Wilmington Firm’s Surveying Technologies Help To Restore Storm-Battered Shoreline
Washington, DC (March 11, 2015)—McKim & Creed of Wilmington, N.C., has earned a National Recognition Award for exemplary engineering achievement in the American Council of Engineering Companies’ (ACEC) 49th annual Engineering Excellence Awards for performing beach surveys between Sea Bright to Manasquan, N.J., for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
To restore four-miles of beach devastated by Super Storm Sandy, the Corps needed accurate topographic information for groins, revetments, and other structures both above and below the water line. Crashing waves, strong currents, and steep drop-offs made conventional surveying methods unsafe, so the project team applied a combination of land, sea, and air survey tools.
The technologies—GPS, bathymetric single-beam and multi-beam sonar, and aerial Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR)—captured features as detailed as the size and configuration of the underwater boulders that make up the groins. The innovative approach will help agencies assess the condition of their costal structures, and formulate maintenance and repair strategies.
The project is among 170 engineering projects throughout the nation and around the world recognized by ACEC as preeminent engineering achievements and eligible for one of the top 2015 Engineering Excellence Awards. Judging for the Engineering Excellence Awards—known industry-wide as the “Academy Awards of the engineering industry”—took place in February and was conducted by a panel of more than 30 engineers, architects, government officials, media members, and academics. Awards criteria include uniqueness and originality, technical innovation, social and economic value, complexity, and success in meeting goals.
Final winners, including 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 to be held Tuesday, April 21, 2015 at The Marriott Wardman Park Hotel in Washington, D.C.
About ACEC
The American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC) is the business association of America’s engineering industry, representing more than 5,000 independent engineering firms and more than 325,000 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 1909 and headquartered in Washington, D.C., ACEC is a national federation of 51 state and regional organizations.