Watershed Management Receives Top Engineering Honor

Staff Report

For the second year in a row, the City of Atlanta Department of Watershed Management earned an award of excellence for the successful completion of a project constructed in the shadows of Turner Field. The Georgia Section of the American Society of Civil Engineers presented the City of Atlanta with its Outstanding Civil Engineering Award for Large Projects on Friday for its construction of a five-million gallon storage vault beneath Turner Field’s media parking lot.

Watershed Management began construction of the vault in Nov. 2013, and the $19 million fast-track, design-build project was completed within five months to coincide with the Atlanta Braves offseason. A typical project of this magnitude requires a year-long construction schedule.

“The Turner Field media lot storage vault represents a remarkable feat in engineering and construction and has already provided much-needed flood relief to residents in the surrounding neighborhoods,” says Watershed Commissioner Jo Ann Macrina. “We completed work within a very tight timeframe, with minimal impacts to the community, while incorporating sustainability best practices – a key initiative of Mayor Kasim Reed.”

The media lot storage vault project is one component of the Department’s Southeast Atlanta Green Infrastructure Initiative, designed to reduce flooding in Peoplestown and surrounding neighborhoods. Under this plan, Watershed Management has implemented rain gardens and detention ponds to relieve flooding, and the City is now installing approximately six miles of permeable pavers to further reduce overflows.

Last year, the project received first-place honors for New Public Building Construction under $50 million by the South Atlantic Chapter of the Construction Management Association of America.