New SR 520 floating bridge named America’s top engineering feat

The SR-520 Evergreen Point Floating Bridge and Landings project won the 2017 “Grand Conceptor” Award at ACEC National’s 50th Anniversary Engineering Excellence Awards gala, held April 25, 2017, in Washington, D.C.

WSDOT released a statement celebrating the award, which coincides with the anniversary of the bridge’s first year in service. Read an excerpt from WSDOT’s article below, and on WSDOT’s website, here.

Wood Harbinger provided the electrical and fire protection engineering as well as commissioning services for this project. We are so very proud of our involvement in this iconic public work! Congratulations to the full project team on this award achievement!

World’s longest floating bridge earns major industry award on its first birthday

“This is an incredible honor for a remarkable project,” said Julie Meredith, Administrator of the SR 520 Bridge Replacement and HOV Program for the Washington State Department of Transportation. “An amazing, collaborative group of people deserve credit for this.”

Meredith made special note of HDR, the general engineering consultant on SR 520 reconstruction program; Kiewit/General/Manson, the new floating bridge’s design-builder; and KPFF, the bridge’s lead design consultant.

The floating bridge was one of 162 projects throughout the world vying for ACEC’s top engineering award. The new bridge opened to traffic on April 25, 2016, and is the longest floating span of highway in the world, at 7,708 feet. Its predecessor on Lake Washington – opened in 1963 – measured 130 feet shorter.

“This is one of the great engineering feats of our time,” said Secretary of Transportation Roger Millar. “The new bridge is an example of how our state is working to build a resilient, world-class, multimodal transportation system that will serve generations to come.”