ACEC/South Dakota

2009Engineering Excellence

Awards

Engineering Excellence Awards

program celebrates the outstanding

achievements of the engineering

profession.

A special thanks to our Emcee

Rick Knobe

Founder and Chancellor of Viewpoint University on KSOO

MERIT AWARDS

Milbank Water Supply and Treatment Improvements

Milbank, SD

About the Project

The City of Milbank owned and operated a water supply system consisting of three shallow spring galleries/collector wells, three deep vertical wells, several miles of water transmission pipeline, a pump station with chemical feed capabilities, and two ground storage reservoirs. After several decades of operation, the City of Milbank began to experience problems with line breakage and had concerns with the existing systems ability to meet future flow demands. As a result, the City of Milbank began in 1998 the first of a multi-phase project to upgrade their water supply, transmission and treatment systems.

The first phase was to replace an original spring gallery with a new radial collector well, construction on Phase 2 began in 2006 with the replacement of the aging 8-inch cast iron and the 10 inch asbestos cement transmission lines with new parallel 12 inch transmission lines stretching 8.5 miles from the water sources to the Milbank treatment facility; Phase 3 consists of a new 2,900 square foot building that houses the chemical feed equipment and high service pumps. This facility has the capacity to treat and pump 1.5 MGD.

David Odens, PE, Project Manager (left) and Daryl Englund, PE, President of Banner Inc. (right) accept the Merit Award for the Milbank Water Supply and

Treatment Improvements in Milbank, SD. Jason Kettwig, City of Milbank (center) accepts the award on behalf of the city.

The Mead Building High Definition Laser Scanning Project

Yankton, SD

About the Project

The historic Mead Building on the Human Services Center campus in Yankton carries a story that should not be lost to future generations. Built over a hundred years ago, it was sentenced to be demolished until the Yankton Co. Historical Society embraced it as a possible regional museum and cultural center.Eisenbraun and Associates offered the use of their High Definition Survey 3D laser scanning technology to survey the exterior and portion of the interior of the 45,100 square foot structure.

Capturing over 70 million survey points in five days would be an impossible task by any other method, but the futuristic laser scanning technology enabled a two-person survey crew to capture copious amounts of accurate spatial data, creating a dense “point cloud” from which rich detail of the building could be extracted.

The Mead Building has since received national attention, having been designated to the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s 2009 List of America’s Most Endangered Historic Places.

Derek Westenberg, PE, Dan Eisenbraun, PE/LS, President, and Chris Gadeken, PE (l to r) of Eisenbraun and Associates, Inc. accept the Merit Award for The Mead Building High

Definition Laser Scanning Project in Yankton, SD.

Water Reclamation Facility Transfer Pump Replacement

Sioux Falls, SD

About the Project

This project alleviated a critical hydraulic constraint within the Sioux Falls Water Reclamation Facility (WRF), preparing the facility for the City’s ongoing growth while decreasing the facility’s energy consumption. The project replaced four pumps at the WRF’s Process Pump Station with a more efficient pumping regime. The Process Pump Station transfers wastewater from intermediate to tertiary treatment. The project also involved major structural modifications and expansion of the wet well that precedes the pumps.

Thus, the project exemplified the sustainable design concepts of energy conservation and adaptive reuse.

Already the project is benefitting the 150,000 residents of Sioux Falls by reducing energy costs at the WRD. City maintenance personnel have observed a 21% reduction in pumping energy thus far.

Four new 250 hp motors

New pumps on the lower level driven by vertical shafts

Construction of the wet well expansion and sluice gate structure.

Bypass pumping was necessary to keep the facility operating throughout construction.

Adjustable Frequency Drives control the pump motors.

A new sluice gate structure allows isolation of flow into either half of the newly divided wet well.

Dawn Horner, PE, Project Manager at Howard R. Green Company received the Merit Award for the Water Reclamation Facility Transfer Pump Replacement in Sioux Falls,

SD.

HONOR AWARD

Black Hills Airport/Clyde Ice Field Runway 12-30 Extension

Spearfish, SD

About the Project

In the late 1990s, the Lawrence County Airport Board in cooperation with the Federal Aviation Administration began efforts to enhance the utility and safety of the Black Hills Airport/Clyde Ice Field to accommodate the current and projected levels of aviation activity and provide improved approach capabilities. The primary goal of the project was to comply with FAA standards for the design aircraft family, particularly in the areas of runway length and instrument approaches.

The project faced numerous challenges including a tenuous environmental assessment process, land acquisition, geotechncial considerations including deep earth embankments and excavations, coordination with the Federal Emergency Management Agency in crossing a floodplain with the runway, obstacle removal and the relocation of roadways.

Rod Senn, PE, Project Manager at Kadrmas, Lee and Jackson, Inc. received the Honor Award for the Black Hills Airport/Clyde Ice Field Runway 12-30 Extension, Spearfish,

SD.

GRAND AWARD

57th Street ReconstructionSioux Falls, SD

About the Project

In 2005, traffic volumes on 57th Street ranged from 4,000 to 12,000 vehicles per day. Year 2025 traffic volumes were predicted to be 25,000 vehicles per day. Long backups were already developing at intersections during peak periods, the pavement had deteriorated to a very rough condition, and BNSF trains were causing traffic to cut through residential neighborhood streets to avoid the long delays at the at-grade railroad crossing.

The City of Sioux Falls announced its decision to expand 57th Street from two lanes to four lanes from Cliff Avenue to Sycamore Avenue (approximately 2 miles) and hired HDR as the design consultant. The $10.5 million project also included an overpass of the BNSF railroad tracks and a new alignment and widening of Sycamore Avenue. This was the largest roadway project ever undertaken by the City of Sioux Falls.

Airplane photo shows the completed 57th Street project east of Cliff Avenue

Median landscaping was designed to provide a gateway impression

Airplane photo shows the finished railroad overpass and bridge.

Bill Brinker, PE, and James Unruh, PE, from HDR, Inc. accept the 2009 Engineering Excellence Awards Grand Award

for the 57th Reconstruction Project in Sioux Falls, SD.

Congratulations!

It is our honor to recognize the following for their outstanding

achievement as Professional Engineers

Mike Heiberger, PE, is a Project Engineer at Schmucker, Paul, Nohr and Associates in Mitchell.

Mike Johnson, PE, Mike is a water/wastewater design engineer at HDR, Inc. in Sioux Falls.

Lance Weatherly, PE/LSIT is a staff engineer in the Municipal Engineering services in the Sioux Falls office of Banner, Inc.

MARK YOUR CALENDARS!

2010

ENGINEERING EXCELLENCE AWARDS

NOVEMBER 6 , 2010