EDITORIAL: Civil engineering group recognizes outstanding project

Projects that improve the lives of others are always very worthwhile. And it is the duty of professional societies and associations to help their members recognize these outstanding works.
Recently the American Society of Civil Engineers awarded its 2001 Outstanding Civil Engineering Achievement Award to the Whittier Access Project, which provided highway access to the town of Whittier, Alaska for the first time in the town’s 60-year history. An extremely beneficial project that improves the lives of the folks who live and work in that town and those who want to work more with the town.
CH2M Hill, a global employer of 11,000 people that got its start in Corvallis, designed key components of the Alaska Department of Transportation & Public Facilities project, including two bridges, 2.6 miles of highway and portal structures for a new 500-foot-long tunnel. Judges recognized the project for using approaches to minimize impacts of the new infrastructure on the scenic and environmentally sensitive surroundings.
More than one dozen firms collaborated on the $80 million project.
The project converted a 2.5-mile-long railroad tunnel to dual use: it is now the longest rail and highway tunnel in North America.
Before the project was completed, motor vehicle access to Whittier was possible only by loading automobiles onto railroad cars for the 2.5-mile tunnel trip. Now, automobiles and trains both use the tunnel, on alternating schedules.
Another integral component of the project was the 384-foot-long Portage Creek Bridge, which provides highway access to Prince William Sound. The bridge was designed to accommodate high ground motions in one of the world’s most seismically active areas, and to be an aesthetically pleasing structure in the pristine natural setting. The entire Whittier project is a study of attempts to reduce the impact of the road development, CH2M Hill said.
The Whittier Access Project has been recognized recently with several other national awards, including the American Consulting Engineers Council 2001 Engineering Excellence Grand Award, the American Road and Transportation Builders, the Association/Transportation Development Foundation 2000 Globe Award and the Portland Cement Association 2000 Concrete Bridge Awards Competition Award of Excellence for the Portage Creek Bridge.
Our congratulations and thanks go to the employees and management of CH2M Hill.