Innovation Permeates Region's Top Work

The Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., won the Best Projects award in the K-12 education category.

*PHOTO BY ROBERT BENSON PHOTOGRAPHY, COURTESY CONSIGLI CONSTRUCTION CO.*

This year’s ENR New England Best Projects competition honors projects that used a wide range of materials and construction techniques, from the modular Pagliuca Harvard Life Lab in Boston to the mass-timber University of Massachusetts Amherst Design Building. The winning entries also include trailblazing jobs such as sea2shore: The Renewable Link, a project that interconnected the nation’s first commercial offshore wind farm to the mainland power grid in Rhode Island. Another notable project on this year’s list is the new Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut. The team helped rewrite state and federal school-security guidelines in a way that was sensitive to the survivors of the Dec. 14, 2012, shooting that killed 20 first-graders and six adults. These projects are but a few examples of the 24 winners— from 29 entries—selected by the judges.

Five industry professionals, plus a safety specialist, judged projects in 15 categories. The judges considered a team’s ability to overcome challenges; the project’s contribution to the industry and community; safety; and the project’s design and construction quality.

Projects are in Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont. They had to be completed between May 1, 2016, and May 31, 2017. For each category, the judges could award a Best Project winner and any number of awards of merit.

This year’s Excellence in Safety Award goes to the 8-million-gallon-per-day water treatment plant in Falmouth, Mass., which reduces disinfection byproducts, removes pathogens, improves taste, reduces odor, removes algae toxins and reduces organics. The team accelerated the schedule using faster horizontal directional drilling instead of open-cut excavation for the intakes for untreated water.

The overall Project of the Year is 50 + 60 Binney Street in Cambridge. The team borrowed from integrated project delivery and Lean Construction to deliver the mixed-use development under budget and eight months early. The project’s two 10-story buildings were erected using the up-down construction method. Keep reading to learn about all of this year’s winners.