VHB, Pare Corp. and PRIME AE Group earn ACEC-RI 2017 Engineering Excellence Awards

August 11, 2017 - Rhode Island
ACEC-RI 2017 VHB project team upon being
awarded the 1st place Gold Anchor Award. Program.
members of VHB include (from left): Peter Chiu,
Joe Wanat, Bharat Patel, Tom Hennessy, Jeff Klein,
Peter Pavao and Rachel Dooley.

Cranston, RI The American Council of Engineering Companies of Rhode Island, a professional association representing 32 engineering firms doing business in Rhode Island, named the recipients of the 2017 Engineering Excellence Awards. These awards recognize engineering achievements that demonstrate a higher degree of merit and ingenuity and contribute to the infrastructure of Rhode Island. The award titles are designed in recognition of the Rhode Island State Flag and to commemorate the State’s great engineering history. The following four awards were presented at the ACEC-RI annual meeting by executive director Marcel Valois:  

• The 1st place Gold Anchor Award for a project with construction costs of more than $10 million was awarded to VHB, led by Bharat Patel, P.E., for the design of the replacement of I-95 Providence Viaduct (Southbound Bridge) No. 578 in Providence. The owner of this project is the Rhode Island Department of Transportation. GZA GeoEnvironmental, Inc., also a member of ACEC-RI, provided geotechnical engineering services for the project. This project replaced the aging and rapidly deteriorating structure while maintaining interstate traffic.

• The 2nd place Blue Ribbon Hope Award for a project with construction costs of more than $10 million was awarded to Pare Corporation for the civil/site design of the Richard E. Beaupre Center for Chemical and Forensic Sciences Hall on the Kingston Campus of the University of Rhode Island. The Pare engineering team was led by Dave Potter, P.E. This $68 million, 134,600 s/f four-story academic building on the University’s Health and Life Sciences District at the northern portion of the Kingston campus is owned by the University of Rhode Island.

• The 1st place Gold Anchor Award for a project with construction costs of less than $10 million was awarded to PRIME AE Group, under the supervision of Russell Moresi, P.E., for the Shippee Bridge Replacement Rte. 98 (Sherman Farm Road over the Nipmuc River) in Burrillville. The owner of this project is the Rhode Island Department of Transportation. 

ACEC-RI member firm Paul B. Aldinger & Associates, Inc. provided geotechnical engineering services. This was a replacement of a circa 1935 bridge using Accelerated Bridge Construction (ABC) methodologies.

• The 2nd place Blue Ribbon Hope Award for a project with construction costs of less than $10 million was awarded to VHB for the RIDOT Statewide Wrong-Way Driving Mitigation Program. The VHB project design team was led by Peter Pavao, PE, and the project is owned by the Rhode Island Department of Transportation. This program led to the installation and monitoring of a statewide wrong-way driver detection and alert system to address the increase in wrong way driving incidents on Rhode Island’s interstates and freeways. 

The Honorable Jack Reed, a senior United States senator from RI, member of the Committee of Armed Services, the Committee on Appropriations and the Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, was the guest speaker prior to the awards ceremony. Senator Reed shared his concerns regarding the infrastructure of the nation.

Joel Goodmonson, PE, LEED AP, the senior vice chair of the ACEC, addressed the audience on national matters affecting our industry that ACEC’s national office is tracking. In addition the meeting included the election of new officers and directors for coming year. Kazem Farhoumand, P.E., will be joining the ACEC-RI board. 

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