2024 Engineering Excellence Grand Award Winner

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HDR has been named the ACEC Nebraska Engineering Excellence Award (EEA) Grand Award winner for 2024 for their Omaha RiverFront Revitalization Project.

For nearly 60 years, three parks in downtown Omaha emphasized leisure and open space. Unfortunately, their disjointed nature, poor access, lack of amenities, and inadequate recreational opportunities left them minimally used.

The RiverFront Revitalization Project transformed these underutilized parks into a unified, amenity-rich open space, anchored by the Missouri River creating a 72-acre, one-of-a-kind park that has unified the Omaha area.

The new design raised a former sunken lagoon; added spacious lawns and performance pavilions, play areas, a skate ribbon, an urban beach, public art and other amenities; improved multimodal transportation; expanded the trail network; reconnected entertainment districts; and restored the park’s character. With a unique governance structure, the project was developed by and for the community with flexibility to adapt programming to future needs.

The project is Nebraska’s first Envision project, verified Platinum. The team’s environmental efforts reduced water use, created and repurposed topsoil, improved habitats, and protected cultural resources. At the same time, it’s spurring an economic resurgence across downtown Omaha. Since its planning, more than $4 billion in projects have been planned or announced.

The project overcame seemingly insurmountable odds – centuries of buried infrastructure, built atop a superfund site and alongside North America’s longest river, more than 75 NRHP properties located nearby, a global pandemic, and dozens of projects stakeholders.

Completed on schedule and within budget, The RiverFront is a testament to what unique engineering solutions can accomplish. It is a beacon of light for a community and an exemplar for the future of civic design.

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Aaron Buettner

State Director

Aaron Buettner, PE, CVS leads Benesch’s Nebraska structural group, bringing more than 27 years of experience in structural engineering, project management and value engineering to every project he touches. His work spans highway, railroad and pedestrian bridges, and he has delivered public and private projects across the country involving a wide variety of materials and structure types.

Aaron’s technical depth covers the full project lifecycle, from structural design and in-service inspection to forensic evaluation and construction administration. He is proficient in multiple structural design and analysis software platforms and has a keen understanding of load paths and constructability. As a Certified Value Specialist (CVS), Aaron’s Value Engineering work has generated tens of millions of dollars in potential construction cost avoidance for clients ranging from state DOTs to transit agencies.

Notable projects include the Lincoln South Beltway, where his team designed 10 of 21 bridges on the freeway corridor; the N-12 Emergency Bridge Repairs in northeast Nebraska, where biddable plans for three flood-damaged structures were delivered in just three weeks; and the Penny Bridges Replacement in Lincoln, where value planning produced a context-sensitive solution that earned broad community support.

Aaron also serves as a Structures Specialist on Nebraska Task Force 1 (NE-TF1), which is one of 28 FEMA Urban Search & Rescue (US&R) teams located throughout the United States. In this role, he supports the search and rescue mission by assessing damaged structures, recommending structural hazard mitigation within those structures, and monitoring the structure for condition changes during rescue and victim recovery operations. During his tenure with NE-TF1, he has deployed ​on numerous missions within the state of Nebraska and around the nation to assist communities that have been impacted by emergencies or disasters.

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