Midwest Projects Showcase Excellence | Engineering News-Register

The Midwest construction industry remained strong in 2024, driven by a steady stream of projects that kept companies active and inspired. Across the region, builders delivered work that advanced innovation, prioritized sustainability and safety, revitalized historic sites, and introduced forward-thinking construction solutions.

From the nation’s first massive wooden broadcast station to converting a 1930s-built YMCA in Chicago’s affluent Gold Coast neighborhood into affordable housing to stabilizing a stretch of Lake Michigan’s shoreline, the projects featured in ENR Midwest’s Best Project competition showed how construction crews overcame a variety of challenges, including scarce materials conditions and a lack of job prices, a lack of labor. renovations The projects were to be completed between May 2024 and May 2025. Despite their differences, they all stood out for one reason: excellence.

Winter weather was a major challenge and hazard at the Soo Locks project in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan. Construction activity on the water usually stopped from November to April.
Photo courtesy of Kokosing Alberici LLC

Court criteria

Seven industry experts served as judges for this year’s competition. Divided into two teams, they evaluated projects on how the teams overcame obstacles, innovated and contributed to the industry. They also assessed the quality and craftsmanship, function and aesthetics of each project. The judges did not vote on projects in which they or their companies were involved.

In choosing the awardees, judges noted teams that worked closely together to achieve excellence, as well as projects that provide a significant benefit to the community.

One such effort was Chicago’s Damen Green Line elevated CTA station, named Best Project in the Airport/Transit category and Midwest Project of the Year.

Damen’s Green Line was recognized for “community impact and engineering excellence, all topped off with an impeccable safety record,” said judge Deana Ruud, Terracon’s senior associate and marketing director of external communications.

The project addresses a 1.5-mile transportation gap that has existed since 1948 on Chicago’s Near West Side. It features a modern, light-filled design that references the city’s architectural history, especially its iconic steel bridges, through a green, cantilever pedestrian bridge. The new structure includes a three-story, 8,700-square-foot station house, a new plaza with a bus stop, a mosaic mural created by a local artist, and the glass-enclosed pedestrian bridge, which was delivered to the site in pieces across the Chicago River.

The Soo Locks Expansion, Phase 2, was named a Project of the Year Finalist. Located on the U.S.-Canada border between Lake Superior and Lake Huron, the Soo Locks complex is home to more than 7,000 vessels carrying more than 75 million tons of cargo each year, including nearly all of the domestically produced advanced high-strength steel used in products such as automobiles and home appliances. Originally built in 1855, the Soo Locks complex is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Because only one existing lock, the 1,200-foot Poe Lock, can handle the large lake freighters commonly used in the Great Lakes Navigation System, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is implementing a three-phase plan to create a 1,200-foot by 110-foot lock at the complex.

To facilitate the construction of the new lock, which will take place in the third phase of the plan, Kokosing Alberici has completed the second phase of this ambitious project. Phase 2 included the construction and rehabilitation of more than a mile of new approach walls in a newly deepened channel to reach depths of at least 30 feet. The upstream approach walls include 52 new circular box cells. The project also includes the rehabilitation of the existing sheet steel Z-pile walls and concrete-faced soldier piles, all finished with reinforced concrete slabs.

Judge Brandon Maurisak, manager of the traffic and mobility section at HNTB Corp., said he was impressed by two key factors. “The first was the challenges of construction, including the need to transport materials to the site by barge. The second was the contribution to the community, as this project is part of the process of offering redundancy for bulk shipping in the upper Great Lakes, as well as the contractor’s commitment to sponsor activities in the area,” he said.

Another notable project was the expansion and renovation of the Joslyn Museum of Art in Omaha, which won best project in the cultural/worship category. Nearly 100 years after constructing the museum’s original memorial building, Kiewit Building Group returned as construction manager to deliver a new chapter in the museum’s evolution.

The centerpiece of the project is the 42,000 square meter Rhonda and Howard Hawks Pavilion, designed by architecture firm Snøhetta. The pavilion seamlessly connects the museum’s 1931 Art Deco structure with its 1994 addition through a glass atrium. Inspired by the cloudscapes of the Great Plains, the low, curved form doubles the gallery’s available space while enhancing the visitor experience with new community gathering areas and other amenities.

The expansion of the Joslyn Art Museum in Omaha combines historic architecture with modern design.
Photo courtesy of Kessler Photography

Meet the judges

In addition to Ruud and Maurisak, the judges included Bill Ash, Vice President and Design Director of SmithGroup; Josh Hodges, Project Manager, Tarlton; Zane Hyrkas, Project Engineer, OHM Advisors; Vivek Prasad, Principal Estimator, Americas, Microsoft; and John Schlick, director, preconstruction, JE Dunn Construction. Sam Mishelow, director of customer development at Meyer Najem, judged the security category, and Jill Katic, director of lean evolution and knowledge management and sustainability community leader at Barton Malow Holdings, judged the sustainability category.