Burlington, Mass., October 9, 2024 — The American Public Works Association (APWA) has announced that a Haley & Aldrich-designed emergency street repair in Northern California won a 2024 Public Works Project of the Year Award.
This award recognizes the alliance between managing agencies, contractors, and consultants, as well as their cooperative achievements on infrastructure projects that promote excellence in construction management and administration.
A Haley & Aldrich team and its client, the Alameda County Public Works Agency (ACPWA), earned the award in the Under $5 Million division of the Disaster or Emergency Construction/Repair category. They won for the emergency repair and reopening of A Street — a major commuter route connection in Alameda County between Interstate 580 and the San Mateo Bridge (State Route 92) — in Hayward, California.
A severe storm on December 31, 2022, resulted in high flows in San Lorenzo Creek that eroded a concrete channel and caused the collapse of a retaining wall supporting the shoulder and easternmost northbound lane of A Street. As Alameda County rallied to respond to storm-related emergencies throughout the county, it leaned on Haley & Aldrich to manage the A Street project.
Initially, Haley & Aldrich flew a LiDAR unmanned aerial system drone to the site to develop topography for conceptual design. The team then completed a limited subsurface investigation to confirm the viability of a sheet pile wall as a repair, designed the full repair, provided construction management services, and assisted with documentation to secure emergency funding for the declared disaster. The team worked 12-hour days, seven days a week through the construction phase — ultimately reopening the road only 40 days after the collapse, despite continued heavy rain for about half that time.
“Our team did a masterful job collaborating with each other and with our client and other stakeholders,” said Senior Technical Expert and Geotechnical Engineer Mark Myers, P.E., G.E., who accepted the award on behalf of Haley & Aldrich at the APWA national conference in Atlanta in September. “This project is a great example of how Haley & Aldrich can leverage multiple capabilities — drone LiDAR, construction management, and design — to dramatically shrink the design timeline.”
In addition to enabling the quick reopening of the critical road, Haley & Aldrich’s repair protected an exposed fiber-optic line and included two storm drain outfalls to better redirect heavy precipitation. The emergency stabilization work below the retaining wall prevents erosion of the creek bank by future high-water flows.
In addition to Mark, the Haley & Aldrich team included Gus Gregory, Jeff Hausen, Justin Lindeman, Kai Feng, and Kasia Drozynska, GISP. James Lai of ACPWA led the project, and Goodfellow Brothers served as the general contractor. The team continues to work on a permanent repair, which will replace the temporary erosion protection measures with solutions that include creek restoration.
“The partnership between our construction management and design teams allowed us to adapt to changes during construction in short order,” noted Mark. “I’m extremely proud of the project team’s flexibility and collaboration, which made it possible to deliver quickly for Alameda County while working with Goodfellow Brothers to ensure worker safety.”
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