Bridgeport Port Authority Project Wins Top Engineering Award

The Bridgeport Port Authority was recently named the Grand Award winner by the American Council of Engineering Companies for its Bridgeport Regional Maritime Complex and Derecktor Shipyard project.

This brings the total to three awards received by the BPA from different professional state or national agencies. The BPA also won the EDDY Award for economic development in the state and the Real Estate Exchange, a national real estate organization comprised of commercial agents and developers.

Bert Sacco, president of TPA Design in New Haven, which consulted and designed the award winning project, said the BPA has won several awards for the project because it involved a massive remediation of contaminated land that was turned it into productive use over three years.

“The BPA has won the trifecta,” Sacco said. “We don’t know of any other project that has won so many awards.”

The ACEC applauded the BPA project for several reasons:

Engineering excellence
Environmental remediation
Positive impact to the community – creating 200 jobs, helping to stimulate the economy and improving the neighborhood

The project, completed in 2003, involved the creation of Derecktor Shipyards and the site for the new Barge Feeder Service. Sacco pointed out that bringing Derecktor to Bridgeport marked one of the few new shipyards built in the last 100 years on the East Coast.

Derecktor is one of the leading shipbuilders in the country. At its Bridgeport site, it has the largest travel hoist for boats in the Western Hemisphere, allowing it to repair large vessels – up to a 650-ton capacity. It also has constructed a dry dock for boat repairs and is building high-speed ferries for Alaska and 12 ferries for the New York waterways. Derecktor launched its second Alaska boat constructed at its Bridgeport Harbor site on Feb. 15th.

The Bridgeport Maritime Complex Project involved a large remediation effort on a limited budget funded by federal, state and private sources (Derecktor).

Several people from participating agencies contributed to the completion of the project:
Peter Simmons - State Department of Community Development
Martha Klimas - BPA Project Manager
Joseph Savino – BPA Chairman of the Board
David Sacco - TPA Design project manager

BPA Executive Director Joseph A. Riccio, said the awards recognize the hard work and vision of many people and agencies, which contributed to the project.

“The project has resulted in a dynamic waterfront,” Riccio said. “We’re proud to have such a solid company as Derecktor anchoring the waterfront and stimulating the growth of the economy by providing more than 200 jobs. The new barge feeder service adds to the scope of project and the continued growth of the complex. We’re proud of these awards, but we still have a lot of work to do.”

The Bridgeport Maritime Complex project is not fully completed. TPA Design is working on the feasibility study of a high-speed ferry service between Bridgeport and Stamford as well as the completion of the barge feeder service.

The BPA is a quasi-public entity that has jurisdiction over the entire Bridgeport Harbor port. It also operates the ferry terminal facility, Water Street Dock and has jurisdiction over several marine cargo terminals.

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