Recipients of the Aon Build America Awards were revealed at last week’s AGC National Convention in Las Vegas. Several Mountain States region projects were  honored, including Utah’s Pioneer Crossing, the Odd Fellows and Tanner Flagship Store renovations in Salt Lake City and the NREL Research Support Facility in Golden, Colo. This year’s competition netted more than 115 entries and yielded eight Merit Winners and 20 Aon Build America Awards. The winners were:

GRAND AWARD WINNER
MUNICIPAL UTITILY NEW
Lake Oswego Interceptor Sewer Project, Lake Oswego, Ore.
Advanced American Construction Inc.  
Engineer: Brown & Caldwell

The floating sewer line beneath the tranquil surface of Lake Oswego sets a new standard for municipal utility design and construction. A 50-year-old, corroded sewer line was deemed hazardous to the community, and in response, the project team developed an energy-saving gravity-flow system 15 ft below the lake’s surface. The project required crews to drill 270 ft into bedrock to install anchors for the system, and work was heavily regulated to ensure there was no impact on recreational activities, local business operations and environmental practices for lake residences. The project was completed without any lost-time accidents and included more than 1,200 commercial dives.

BUILDING NEW
CONSOL Energy Center, Pittsburgh, Pa.
PJ-Dick/Hunt, A Joint Venture
Architect: Populous
Engineer: Thornton Tomasetti, M-E Engineers

The CONSOL Energy Center is a new 720,000-sq-ft arena for the Pittsburgh Penguins hockey team and up to 150 entertainment events annually, constructed in a congested urban area with an 80-ft elevation change. The arena features luxury seating and high-tech amenities and was built to hold 18,300 guests in the most comfortable seats in the National Hockey League.

Floor-to-ceiling windows provide breathtaking views of the city landscape, while public bar and food court areas give patrons open viewing of the playing surface. The CONSOL Energy Center was the first LEED-Gold-certified NHL arena in the United States, featuring low-flow plumbing fixtures, use of recycled or sustainably harvested materials and a recycling program for glass and plastics.

BUILDING NEW
National World War II Museum Phase IV Expansion, New Orleans, La.
Satterfield & Pontikes Construction
Architect: Voorsanger Mathic LLC
Engineer: Civil Engineer, Morphy Makofsky Inc.; Structural Engineer, Weidlinger Associates Inc.; MEP Engineer, Alteri Sebor Wieber LLC

The National World War II Museum is considered one of the top destinations for New Orleans visitors, featuring diverse geometric shapes and angles, leaning walls and unusual material applications. The team overcame many challenges, including incorporating an existing 150-year-old wall with unstable foundation into the new building, and installing a special wellpoint system during construction of a special-effects pit located just five ft above sea level. In the end, Satterfield & Pontikes’ value engineering saved the owner more than $1 million. There were no recordable incidents in 840,000 man-hours on the project.