The City of Missoula’s Wastewater Treatment Plant Headworks and Odor Control Improvement Project and the project’s engineer, Morrison-Maierle, Inc., recently won top honors in engineering.

The American Council of Engineering Companies of Montana recently announced the winners of the 2014 Engineering Excellence Awards Competition. The City project earned the top award in the Structural Systems category based on innovative application of new or existing techniques; future value to the engineering profession; social, economic and sustainable design; complexity; and exceeding client/owner needs.

The $9.7 million project, completed in 2012, presented numerous design and construction challenges. City staff, the engineers and contractor Dick Anderson Construction worked together to design and construct the project for the confined site next to the Clark Fork River. High groundwater called for a building with a small footprint and a deep vault that integrated innovative structural elements and an original dewatering approach.

The project replaced the aging headworks at the plant and added state-of-the-art odor control equipment that uses photo-ionization technology. Soon after completion, it significantly improved air quality in the vicinity of the plant and reduced odors by 90 percent.

In 2012, the project and the Dick Anderson Construction were recognized by the Montana Contractors Association with the Building Excellence Award for the Best Industrial category and the Concrete Excellence Award, Industrial Commercial >$5 Million.

For more information, please contact:

Starr Sullivan, Superintendent, Missoula Wastewater Division
(406) 239-2457; ssullivan@ci.missoula.mt.us

Sheila Habeck, Senior Corporate Communications Specialist
Morrison-Maierle, Inc. (406) 495-3485; shabeck@m-m.net