DuBois & King wins engineering excellence awards

DuBois & King consulting engineers with offices in Randolph, Williston, and Springfield, Vermont, was recognized for outstanding examples of engineering excellence for three projects entered in the 2013 Engineering Excellence Awards, sponsored by the American Council of Engineering Companies/Vermont Section. Winners were announced at the Engineers Week Banquet in late February and awards will be presented in June.
DuBois & King received the highest ranking and a Grand Award in the Buildings and Structures category for structural engineering services for the 38,000-sf expansion of the Weidmann Electrical Manufacturing facility in St. Johnsbury, Vermont. Weidmann produces electrical transformer insulation material. Poor soil conditions at the site required firm engineers to develop an unconventional deep foundation system required to support extremely heavy equipment and building loads. The foundation design consisted of 84 caissons socketed to bedrock at depths of 8 to 30 ft and concrete grade beams. The fast track schedule was maintained by the use of 3D modeling software linked with 3D structural analysis and design software, which enabled construction activities to proceed concurrently with finalizing the foundation and building structural design. Structural design began in March of 2011 and the facility was operable in July of 2012.
For emergency repairs and final design for a section of Randolph, Vermont’ s wastewater collection system destroyed by Tropical Storm Irene, DuBois & King received the highest ranking and a Grand Award in the Special Projects category. The Town’ s wastewater collection system crossed the Third Branch of the White River. Irene’ s storm waters eroded away the eastern riverbank and swept away a manhole structure and the piping crossing the river, allowing raw sewage to discharge directly into the river. Firm engineers worked with the Town to identify the problem and to develop a temporary bypass that rerouted flows to an undamaged crossing downstream, and developed a design for a permanent repair that relocated system components away from the riverbank to prevent future damage. The new design placed the piping crossing the river 15 ft below the river bottom, providing protection from future floods. The design of the permanent replacement was completed in six weeks and constructed in three months.
The firm received a Merit Award in the Water Resources category for the US Route 2 Reconstruction and Stormwater Mitigation project. For the Vermont Agency of Transportation, who also provided the design, DuBois & King provided environmental services for construction of roadway safety improvements along 1.5 miles of US Route 2 from Cabot to Danville. The proposed roadway realignment impacted wetlands, wildlife habitat, and stream channels. Firm engineers used site balancing as management strategy to achieve water quality standards from stormwater runoff, created a 60-acre wetland mitigation site, and using natural stream channel design principles, relocated a section of Molly’ s Falls Brook. The Cabot ‘ Danville segment of US Route 2 was constructed in 2012.
Founded in 1962, DuBois & King provides multidiscipline engineering services from offices in Randolph, Williston, and Springfield, Vermont and Bedford and Laconia, New Hampshire.