Welcome the inaugural group of ENR Best Projects in New England.
In recent years, projects from Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont have been part of ENR New York's annual awards program. This year, for the first time, ENR honors the teams that delivered exceptional projects in New England with a competition all their own.
In our initial ENR New England Best Projects competition, firms submitted a strong collection of candidates for our jury to consider. The New England competition judges were: Thomas Baillie, senior vice president, BOND; Kevin Gadsby, corporate safety officer, Timberline Construction Corp.; Frank Holmes, senior associate, Stantec; Philip Laird, president, ARC/Architectural Resources Cambridge; and Patrick McCafferty, associate principal, Arup.
Judges were allowed to name only one project as "Best" in a category. They could honor multiple projects in a category with Awards of Merit. The jury could choose not to cite any projects in a category, if none met their standards. Judges abstained from voting on projects with which they are affiliated. Projects were evaluated on five criteria: teamwork/overcoming challenges; safety; innovation and contribution to the industry/community; construction quality and craftsmanship; and function and aesthetic quality of design.
The jury chose to honor 15 projects in nine categories, ranging from green projects to water infrastructure. Rising above the rest was the $214-million Brightman Street Bridge replacement over the Taunton River between Fall River and Somerset, Mass. It was named the Best Bridge/Highway Project in New England, the Best Project in the Safety category—and also was selected as the Best Overall Project across all categories in the competition.
Read on to learn more about this exceptional project and all of ENR's 2013 Best Projects in New England.
