Milone & MacBroom, Inc. was awarded top honors at the American Council of Engineering Companies’ (ACEC) 2018 Engineering Excellence Awards Gala on April 17 at the Washington Marriott Wardman Park Hotel in Washington, DC. The firm’s project, the Meriden Green, received one of only twenty Honor Awards of distinction for exceptional engineering achievement. On top of this achievement, the project was also awarded the Grand Award, the singular highest honor, at the ACEC-CT Engineering Excellence Awards banquet in January. These distinctions follow Meriden Green being named one of the six new grandest public spaces in America by the Architect’s Newspaper in July 2017 and featured in the June 2017 issue of national industry publication Civil Engineering in “Green Guardian.”
Milone & MacBroom was the designer of record for the Harbor Brook restoration and new urban flood control park project, providing engineering, landscape architecture, construction administration, and resident engineering services. “The City and MMI have a great working relationship due to the team approach of listening, thinking, suggesting ideas, and ultimately implementation,” said Robert J. Bass, Director of Public Works for Meriden. “We continue to look forward to working with them as we achieve our goal of solving flooding along Harbor Brook.”
After a half a century of recurring flood damage and two decades of design and permitting, the new 14-acre Meriden Green has become a catalyst for the city’s economic revitalization and a significant piece to the flood mitigation strategy. The project has transformed an abandoned retail mall, parking lot, brownfield, and culverted brook into a remarkable, multifunctional, city-central green. The restored channel that flows through Meriden Green reduces flood water levels and peak flow rates while providing open space and ecological benefits. The design team, led by Milone & MacBroom, demonstrated how a city’s vision can be achieved through a strong collaboration between the owner, designers, regulators, funding agencies, and site contractors. “We are truly humbled by the awards and accolades this project has received over the past year and know it would not have been possible without the diligence and commitment to the project from the City of Meriden leaders, as well as the extremely talented and collaborative team of design professionals,” said Jim MacBroom, PE, senior vice president of Milone & MacBroom.