03/17/2014

URS wins top Engineering Excellence Award for design of Spaceport America

The URS Corporation took home the top prize in the 2014 ACEC Ohio Engineering Excellence Awards competition Thursday for its design of the Spaceport America terminal and hangar facility in Upham, New Mexico.

ACEC Ohio President Greg Heaton presented the Grand Award to representatives of URS at the 15th annual EEA luncheon at the Bridgewater Banquet & Conference Center, in Powell. Approximately 125 ACEC Ohio members and their guests attended.

Six projects were recognized with Outstanding Achievement Awards during the luncheon, while 15 were presented with Honor Awards and one project was recognized with the Outstanding Small Project Award.

Spaceport America is the world's first commercial space vehicle launch facility. It is home to Virgin Galactic’s WhiteKnightTwo and SpaceShipTwo, as well as SpaceX’s Falcon 9R. It also hosts numerous other suborbital launches including those of UP Aerospace.

URS led the multi-disciplinary design team for the terminal-hanger building, and also provided civil, structural, mechanical, electrical and plumbing design services, as well as overall project management services.

Although separated from the project site by over 1,700 miles, all structural engineering and 75 percent of the mechanical, electrical and plumbing engineering for this futuristic facility was performed in URS’s office in Columbus.

Click here to view a brochure that includes information on all 23 award-winning projects.