Bike, Pedestrian, and Transit Projects Garner Top Engineering Awards

The San Pablo Avenue Bike and Pedestrian improvements in Albany, a short two-way protected bike lane on this busy stretch of road, won top honors from the American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC), California. The project is one of fourteen recipients of the ACEC’s 2019 Engineering Excellence Awards.

The awards strive to recognize “outstanding achievements in engineering and land surveying projects completed by California firms” and cover a range of engineering categories.

Few details about the projects are included in the announcement, but Streetsblog ran a photo of the Albany bike lanes when they were completed. Other projects recognized by ACEC California include the Daisy-Myrtle Bike Boulevard in Long Beach, a 9.5-mile loop connecting North Long Beach to downtown, highly anticipated in the Long Beach Post.

The engineering efforts to preserve the Georgia Street Bridge in San Diego, which incorporated unspecified “bike and pedestrian improvements,” got a nod, as did the eBART extension to Antioch in Contra Costa County.

Also awarded was the San Diego County Regional Airport Terminal 2 Parking Plaza. Okay, maybe the engineering was outstanding, but parking? Really?

Other projects received “merit awards” in the 2019 competition, and those that incorporated bike and ped facilities include:

• The reconstruction of North Santa Monica Blvd in Beverly Hills, which added bike lanes, widened sidewalks, and improved crossings
• The Johnny Cash trail, Phase 2, a bike path and art site connecting downtown Folsom to the state prison and the lake
• The new Fairfield-Vacaville train station along Amtrak’s Capitol Corridor route
• Bike lanes and a multipurpose trail along Grand Avenue in Wildomar
• Fresno’s Fulton Street reconstruction project that opened up the previous car-free mall to car traffic and spruced up the pedestrian environment