The Middletown, Conn.-based team of VHB and STV has earned a National Recognition Award for exemplary engineering achievement in the American Council of Engineering Companies’ (ACEC) 48th annual Engineering Excellence Awards for the West Haven Commuter Rail Station in West Haven, Conn.
The project addresses rapidly increasing ridership on Metro-North Railroad’s heavily traveled New Haven Line between Milford and New Haven – the busiest commuter rail corridor in the United States – while also providing users with a state-of-the-art facility that prioritizes sustainable design. Innovations include two 12-car high-level platforms, a full-service station building, an ADA-compliant pedestrian bridge, and intermodal connections.
Other engineering firms participating in the project include Hatch Mott MacDonald; Rumney Associates; Michael Baker Jr. Inc.; and Burns Engineering Inc.
The project is among 143 engineering achievements throughout the nation and the world being recognized by ACEC as preeminent engineering achievements, and eligible for one of the 24 top 2014 Engineering Excellence Awards. Judging for the awards — known industry-wide as the “Academy Awards of the engineering industry” – took place in February conducted by a national panel of more than 25 engineers and architects, along with leaders from government, media, and academia. Award criteria includes uniqueness and originality, technical innovation, social and economic value, complexity, and success of the projects in meeting goals.
Final top winners — 16 Honor Awards, eight Grand Awards and the prestigious “Grand Conceptor Award” for the year’s most outstanding overall engineering achievement—will be announced at the Engineering Excellence Awards Gala, a black-tie event at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Washington, D.C.
