EWSU Receives Awards for Outstanding Project Safety and Engineering Excellence

Evansville Water and Sewer Utility is proud to receive three significant industry recognitions for outstanding safety and engineering excellence on two water and sewer projects. The awards were presented to EWSU officials at two different awards ceremonies held in Indianapolis last week.

The East Wastewater Treatment Plant (East WWTP) Capacity Expansion Project and team members were honored at the 2024 Coalition for Construction Safety (CCS) Outstanding Project Safety Awards Banquet. The $50.8 million project had 206,795 craft hours and zero recordable incidents and zero lost days.

The project was nominated by Kokosing Industrial. According to Kokosing, EWSU achieved the outstanding safety results by focusing attention on new hires to determine their skill set, competent person training to identify workplace hazards and identifying the need for new training. This “people first” approach to safety set the team and project up for success.

The East WWTP capacity expansion project also received an Honor Award for Engineering Excellence from the American Council of Engineering Companies Indiana (ACEC Indiana). The project increased the plant’s peak capacity from 25.5 million gallons a day (MGD) to 40 MGD.

The project was nominated by Clark Dietz, Inc., According to Clark Dietz, the Biological Aeration Filter (BAF) is a major component of the expansion. Officials recognized the BAF for providing a sustainable, cost-efficient solution for increasing wastewater treatment capacity and said the viewing area above the pipe gallery promotes education about the facility and treatment process.

Sunrise Pump Station also received an Honor Award for Engineering Excellence from ACEC Indiana. Donohue & Associates, Inc., nominated the pump station and described the building as a multifaceted community asset. Sunrise has the capacity to pump 40 MGD of treated effluent up and over the levee into the Ohio River through a unique cascading aeration structure.

The pump station is surrounded by a park-like setting with native plants, a greenway trail and swings along the deck above the cascade overlooking downtown Evansville. The pump station building features public space with a wall of windows to look inside the pretreatment laboratory, an upper observation deck plus indoor and outdoor restrooms open year-round.