For nearly seven decades, infrastructure excellence has been recognized by the annual ASCE Outstanding Civil Engineering Achievement Award.
These are the projects that transform communities and improve people’s lives. They reflect state-of-the-art engineering skills and advance the civil engineering profession.
This year, ASCE has tabbed 12 outstanding projects for OCEA Honor Awards. The third- and second-place recipients, as well as the overall 2026 OCEA Award winner, will be announced at the ASCE OPAL Gala, Oct. 15 in Reston, Virginia.
“Each of these projects exemplifies the purpose of the civil engineering profession: to build infrastructure that improves quality of life for people, while protecting public health, safety, and welfare,” said ASCE President Marsha Anderson Bomar, Ph.D., AICP, ENV SP, H.ITE, NAE, F.ASCE.
“The people who planned, designed, and built these impressive projects worked tirelessly to deliver innovative and resilient infrastructure projects to communities. These projects will inspire the future of civil engineering and future innovative projects.”
The 2026 OCEA Honor Award recipients:
Cairo Metro Line 3 – Phase 3 (Cairo, Egypt) – This 11-mile (17.7 kilometers) extension of Cairo’s metro system aims to reduce the city’s travel congestion and provide a reliable, modern transportation system for more than 1.5 million people. The project improves accessibility by adding 15 stations connecting key areas of the city to the central business district and aims to reduce travel time and accident rates.
Carlsbad Desalination Plant Permanent Intake System Modifications Sub-Project (Carlsbad, California) – This state-of-the-art seawater intake and discharge facility replaces a previous facility linked to a now-decommissioned powerplant. The new facility creates a sustainable, resilient water supply, delivering 50 million gallons a day to the San Diego County Water Authority. The plant’s design minimizes the impact of future droughts on the water supply and can continue operating during events like tidal level fluctuations, sea-level rise, and tsunamis.
Central Business District Tolling Program (New York) – Built as part of New York’s implementation of the city’s Congestion Relief Zone, this advanced tolling technology helps manage traffic and improve urban mobility. The toll collection system uses devices that blend into the city’s existing infrastructure to minimize their visual impact. Since the tolling program began in January 2025, the Congestion Relief Zone has seen an 11% reduction in vehicle traffic, increased transit ridership, and reduced travel times.
Complete 540 Phase 1 (Raleigh, North Carolina) – The $1.3 billion Complete 540 Phase 1 project is a transformative toll corridor that connects Wake County, North Carolina to regional destinations, significantly reducing congestion and improving travel time for thousands of commuters. This 18-mile expressway exemplifies innovation, resilience and sustainability, integrating cutting-edge design, environmental stewardship, and inclusive contracting.
Exploration Green Detention Facility (Houston) – This flood control and green space project transformed a defunct golf course in Clear Lake, Texas, into five stormwater detention ponds with 500 million gallons of capacity. Designed to withstand a 100-year storm event, the facility protected homes during Hurricane Harvey and now safeguards thousands of residents. In addition to flood mitigation, the project features more than six miles of trails, restored wetlands, native habitats, and other recreational amenities.
Hyperion Advanced Water Purification Facility (Playa del Rey, California) – This facility delivers 1.5 million gallons of purified water a day. It is a cornerstone in the city of Los Angeles’ vision of a water-resilient future. Every drop of purified water produced by the Hyperion APWF directly offsets a drop of potable water. The facility plays a key role in a future water supply strategy that aims to meet up to 50% of Los Angeles’ potable water demand with purified recycled water, turning wastewater into a vital, sustainable resource for millions of people.
I-64 Improvement and Record-Setting Kanawha River Bridge (Putnam County, West Virginia) – Replacing one of the state’s most traveled crossings (and a frequent traffic chokepoint), this project expanded the new bridge to three travel lanes in each direction, along with a lane for drivers to merge when getting on and off the highway. The design-build process simplified construction, reduced the impact on river traffic, and led to a cost-effective project.
Lake Washington Ship Canal Large Lock Miter Gate Replacement (Seattle) – The Ballard Locks are the busiest locks in the United States and a major tourist attraction, serving approximately 50,000 vessels and more than 1 million pedestrians each year. This project included decommissioning the 240-ton, century-old miter gate leaves and replacing them with two newly fabricated 165-ton leaves. The replacement minimizes the need for future maintenance closures and ensures the locks continue to serve the public efficiently.
Portland International Airport, Terminal Core Redevelopment Phase One (Portland, Oregon) – This $2 billion redevelopment of Portland International Airport is one of Oregon’s largest public infrastructure projects. Covering over 1 million square feet, it transforms the airport with a striking mass-timber roof, seismic upgrades, expanded spaces, and cutting-edge sustainability features, all of which enhance capacity, resilience, and the passenger experience.
Seattle Aquarium’s Ocean Pavilion (Seattle) – As the final piece in Seattle’s urban-planning waterfront redevelopment vision, the project improves accessibility between Pike Place Market and Puget Sound. The Open Ocean Pavilion provides visitors to the Seattle Aquarium with an immersive marine life experience. It contains more than 500,000 gallons of water and includes a 30-foot-wide window that resists more than 1.1 million gallons of water pressure. It’s also designed to withstand a magnitude-9.0 earthquake.
Southeast Treatment Plant Headworks Project (San Francisco) – This new 250 million-gallon-a-day plant processes up to 80% of San Francisco’s wastewater flow. Replacing two aging facilities, the vertical design conserves land while allowing the plant to increase grit removal capacity to 10 times the industry norm. It is designed to withstand a magnitude-7.8 earthquake and 36 inches of sea-level rise and will keep operating in extreme conditions. The project also included investments in public art, odor mitigation, and workforce development.
Transform I-66 Outside the Beltway: I-66/Nutley Street Interchange (Fairfax County, Virginia) – Northern Virginia’s $3.7 billion Transform I-66 Outside the Beltway Project introduced a safer, more efficient I- 66/Nutley Street interchange, benefiting drivers, pedestrians, and cyclists. The design successfully kept an existing bridge and eliminated the need for a second one. It also included extensive safety measures such as grade-separating pedestrian crossings and roundabouts, to protect both pedestrians and drivers.
Learn more about the 2026 OPAL Gala.
