Edina Neighborhood Flood Control Project Recognized in National Engineering Competition

EDINA NEIGHBORHOOD FLOOD CONTROL PROJECT RECOGNIZED IN NATIONAL ENGINEERING COMPETITION

Innovative Design Incorporates Existing Ponds to Reduce Risks
 
WASHINGTON (February 28, 2025) – Barr Engineering Co., of Minneapolis, Minn., has earned a National Recognition Award for exemplary engineering achievement in the American Council of Engineering Companies’ (ACEC) 58th annual Engineering Excellence Awards (EEA). The award comes for the Morningside Neighborhood Flood Risk Reduction project in Edina, Minn.
 
Barr Engineering partnered with the city to create an elegant, forward-thinking, and cost-effective flood infrastructure project that lowers the flood exposure of more than 160 homes and other buildings in the flood-prone Morningside neighborhood, which experiencing increased vulnerability due to more frequent and intense storms in the region. Barr’s project team determined that the best method for reducing flood risk without causing downstream impacts was to reroute stormwater away from buildings and add significant capacity to capture and store stormwater.
 
Barr saved the city $10 million by avoiding expensive underground storage, instead expanding two existing stormwater storage ponds—Weber Pond and Lynn Kipling Pond. Once tucked behind a chain-link fence and dense vegetation, Weber Pond is now a central park feature, with two boardwalks crossing the water and spaces used by nesting grebes. More than 2,500 native trees and shrubs, 9,000 native perennial plants, and nine acres of seeds have replaced invasive and disease-prone species.
 
The project is eligible for additional honors as part of 194 entries this year representing engineering excellence from throughout the nation and the world. Judging for the awards program took place in February and was conducted by a national 32-member panel of built environment leaders, along with experts from government, the media, and academia. Award criteria focused on uniqueness, technical innovation, social and economic value, and generating excitement for the engineering profession.
 
Recognition of all award winners—including 16 Honor Awards, eight Grand Awards, and the prestigious “Grand Conceptor Award” for the year’s most outstanding overall engineering achievement—will take place at the EEA Gala, to be held at the Grand Hyatt, Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, May 20, 2025.
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The American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC) is the business association of America’s engineering industry, representing more than 5,200 independent engineering firms and more than 600,000 professionals throughout the United States engaged in the development of America’s transportation, water, and energy infrastructure, along with environmental, industrial, and other public and private facilities. Founded in 1906 and headquartered in Washington, D.C., ACEC is a national federation of 51 state and regional organizations.