of water and energy consumption and significant annual savings of public dollars that will provide important benefits in the future.
Extensive engineering innovation enables the facility to raise 6 million fish a year, doubling the production of the two facilities it replaced, on a tight 3-acre footprint. The 141,000 sq ft facility is the first hatchery to cover all phases of fish life in a single building. In comprises 35 minihatcheries and uses 107 tanks and more than 8.5 mi of pipe, conduit, and ductwork. Through the largest application of water recirculation technology ever undertaken at a hatchery, the facility meets the production goals of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game’s Division of Sport Fish while significantly lowering the division’s operating costs. The recirculation technology saves as much as 95 percent more water than is the case at conventional hatcheries and offers comparable energy savings. In addition to the facility’s sustainability, its location on a former brownfield site left the environment cleaner than before construction.
Although the site provided access to high-quality groundwater, considerable resourcefulness was required to solve such design challenges as cleaning contaminated soil, avoiding deleterious effects on migrating birds and salmon spawning in an adjacent creek, and dealing with the presence of high groundwater and a floodplain. Storm-water systems ensure that runoff and discharges have no adverse effects on the creek and that the hatchery’s use of groundwater protects the aquifer, which provides drinking water to Anchorage.
The submerged buoyant pipeline consists of ground anchors, wire rope tethers and intermodal cables, tether brackets, buoyancy pipes, sewer pipe in a sine-wave alignment, and submerged manholes, as shown in this artist’s rendering. City of Lake Oswego
The Lake Oswego Interceptor Sewer project redefines current engineering thinking by showing what can be done with the aid of buoyant marine gravity pipelines. The technology and techniques developed and applied during this project remove enormous barriers by providing a real-life, full-scale demonstration. And for all of the solutions developed, just as significant are the lessons learned from options for various system elements that were considered, evaluated, and eventually discarded.
One of the most significant innovations was the solution devised to address the high coefficient of thermal expansion of high-density polyethylene pipe and the lake’s seasonal water temperature change of 35°F.
Because manholes projecting above the lake surface would have posed safety hazards, lightweight aluminum caissons were developed to provide access to innovative submerged buoyant stainless steel manholes. Each caisson is connected by divers, water is pumped out, and a maintenance worker safely descends to open the watertight manhole hatch for purposes of inspection and cleaning.
Near the shore, where the pipeline changes from pile supported to buoyant, transition piles with cradles and slings were installed to protect the pipe from excessive bending (kinking) during future major drawdown events. Although these events will not be frequent, a 24 ft drawdown was needed in the second year of construction for final connections; the safe, gradual bending of the pipe down to the lowered water surface proved the performance of this system.
A state-of-the-art marine engineering finite-element model was built so that external forces and system responses could be virtually analyzed before any real construction. And because many components were designed expressly for critical elements for the pipeline system, full-scale prototype tests were used to ensure that all design criteria were met.
To ensure that the Brightwater plant would produce no off-site odors, the CH2M HILL and Brown and Caldwell team enclosed all process facilities to prevent fugitive emissions and provided 13 treatment trains that use biological and chemical scrubbers followed by carbon adsorption. ©Benjamin Benschneider
The Brightwater Treatment Plant is a state-of-the-art wastewater treatment and reclamation facility that forms the hub of King County’s $1.85-billion Brightwater Regional Wastewater Treatment System. The system includes an off-site influent pump station, 13 mi of conveyance tunnels, a system for distributing reclaimed water, and a marine outfall in Puget Sound. A 39 mgd membrane bioreactor makes the Brightwater plant the largest of its kind in North America. Additionally, the split-flow treatment process provides flexibility in responding to peak storm events and reduces costs.
Brightwater uses an integrated, multidisciplinary design approach that balances King County’s needs for environmental protection, reclaimed water production, affordable construction, odor control, sustainable design, and expansion. The project is the culmination of a highly successful, nine-year partnership between King County and the CH2M HILL/Brown and Caldwell team.
This aerial view of the newly upgraded and expanded Alvarado Water Treatment Plant indicates how the plant was expanded to its ultimate planned capacity. Malcolm Pirnie, the Water Division of ARCADIS
The Alvarado Water Treatment Plant Ozone Upgrade and Expansion Project resulted from the dual challenges of a projected decline in source water quality and increased demand from a growing customer base. The City of San Diego embarked on an ambitious project to improve both the quantity and quality of water produced at its Alvarado Water Treatment Plant. In addition to expanding plant capacity by 67 percent, from 120 mgd to 200 mgd, the city made conversion from chlorine to ozone disinfection the final, critical component of the upgrade. The incorporation of ozone has enabled the city to provide not only safer water with lower levels of carcinogenic disinfection by-products but also water that is odorless and better tasting. Expansion of the existing conventional treatment processes involved new pretreatment (flocculation and sedimentation basins) and dual-media filters, as well as a new replacement clear well. The new ozonation facilities offer the following:
- An ozone generation and dosing capability of 200 mgd;
- Two 15,000 gal liquid oxygen tanks;
- Four 50 mgd baffled concrete contactors for primary disinfection;
- A 200 mgd pump station for ozonated, settled water;
- A new ozone building;
- Appurtenant equipment and control systems.
This project effected a major water treatment and capacity upgrade for the eighth-largest municipality in the United States while maintaining continuous operation of the Alvarado Water Treatment Plant during the entire 12-year span of implementation. The integrity of the plant’s 50-year-old structures was protected throughout construction, and the original architecture is reflected in the design of the new facilities.
The OCEA jury convened by conference call on July 11. The voting members of the jury were David G. Mongan, P.E., Pres.08.ASCE, chair; Kathy J. Caldwell, P.E., F.ASCE; Dale Jacobson, P.E., BCEE, F.ASCE; James R. Harris, Ph.D., P.E., M.ASCE; John Murphy-Teixidor; Mike Anderson; and Mike Wolterbeck.
Established in 1960, the OCEA Award recognizes a project that makes a significant contribution to both the civil engineering profession and society as a whole. Honoring an overall project rather than an individual, the award recognizes the contributions of many engineers.
OCEA entry kits are available online by clicking here or via email to awards@asce.org.