ACEC

News release 

WASHINGTON, DC – DLZ Kentucky Inc., of Lexington, Ky., has earned a National Recognition Award for exemplary engineering achievement in the American Council of Engineering Companies’ (ACEC) 53rd annual Engineering Excellence Awards (EEA) for the Kennedy Mill Bridge Replacement project in Burgin.

Also receiving recognition for their roles in the project were Walsh Construction Company of Crown Point, Indiana, and Genesis Structures, Inc., of Kansas City, Missouri.

The bridge carries KY 152 over Lake Herrington, an artificial lake that has some of the deepest water in the state. Along with designing structural support piers to rise more than 270 feet from the lake bottom, the project team needed a foundation system suitable for the difficult underlying rock. Adapting techniques from offshore marine construction, the project team used a technically innovative “stacked segmental approach,” with each pier installed one section at a time from the surface. This solution created a much safer work environment, with better quality control of the individual units.

The project marks the most extensive use of this complicated maritime construction technique within a land-locked region. Despite the project’s complexity, all work was completed well ahead of schedule, on budget, and with an impeccable safety record. The new Kennedy Mill Bridge will provide a long-needed, safe, and reliable means across Herrington Lake for decades to come.

The project is eligible for additional honors as part of a record 203 entries this year representing engineering excellence from throughout the nation and the world. Judging for the awards program — known industry-wide as the “Academy Awards of the engineering industry” – took place in February and was conducted by a national 35-member panel of built environment leaders, along with experts from government, the media and academia. Award criteria focused on uniqueness and originality, technical innovation, social and economic value, and generating excitement for the engineering profession.

Recognition of all award winners including top winners — 20 Honor Awards, 16 Grand Awards and the prestigious “Grand Conceptor Award” for the year’s most outstanding overall engineering achievement — will take place at the annual EEA Dinner and Gala, a black-tie event to be held Tuesday, April 28, at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel in Washington, D.C.

 The American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC) is the business association of America’s engineering industry, representing more than 5,200 independent engineering firms and more than 600,000 professionals throughout the United States engaged in the development of America’s transportation, water and energy infrastructure, along with environmental, industrial and other public and private facilities. Founded in 1906 and headquartered in Washington, D.C., ACEC is a national federation of 52 state and regional organizations.