SEATTLE, WA — The American Council of Engineering Companies has recognized HDR projects in Idaho, Oregon, Washington, and Alaska with national awards. The five projects were all winners of National Recognition Awards.In June 2018, a seven-vehicle crash on Interstate 84 in Idaho severely damaged the overpass and required the interstate to be closed immediately. The Ada County Highway District and Idaho Transportation Department decided to improve the roadway at the same time as the necessary bridge replacement. HDR served as the lead designer for delivering plans, specifications, and estimate for this accelerated $10.3-million bridge replacement and improvement. During the construction phase, HDR also provided construction engineering and inspection services.

The team designed the project to widen Cloverdale Road from a two-lane rural road to a five-lane urban corridor that ties into the new bridge. It is the first ACHD project to incorporate raised bike lanes. The project also features a seven-foot attached sidewalk on both sides of the roadway; continuous street lighting; ADA-compliant pedestrian ramps; a pedestrian hybrid beacon for a school crossing; mast mounted beacons to replace school zone flashers; a widened bridge over the Ridenbaugh Canal; relocated irrigation features; and mechanically stabilized earth and gravity walls.

The Burnside Bridge in Portland, Oregon, straddles the Willamette River in one of the world’s most powerful earthquake zones. HDR was hired to lead a study of the bridge’s seismic vulnerabilities, develop a range of replacement or rehabilitation alternatives, conduct the environmental review process to select a preferred alternative, and then conduct the Type, Size, and Location study.

Oregon sits in the Cascadia Subduction Zone, making it subject to some of the world’s largest earthquakes. Since being identified in the 1980s as an active fault, scientists have documented a long history of earthquakes and tsunamis in the zone, regularly doing catastrophic damage in the region.

Reconstructed in the 1970s with limited reinforcing steel and foundations buried in loose, non‐competent soil, Seattle’s 45th Street Viaduct was vulnerable to catastrophic failure from earthquakes. The viaduct plays an important role in earthquake resiliency and response as it is a vital route from Interstate 5 to University Village, Laurelhurst, and Seattle Children’s Hospital.

The project completes the Seattle Department of Transportation’s 20‐year effort to widen, reconstruct, and seismically retrofit the viaduct. By adding a catcher bent, steel column jackets, and an infill wall; the team overcame concerns from a “pig‐tail” ramp and improved the structure’s seismic ductility, reducing its vulnerabilities and improving corridor resiliency.

More than 350 fish passage barriers in Thurston County — road culverts, dams, dikes, and other obstructions — reduce habitat available to fish. By 2030, Washington state law will require that structures are corrected in streams to provide for fish passage, and it will cost an estimated $2.4 billion to fix hundreds of state-owned culverts.

As a result, Thurston County has been developing a program since 2016 to restore fish passage habitat. The program’s first five projects removed eight fish-blocking culverts, installed three prefabricated bridges, and completed two large fish-passable culverts, which opened more than 7.5 miles of fish habitat and restored riparian areas and streambeds. The new program is replicable throughout the region and proactively will provide fish access for the next 75 years.

HDR oversaw the construction of a new $25-million roadway along historic Water Street in Ketchikan, Alaska. The original trestle bridge, built in 1979, was deteriorating to the point that the road could no longer support heavy loads, including garbage trucks, heating oil suppliers or emergency vehicles. HDR served as construction manager for the three-year project, tasked with inspections, materials testing, and overseeing construction.

The 40-year-old bridge was replaced with three separate structures designed to last the next 75 years: a bridge section, a retaining wall, and a steel supported trestle. The project also included updates to meet Americans with Disabilities Act guidelines, new sidewalks, and replacement of all utilities.