Fuscoe Engineering wins award for landslide reconstruction

IRVINE, CALIF.—Fuscoe Engineering, Inc., won a 2008 CELSOC Engineering Excellence Award of Merit for its Laguna Beach-Bluebird Canyon Landslide Reconstruction project. CELSOC (Consulting Engineers and Land Surveyors of California) is a statewide, 50-year-old, non-profit association dedicated to enhancing the consulting engineering and land surveying professions. CELSOC’s Engineering Excellence Awards competition recognizes firms that design and achieve outstanding engineering projects that benefit local communities and California as a whole.

Fuscoe Engineering led reconstruction of the 2005 Laguna Beach-Bluebird Canyon landslide in California.

The Laguna Beach-Bluebird Canyon landslide made national news in June 2005 when a massive landslide destroyed 12 homes and damaged and threatened many others. Fuscoe Engineering was asked to provide emergency civil engineering services, including grading, drainage, sewer, and water plans.

"This project required a dynamic, two-pronged approach," said Trevor Dodson, P.E. "Emergency rehabilitative engineering and winterization measures had to be instituted immediately to stabilize the site. This process was complicated by a tight time schedule to complete the work prior to the onset of winter rains, which would have caused further devastating flooding, mudslide, and structural instability. Furthermore, the proximity of adjacent homes complicated the grading, and drainage and sewer systems were completely destroyed, requiring major repair work and replacement facilities."