International and special awards go to Cegertec, Dialog, Tetra Tech, CH2M Hill, Stantec

Consulting engineering firms have been recipients of a variety of special awards in different sectors.

Cegertec WorleyParsons has won the top 2012 prize for engineering innovation from the Ordre des Ingénieurs du Québec. The prize was given for the team’s “outstanding work” in reinforcing nine gussets on the upstream ramp of the Honoré-Mercier Bridge in Montreal. The reinforcement had to be designed in an emergency after Transports Quebec realized there was a problem in the summer of 2011. The engineers’ solution, done in collaboration with the contractor and steel supplier Parmetal, was to reinforce the gussets by adding new gusset plaques inside the triangular panel points. This was a “delicate and extremely complicated process.”

DIALOG won an international award from the Concrete Reinforcing Steel Institute for the St. Joseph Seminary in Edmonton. The project (which won a 2011 Canadian Consulting Engineering Award, click here) was cited for its “attention to detail in every aspect.” The building won in the educational facility category in the CRSI competition, which is open to projects in Canada, the U.S. and Mexico.

Tetra Tech’s design for a new surge barrier near New Orleans to prevent any future inundations from disasters like Hurricane Katrina won the 2012 award as the most outstanding engineering achievement from the American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC). The $1.1-billion new Lake Borgne Surge Barrier is the largest barrier of its kind in the world, made of concrete and steel, and measuring 26 feet tall and nearly two miles long.

CH2M HILL has won the Global Water Award for Water Company of the Year. The awards were presented in Rome on April 30. The firm was selected partly for launching programs like “WaterMatch” which seeks to promote the re-use of municipal effluent, and also on the basis of its acquisition of Halcrow, which added 80 offices and 6,000 employees worldwide, and has a strong presence in the Middle East. “The Halcrow acquisition has broadened and deepened CH2M HILL’s influence – and value – for water users in all sectors,” said the company’s press release.

Stantec won a Citation of Merit in the Behavorial Healthcare Design Showcase for 2012 for its expansion of the Lutherwood children’s Mental Health Centre in Toronto. The expansion involved adding a new 16,500 square foot addition to two buildings dating from 1960 and 1980. Cannon Design also won a Citation of Merit for the new St. Joseph Healthcare’s new, 204-bed inpatient/outpatient mental health facility in Hamilton, Ontario. The awards are given by Behavorial Healthcare Magazine.

If your firm has won a special award recently, send information to bparsons@ccemag.com