Cincinnati
Strand AssociatesClient: Metropolitan Sewer District of Greater Cincinnati
The new conveyance system and greenway project reduces combined sewer overflows by 370 million gallons annually and reintroduces South Fairmount to its historic creek, while simultaneously reinvigorating a struggling community and constructing a beautiful new civic park amenity. The project team’s sustainable and communitybased solution provides the same high level of treatment and flood control and is less than half the cost of the originally planned $500 million deep tunnel. Restoration of the historic Lick Run waterway includes reconstruction of roadways and 11 intersections, streetscape improvements with five new vehicular bridges, and two miles of shared-use paths and sidewalks.
Long Beach, California
Moffatt & NicholClient: Port of Long Beach
The decade-long, $1.5 billion redevelopment project combined two aging shipping terminals into a single, fully automated, 304-acre complex with an annual capacity of 3.3 million 20-foot equivalent units (TEUs)—more than double the two terminals’ previous capacity. Middle Harbor is also one of the world’s cleanest container terminals, with electric-powered cargo-handling equipment and shoreside electrical access that allows vessels at berth to shut down their diesel engines. The project team was responsible for operational master planning and facilities planning, design of dredging and fill, and permitting assistance and support during construction. The firm also designed the 4,250-foot-long wharf and container yard structures, including the automated stacking crane foundations.
WSP USAClient: Port of Long Beach
Nicknamed “the bridge to everywhere,” the six-lane, nearly two-mile-long cable-stayed bridge rises 205 feet above the port’s access channel to accommodate today’s larger cargo ships and the dramatic increase in trucking traffic. Supported by two 515-foot-tall towers, the new bridge’s main span stretches approximately 2,000 feet across the channel. Along with additional traffic lanes in each direction for improved traffic flow, the bridge provides emergency lanes on both the inner and outer shoulders in each direction to reduce delays and safety hazards from accidents and vehicle breakdowns, gentler approach grades, and a dedicated bicycle path/pedestrian walkway with scenic overlooks.
San Diego
WSP USAClient: San Diego Association of Governments
The $2.17 billion trolley extension provides muchneeded additional transportation capacity for a fast-growing corridor that includes the University of California–San Diego campus, considered to be San Diego’s second downtown. The 11-mile extension to the existing San Diego Trolley Blue Line offers connections to nearby communities and promotes the use of transit, walking, and biking for travel while creating job opportunities, providing access to education, and boosting economic activity. WSP was the lead engineer and was responsible for environmental, planning, and preliminary and final engineering. Transportation models indicate that the new extension will attract 20,000 new transit riders a day to the system.
Seattle
McMillen Jacobs AssociatesClient: Sound Transit
Northgate Link connects Sound Transit’s University Link light rail segment to the Northgate business/retail center, helping connect four major urban centers to the existing Central Link, which extends from downtown Seattle to SeaTac airport. The new link features 4.3 miles of double-track light rail, three-quarters of which are in twin bored soft-ground tunnels built using precast concrete segments. The project also includes two underground transit stations, an elevated station at Northgate, a portal structure, and more than 20 cross passages. The project team was challenged by the area’s dense, urban neighborhoods and complex subsurface and groundwater conditions.
Haley & AldrichClient: CAA Icon
The arena home for the WNBA’s Seattle Storm and the NHL’s Seattle Kraken was being challenged by its 57-year-old and brittle 22,000-ton roof. Under and around this fragile structure, the project team guided design and construction of more than a mile of excavation shoring and 187 temporary and permanent foundation-drilled shafts. The goal was to safely expand the interior and create a modern facility for the arena customers and fans. A sophisticated automatic survey monitoring system alerted engineers to any movement of 700 points on the roof and around the site every four hours. Throughout renovation, the roof moved no more than ¼ inch.
Garden City, Georgia
Moffatt & NicholClient: Georgia Ports Authority
The project effectively extends the reach of the Port of Savannah’s Garden City Terminal to better serve existing destinations and expand into new destinations across inland U.S. markets. The project team identified nearly 200 acres of underutilized property well suited for connecting two existing rail yards, creating a continuous rail facility capable of serving both the Norfolk Southern and CSX railroads. The project features 18 separate 2,700-foot-long working tracks and a series of runaround tracks totaling 20 miles of new rail. With a large portion of the expansion area located atop a former landfill, the project team developed a dynamic compaction solution that allowed the existing material to remain in place, saving millions of dollars in remediation costs.
Blaine County, Idaho
HDRClient: Shoshone-Bannock Tribes
A long-standing obstruction to fully restoring the Snake River as a migration route for sockeye salmon has been eliminated by replacing the existing Pettit Lake Creek Weir with a new structure tailored to the creek’s peak flow. Its innovative design is also friendlier for fish and the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes, as it traps juveniles and, for the first time, adults to help biologists gather data for implementing additional measures to restore salmon migration. The project is part of a plan to ensure a healthy future for sockeye in Redfish, Pettit, and Alturas Lakes, where they spend two years growing before embarking on a two-year, 1,800-mile round trip to the Pacific Ocean and back—the longest and highest distance to travel for any fish.