‘Tis the Season for Celebration: the 2022 Yearbook of Engineering Achievement

By Luke Carothers

Civil+Structural Engineer Media and Zweig Group are thrilled to present the 2022 Yearbook of Engineering Achievement Award winners in this issue.  In its second year of existence, the Yearbook of Engineering Achievement (YEA) competition was once again representative of the international AEC industry with firms from both the eastern and western hemispheres submitting their work.  This competition was also special in that the groundbreaking projects honored in this issue were chosen by our audience.

As a leading source of business news, thought leadership, and project information for the AEC industry, we at Civil+Structural Engineer Media are proud to serve the designers of the world around us.  For us, the decision to allow our audience to choose the winners of the 2022 YEA award is but one small way we can honor this relationship.  In making this decision, we wanted to make you–the experts, professionals, and leaders who toil endlessly to continue the legacy of Elevating the AEC industry–a bigger part of celebrating this year of achievement.

The decision to include our audience in the 2022 YEA Award showed some emerging, if not unlikely, trends within the AEC industry.  This year’s Summit Award winner, which is given to the project that receives the highest number of votes, is once again from the transportation and infrastructure category.  The Sixth Street Viaduct Replacement –submitted by HNTB–is the largest and most complex bridge building project in the history of Los Angeles, setting a new threshold for seismic safety and expanding the utility of urban bridges.  HNTB’s submission received over 200 votes per day during the ten day period, which is testament to the project’s groundbreaking vision and execution.  In fact, projects from the transportation and infrastructure category received 53 percent of the total votes in the 2022 YEA Award competition. 

Another trend identified by voters for the 2022 YEA competition was a surge in the number of both submissions and winners for the water/stormwater/wastewater category.  The submission that garnered the most votes from the water/stormwater/wastewater category was the Vertex Companies project in the City of Houston; involving a major public transit line for America’s fourth most populous city, this project was completed with minimal impact to the city’s population.  In terms of the scope of this award system, the Vortex Companies’ submission is representative of the interconnectedness of the AEC industry, demonstrating the reverberating effects of our work to varied users of the built environment.  

As we announce the winners of the 2022 YEA Award, we invite all of our readers to join us in celebrating the projects that have elevated the AEC industry and laid the groundwork for the future to come.  This competition is in part what allows us to define what it means to live and work by that ethos–to Elevate the Industry.  The social, environmental, and economic impacts of these projects are largely localized and benefit the communities in which they are built.  Whether the project provides flood control, improves transit times, or any other of the important functions these projects have on the built and natural environment, it has been done in a way that improves the lives of the people who live in that community.  And, by sharing these projects for the 2022 YEA competition, these firms are in turn providing an important function for an industry that is constantly looking forward: clear vision.  The winners of the 2022 Yearbook of Engineering Achievement Award demonstrate the vast capabilities and ingenuity of our industry, and, by sharing them in this competition, these firms are providing examples for what can be done in the future, which is a massive part of elevating the AEC industry.

Luke Carothers is the Editor for Civil + Structural Engineer Media. If you want us to cover your project or want to feature your own article, he can be reached at lcarothers@zweiggroup.com.