BELLEVUE, WA — Several HDR projects received 2021 Engineering Excellence Awards from multiple state chapters of the American Council of Engineering Companies. The state chapters each recognize the winning project teams and clients at local awards ceremonies throughout the fall, winter, and spring.

The state-winning projects advanced to the national ACEC Engineering Excellence Awards competition, which culminates with the announcement of national award winners at the Engineering Excellence Awards Gala on April 27 in Washington, D.C. The gala, which recognizes the year’s most remarkable engineering achievements, is part of the 2021 ACEC Annual Conference.

The winning projects in Washington include the NE Spring Boulevard Multimodal Corridor and the Tumwater Falls Hatchery Modernization.

Long used for light industry, the city of Bellevue, Washington, is transforming the BelRed area into a mixed-use and transit oriented neighborhood. The gateway into this community, and the backbone for area development, is NE Spring Boulevard. This new five-lane, half-mile roadway includes five new intersections, two bridges crossing the East Link light rail line, a multipurpose pathway, cycle tracks, parking and drop off zones, and bioretention stormwater treatment.

HDR worked closely with the City of Bellevue to deliver this $57-million urban corridor. HDR was selected as the lead designer, resident engineer, and construction manager. HDR's work included traffic analysis and forecasting, grant assistance, intersection design, alternatives analysis, conceptual design and final design of multiple structures.

Constructed by the Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife, City of Tumwater, Squaxin Island Tribe, and Olympia Tumwater Foundation, the Tumwater Falls Hatchery project provides a facility to trap returning adult salmon; rear, acclimate, and release additional Chinook salmon; improve water quality; educate the community; and support the dwindling Southern Resident Killer Whale population.

Built in the 1950s to help spawning salmon traverse the Deschutes River, Brewery Park at Tumwater Falls’ fish ladders needed repair and the hatchery’s 1960s-era holding ponds had become too small for current needs. The $9-million modernization project built new, larger adult holding and juvenile rearing ponds, extended the fish ladder, and expanded production quantity to more than 3.8 million Chinook salmon annually. The project will allow the more than 250,000 annual park visitors to come face-to-face with salmon through new fish-viewing windows in the holding ponds and ladder.