McKim & Creed Receives Top Honor for Engineering Excellence
North Carolina-based McKim & Creed has received the top honor for engineering excellence by the American Council of Engineering Companies of North Carolina.
The engineering, surveying and planning firm of McKim & Creed was presented the “2010 Henry A. Stikes Grand Conceptor Award” for its use of cutting-edge mobile scanning technology along five sections of roadway and three sections of railway in North Carolina. The top honor was presented to company officials at the ACEC/NC’s annual awards gala held in Cary on Tuesday evening, November 10, and marks the second time in three years that McKim & Creed has won the Grand Conceptor Award.
McKim & Creed also received “Honors Awards” from ACEC/NC for its work on the James A. Loughlin (Northside) Wastewater Treatment Plant Expansion and Upgrade in Wilmington and the North Carolina Center for Automotive Research (NCCAR) Phase 1A in Northampton County. The company won three of the 20 awards presented by ACEC/NC. “I appreciate the willingness of our clients to consider innovative technologies that provide newer, more economical and safer ways to execute projects,” said Michael W. Creed, chairman and CEO of McKim & Creed.
ACEC/NC annually presents the “Engineering Excellence Awards” to honor and recognize engineering and surveying firms located in North Carolina for projects that demonstrate the highest degree of achievement, value and ingenuity.
For the mobile scanning projects, McKim & Creed and Texas-based Terrapoint used mobile scanning technology to gather topographic and planimetric data for more than 50 miles of highway and 33 miles of railway in North Carolina. This marked the first time mobile scanning had been used in North Carolina for DOT. The data was mapped into CAD deliverables, which NCDOT used for design purposes on five sections of highway and three areas of railway. This method of data collection can potentially save 30% on costs when compared to helicopter photogrammetry. Data collection time is drastically reduced proportionally to the size of the project.
The Northside facility, which is one of the largest construction projects in the history of Wilmington and New Hanover County, doubled wastewater treatment capacity, replaced chlorination with ultraviolet disinfection and was completed for $6 million under budget with no lost manhours during construction. McKim & Creed, with subconsultants Hazen and Sawyer and Tetra Tech, designed the $80-million expansion and upgrade of the Northside Waste¬water Treatment Plant. Capacity was increased from 8 mgd to 16 mgd, with the capability of expand¬ing to 24 mgd, which will serve the needs of city and county residents for 30 years. The plant remained operational during the three-year construction period.
NCCAR is the only facility on the East Coast designed to meet research, testing and development demands of the automotive industry. Located in Northampton County, NCCAR includes road courses, test pads and high-tech garages, and provides the tools needed to test any kind of road vehicle. Within 3-5 years, the state-sponsored project is estimated to bring 50-150 jobs to northeast North Carolina. Its affiliation with North Carolina’s university and community college system offers opportunities for matching talents with research capacity and business development resources.
McKim & Creed provides engineering and surveying services to public and private sector clients via 16 offices throughout the Southeast. The firm has won numerous awards and accolades, and has been named one of the top architectural/engineering/contracting firms by Public Works magazine, one of the top design firms in the Southeast by Southeast Construction magazine, and one of the top 200 environmental firms in the United States by Engineering News-Record magazine.
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