The Thrasher Groups Wins WV ACEC Honors

The Thrasher Group received two Engineering Excellence Award honors from the West Virginia American Council of Engineering Companies. Thrasher’s design of the Basnettville Bridge Project earned the Award of Excellence for Transportation, while the Greater Harrison County Public Service District wastewater treatment plant upgrades earned honorable mention in the water and wastewater category.  Each of the designs illustrates Thrasher’s ability to think outside the box to solve problems for clients and employ innovative techniques.

The Basnettville Bridge replacement in Marion County was the first to employ the Accelerated Bridge Construction approach in the State of West Virginia. The approach involved a set of plans to construct the new bridge downstream of the existing while maintaining traffic on the original bridge. Then the main road would be closed for a week or less while the existing structure would be demolished, and the new bridge slid into place. The project allowed the bridge to be almost entirely constructed without affecting the travel of the public and only after less than a week of road closure, the public was to use the same route just. The project serves an example and pilot project for future jobs that may warrant this type of approach.

The Greater Harrison County PSD enlisted the help of The Thrasher Group to design a WWTP upgrade to address the ammonia nitrogen issue at the existing 0.60 MGD West Milford WWTP. As a Facultative Lagoon, the PSD faced a difficult challenge to treat ammonia nitrogen. The consequences of not meeting limitations were both environmental and financial; if the district did not complete the project and reach compliance, they risked losing an industrial user and hefty fines from the WVDEP. With a compressed timeline and a solution of cutting-edge technology, it was imperative for the entire team to work together. The PSD, engineers, attorney, accountant, WVDEP, industrial user and equipment manufacturer worked together to reach necessary agreements and extended warranties to make the project as successful as possible. The contractor faced unexpectedly high levels of sludge which had to be removed, and issues with the delivery of units. However, the upgrade took a short five months to construct, and less than a month to reach compliance.