Spellacy Bridge team honored nationally by ENR

Holmes County engineer Chris Young may not cherish big city life, but for one day he was more than willing to work his way through the millions of people in New York City.

Young was joined by Holmes County Commissioner Eric Strouse and representatives from all of the entities involved with the creation of Spellacy Bridge near Loudonville, where they accepted the national Small Project Award for the creation of Holmes County’s newest bridge attraction from Engineering News-Record, an American weekly magazine that provides news, analysis, data and opinion for the construction industry worldwide. It is widely regarded as one of the construction industry’s most authoritative publications.

Representatives from the select 20 national project winners came together in New York City on March 27 when project winners of ENR’s Best of the Best were honored at a brunch at Pier Sixty, Chelsea Piers in New York City, during ENR’s annual Award of Excellence Gala, where ENR announced the Champion of Champions, picking out one Best of the Best from the 20 winners.

While Spellacy Bridge didn’t win the overall crown, it was still a day to remember for those involved.

The event took place in the heart of New York City, and it was a definitive black-tie affair. Young admitted he is far more comfortable in the wide-open space of Holmes County wearing far less formal attire, but receiving this national honor was something worth getting dressed up for.

“Too many people for me,” Young said. “There were people stacked on top of people walking down the street.”

Young and Strouse flew to New York, where they reunited with representatives from all the entities involved in creating Spellacy Bridge including Ohio Department of Transportation, Smollen Engineering, Kokosing Construction, OHM Advisors, Palmer Engineering and Dean Anderson.

Young said it was rewarding to reconnect with the partners with whom he had invested so much time and effort during the building process.

The Spellacy Bridge entourage attended a bruncheon on Thursday, a three-hour-long event that announced all 20 of the project finalists.

While Spellacy Bridge was a monumental undertaking for Holmes County, Young said it paled in size compared to some of the other award winners, which included the Government/Public Building County of San Diego Southeastern Live Well Center project, which eventually claimed the overall top prize among the 20 contestants.

“Compared to a $137 million airport project or a $2 billion electrical utility project, we were definitely on the smaller side, but Spellacy Bridge is a huge deal for Holmes County, and it was a true honor to be recognized nationally,” Young said.

That evening the overall winner was presented, and representatives from each of the 20 projects were given two minutes to speak about their project and offer thanks.

“They’d start talking, and at two minutes, they’d start playing music, just like the Oscars,” Young said. “It was an interesting evening. We got to hear from some people who created some really neat projects all over the United States. We would have loved to have won the overall title, but just to be nominated and win our category was a true honor. It was probably a once-in-a-lifetime moment that was inspiring.”

Young said the real honor was simply working with the various companies and people involved with the planning and building of Spellacy Bridge. He said there was a running theme with almost all the organizations representing the 20 projects at the ENR national event.

“The things we felt were so valuable in our success story were themes that we heard all night,” Young said, “things like teamwork, partnerships, doing what you say you’re going to do and doing it well, commitment. It took a lot of people to make Spellacy Bridge a reality.”

He said what it boiled down to was everyone doing the job they were asked to do and doing it well within the parameters of working as one.

Young said those traits are a staple of Holmes County.

“It’s all picking the right people for the team and then communicating well,” Young said. “This was a perfect fit, and everyone worked together so well, which is not so unique for Holmes County because we see it all the time.”

In qualifying for this national award, industry judges chose 20 projects as ENR’s Best of the Best, representing the pinnacle of design and construction achievement in their respective categories from across the U.S.

The ENR competition began last March with a call for entries, which resulted in more than 800 project teams submitting their best work to regional Best Projects competitions.

Since its inception Spellacy Bridge has already become a national treasure, bringing people in from all over the nation to see it.

Young said they have received many wonderful comments from people who think it is a beautiful addition to Holmes County.

The publicity and honor of being named one of the ENR finalists will only bolster that popularity.