Overland Park

Black & Veatch wins Engineering Excellence Award

Black & Veatch has won an ACEC of Kansas Engineering Excellence Award in the 2010 competition. The competition recognizes engineering firms for projects that demonstrate a high degree of innovation, achievement and value. 

Black & Veatch won for the Rock Creek Watershed Planning project in Mission, Kansas. Mandatory compliance programs with the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) and heightened community interest in water quality and sustainable landscapes are bringing storm water management issues to the forefront, motivating cities to prioritize capital expenditures, to develop monitoring processes, and to adopt new design standards. The cities of Mission, Roeland Park, Fairway, Prairie Village, Mission Hills, Westwood, and Overland Park are all located in the northeastern corner of Johnson County, Kansas, and are all partly within the Rock Creek Watershed. These communities face the same challenges as communities across the country: the aging of flood control infrastructure and the high percentage of impervious surfaces throughout the watershed have had a detrimental effect on the area’s water quality and stream stability. 

Black & Veatch led a diverse team of engineers, planners, landscape architects, environmental scientists, developers, and economists to engage the Mission community in the development of comprehensive and interactive planning documents. The Rock Creek Watershed Planning Final Feasibility Report identified and prioritized stream restoration projects and Best Management Practices (BMPs) through the Rock Creek watershed. The Alternative Futures Study provided a comprehensive analysis of life cycle costs, return on investment, and water quality for traditional and Low Impact Development (LID) at the site level. 

ACEC of Kansas President, Troy Eisenbraun will present the award to Black & Veatch at the Annual Membership Meeting held during the Kansas Society of Professional Engineers’ Annual Conference, June 16-18, 2010 at the Capitol Plaza Hotel in Topeka, Kansas. 

The American Council of Engineering Companies of Kansas is a professional association of private-practice consulting and engineering firms in the state of Kansas.