Chattanooga’s Big Dig Project Wins ACEC TN 2018 People Choice and Honor Awards
November 02, 2018
The American Council of Engineering Companies of Tennessee selected S&ME’s Big Dig project for two 2018 Engineering Excellence Awards: People’s Choice and an Honor Award in the Environmental Category for large projects. Managed jointly by S&ME’s Rick Bruce, PE, and Philip Nelson of Civic Engineering and Information Technologies, Inc. (Civic), and working for the City of Chattanooga, the project took action to prevent a catastrophic failure of the city’s stormwater infrastructure and potential water contamination from a former landfill.
The City requested Civic to redesign the storm conveyance in the historic St. Elmo area of the city and so Civic developed a plan to re-route the existing storm infrastructure around the Wheland Foundry Landfill. S&ME developed a comprehensive Soil and Groundwater Management Plan for management of excavated materials, due to the history of area soil and foundry sand contamination. The new storm drainage system was designed to accommodate a 100-year storm event for an 1,100-acre drainage area. The discovery of contaminated soils complicated the project and brought in additional stakeholders. The new infrastructure has been designed with expansion in mind to pave the way for future development of the area in conjunction with the planned extension of the Chattanooga Riverwalk.