Associations Commend Reconstruction of New Jersey Route 18 Project
April 22, 2011
 (Harrisburg, Pa.) The Reconstruction of New Jersey Route 18 in New Brunswick, N.J., has been decorated with three prestigious awards. Most notably, the project received an Honor Award from the American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC) as part of their national Engineering Excellence Awards Competition. The national ACEC Honor Award was presented to the project team at a black-tie gala in Washington, D.C., on Friday, April 1, 2011. There were 162 entries in this year’s competition; Route 18 was one of only 24 projects recognized as a top-award winner.
 The national ACEC Honor Award was
presented to the project team at a
black-tie gala in Washington, D.C.,
on Friday, April 1. The project reached this national level of recognition after receiving the Grand Honor Award from ACEC New Jersey as part of the council’s 2011 Engineering Excellence Awards Competition. The Grand Honor Award is the highest honor given as part of the competition. ACEC advocates for the consulting engineering profession and strives to enhance the business practices of professional engineering companies in the planning, design, and construction industry.
Additional accolades for the Route 18 project include the title of 2011 Project of the Year in the greater than $5 million category by the American Society of Highway Engineers’ North Central and Southern New Jersey Section. This annual awards program honors consulting engineering firms, contractors, and transportation officials in their efforts to provide quality roadway facilities in New Jersey.
Gannett Fleming served as the lead designer and engineer-of-record for this project, which was hailed as “masterful engineering” that transformed a congested, failing roadway serving more than 85,000 motorists daily to an efficient regional thoroughfare and City of New Brunswick access corridor. At its groundbreaking, this complex $215 million project was the largest ever undertaken by the New Jersey Department of Transportation. For more than 10 years, public consensus could not be reached for any Route 18 safety or operational improvements. An intensive Context Sensitive Solutions (CSS) approach included extensive public outreach efforts leading to a plan of action with stakeholder-approved elements in the final design and construction of the project.
The project’s marquee feature is the George Street Bridge, one of the largest structures of its kind in North America and the first in the world to combine precast concrete arches with a light-weight cellular concrete overfill. The team’s following of an innovative Complete Streets approach has reconnected the city of New Brunswick with its beloved waterfront with more than five miles of multi-use paths and sidewalks, the newly expanded Boyd Park, a new community boat ramp, a playground area, and a picnic pavilion.
Other notable elements included the design and construction of 22 retaining walls, seven noise barriers, 16 sign structures, and improvements to nine signalized intersections. An embankment fill section needed to support the adjacent highway serves as an innovative performing arts amphitheatre and has become a community jewel and model for environmental stewardship.
For more information, please contact Judy L. Hricak, CPSM at (717) 763-7211, ext. 2624 or via e-mail.
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