Gresham Smith is proud to announce that the firm has received five total awards from the Tennessee chapter of the American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC) 2024 Engineering Excellence Awards program.
“We’re thrilled with the results of ACEC Tennessee’s awards program this year,” said CEO and Board Chair Rodney Chester. “To win awards on behalf of our clients as well as our engineering professionals, and to be seen as leaders in the community is truly an honor. We thank our clients for partnering with us on their projects and our individual award winners for all they do for us every day, inside and outside of the office.”
This year, ACEC Tennessee started its inaugural program for individuals, featuring two different awards for the young professional of the year and another dedicated to community service. The inaugural recipients included three professionals from Gresham Smith, including Transportation Engineer Ruth Park and Water Resource Engineer Scott McAmis, who were both named in the Young Professional of the Year category. West Tennessee State Transportation Leader Greg Dotson was also honored with the Community Service Award for his long service on nonprofits, his church, in schools and with the Greater Memphis Chamber.
The firm also brought home two awards for project delivery, including the Grand Award in the Industrial category on behalf of Ultium Cells for the work on the Ultium Cells Battery Manufacturing Plant in Spring Hill, Tennessee, and an Honor Award on behalf of the Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District for the Deer Creek Sanitary Tunnel Pump Station in St. Louis, Missouri, in in the Waste and Storm Water category.
About the Award-Winning Projects
Ultium Cells Spring Hill Battery Manufacturing Plant
After designing Ultium Cells’ first battery plant in Ohio, Gresham Smith was once again selected to design the 2.8 million square-foot facility in Spring Hill, Tennessee. Officially opened in the summer of 2024, the $2.3 billion investment is expected to generate an annual capacity of 50 gigawatt hours and bring 1,700 new high-tech jobs to the site, which is GM’s largest campus in the U.S. Gresham Smith delivered a full suite of design services as well as engineering and commissioning via the Integrated Project Delivery method on an extremely fast-track timeline.
Deer Creek Sanitary Tunnel Pump Station
To reduce sanitary sewer overflows, St. Louis Metropolitan Sewer District called on Gresham Smith to design the Deer Creek Sanitary Tunnel Pump Station. The team overcame challenging geology, complex pumping requirements and a major weather event to engineer a solution that redefines deep pump station design. Using three separate 36-foot-wide, 185-foot-deep shafts rather than a conventional one-shaft solution, the design reduced excavation costs by $10 million and enhanced hydraulic redundancy. With the ability to dewater the 38-million-gallon Deer Creek Sanitary Tunnel in less than 48 hours, the new pump station greatly reduces sewer overflows to improve public and environmental well-being.
