Crystal Bridges Project Wins Top Prize for CEI Engineering

Visitors to Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art might not realize what’s happening under their feet, but the American Council of Engineering Companies is in the know.

As a result, the ACEC last month presented Bentonville’s CEI Engineering Associates Inc. with its Grand Conceptor Award. The award signified Arkansas’ best engineering project in 2012.

The challenges CEI faced were due partly to Crystal Bridges’ proximity to a creek that is a central focus and amenity of the museum. The facility also is situated in a floodplain.

According to a news release, more than 700 acres were shown to drain and flow through the site and under its buildings. Additionally, the site does not have an emergency spillway.

Thus, CEI performed 100-year, 500-year and probable maximum precipitation studies to assess flooding potential. CEI also designed a sanitary sewer supply channel and watertight sewer tunnel that run the length of the project.

Finally, CEI designed a creek diversion system to facilitate construction in, around and over the stream. The company did so by employing damlike features to control both low-flow and catastrophic flooding events.

All of the systems in place are located just a few feet under the feet of where visitors stand and walk.

“Most people have no idea,” CEI vice president of operations Brent Massey said. “They’ll appreciate the beauty of the grounds and the art and the architecture … but the running joke in the engineering community is that as long as it works, nobody will know our part of it is there.”