SAN FRANCISCO, CA — Several HDR projects in California received 2022 Engineering Excellence Awards from the American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC). The state-winning projects advanced to the national ACEC Engineering Excellence Awards competition, which culminates with the announcement of national award winners at the Engineering Excellence Awards Gala on May 24. The gala, which recognizes the year’s most remarkable engineering achievements, is part of the 2022 ACEC Annual Conference.

The winning projects in the California Builder & Engineer area include:

Drivers in the Bay Area have long dealt with congestion, bottlenecks, and increased travel times on some of the busiest highways in the U.S. I-680 connects the southern San Francisco Bay Area with I-80, and the major north-south freeway is a heavily traveled and key corridor for the region. To maximize highway operations, the Contra Costa Transportation Authority, in cooperation with the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, Caltrans, and the Federal Highway Administration, constructed 11 directional miles of express lane on southbound I-680. HDR provided preliminary engineering, environmental assessment and documentation, public outreach right of way and utilities assistance, final design, and design support during construction for the $127-million project, which opened to traffic one year ahead of schedule.The Sacramento Regional County Sanitation District, or Regional San, was required to upgrade its 181-million-gallon-per-day Sacramento Regional Wastewater Treatment Plant by 2021 to comply with a new permit that included nitrogen removal and California Title 22 filtration and disinfection. A new nitrifying sidestream treatment facility was included as one of many projects in Regional San’s EchoWater Program to reduce ammonia loads in the sidestream and thereby reduce effluent ammonia in the discharge.Electric utilities in three West Coast states joined together to commission the West Coast Clean Transit Corridor Initiative, a study focused on introducing electric vehicle charging infrastructure to drastically reduce emissions. Led by HDR, the study provides recommendations for electric charging infrastructure to support medium- and heavy-duty electric trucks along the 1,300-mile I-5 corridor.

Other projects receiving Engineering Excellence Awards include:

• Salinas Intermodal Transportation Center - Honor Award
• Port of Stockton Fyffe Avenue Grade Separation ­- Merit Award
• Bradshaw Equalization Structure Pipeline Project - Merit Award