ECT is pleased to announce that the American Public Works Association (APWA) selected the Stony Island Habitat Restoration project as one of the 2019 Public Works Projects of the Year. This prestigious, national award is given to infrastructure projects that are publicly developed, owned, and maintained, and that promote excellence in construction management and administration. The award recognizes the partnership between the managing agency, the contractor, the consultant, and their cooperative achievements.
The winning project team includes the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (MDNR) – Wildlife Division, Friends of the Detroit River, E.C. Korneffel Company, and ECT as the primary consultant.
APWA presented the award to the project team on September 9, 2019, during APWA’s Public Works Expo 2019 in Seattle, Washington. The Stony Island Habitat Restoration project won the APWA’s 2019 Public Works Project of the Year Award in the environment category, and it is within the $5 million to $25 million division. The project team also won the Michigan Chapter of AWPA 2019 award in May 2019 for the same category and project.
The purpose of the Stony Island Habitat Restoration Project is to prevent erosion of the island, to enclose the previously lost wetland areas, and to create habitat by constructing emergent and submergent shoals offshore. The project restores coastal wetland habitat within a Great Lakes ecosystem that has seen a dramatic loss of these sensitive areas over time. The habitat structures placed along the shoals, on the island, and in the lower bay provide niche habitats in support of existing fish and wildlife species. The Stony Island Restoration Project constructed 3,487 linear feet of habitat shoals and 550 linear feet of shoal island, completed more than 11 acres of vegetation management on the island, and established 105 habitat structures. The project created and will protect 50 acres of backwater habitat behind the shoals. The project also increased tern abundance, herpetofauna abundance and diversity, and fish abundance.
“ECT has been at the forefront of ecosystem restoration since its inception and has developed deep expertise on the myriad facets of restoration projects,” said ECT Vice President & Water Resources National Director Sanjiv Sinha, Ph.D., P.E. “Over the last three decades, we have successfully worked upon dozens of similar projects for federal, state, and nonprofit clients. By carefully hiring and extensively training our multi-disciplinary team of engineers, scientists, and architects, we built the best team to create and sustain award winning projects for our clients.”
ECT provided the planning, design, permitting, construction oversight and monitoring for the project under contract to Friends of the Detroit River. ECT’s project team was led by our ecosystem restoration team leader John O’Meara, P.E., and key staff that included Alice Bailey, P.E., Meghan Price, Marty Boote, and Greg Gaulke.
Click here to read more about the ecosystem restoration project.
Click here to read a project summary.