Columbia, SC, February 14, 2018 — Thomas & Hutton is pleased to announce that their project titled, “Driving Economic Growth in South Carolina”, has won the Palmetto Award, the American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC) South Carolina Chapter’s highest honor. The award was presented to the team, lead by Thomas & Hutton’s Columbia Office Regional Director, John Culbreath, PE, at the ACEC South Carolina’s Engineering Excellence Awards (EEA) Gala held in Columbia on Tuesday, February 6th. The project will now compete amongst other top state winners at the national at the national EEA Gala at the 2018 ACEC Convention in Washington D.C. on April 17. The national competition recognizes engineering firms that demonstrate an exceptional degree of innovation, complexity, achievement, and value through their submitted projects.
Thomas & Hutton was retained by Berkeley County, South Carolina (the County) to provide program management and design, permitting, and construction management services to prepare the 1,200-acre Volvo industrial development site for construction of the facility and associated local and regional nine miles of transportation improvements, including ten miles of regional water main infrastructure, a 750,000-gallon regional water storage tank, and 1,150-gpm pump station and 10-inch force main for the regional wastewater infrastructure for the surrounding industrial developments.
Thomas & Hutton served as the County’s single point-of-contact for the overall coordination of the project, working with primary stakeholders including the County, Santee Cooper, Volvo Car US, and several other entities in the region. By establishing clear paths of communication, Thomas & Hutton was able to achieve consistent benchmarks throughout the project, while taking the needs of multiple stakeholders into consideration. Thomas & Hutton levied its experience in the construction industry to formulate a concise budget prior to construction commencing and in turn, coordinated numerous grant opportunities for the project. Thomas & Hutton was responsible for grant coordination and community outreach, ensuring that the project would be successful for current and future developments, while protecting adjacent communities from the impacts of altered landscape.
The new regional industrial campus of Camp Hall and the new Volvo development is estimated to have a $9.5 billion impact for the region. A project of this magnitude will have lasting effects. Not only will the regional infrastructure constructed provide incentive for future development beyond the committed roughly 4,000 jobs by Volvo, but the new developable acreage will provide a lasting global investment opportunity for future companies, raising this region’s current and future opportunities for smart growth. The sustainable efforts reached through this project was realized through the planning, careful mitigation plans and buffers, and providing natural development areas with supportable infrastructure.
ABOUT THOMAS & HUTTON: Thomas & Hutton celebrates 72 years of creating transformative communities. Founded in 1946 in Savannah, GA, Thomas & Hutton is a privately-held professional services company providing engineering, planning, landscape architecture, surveying, GIS, and consulting services to public and private clients. Thomas & Hutton has offices in Savannah and Brunswick, GA; Charleston, Columbia, Greenville, and Myrtle Beach, SC Carolina; Charlotte, NC; and Nashville, TN. For more information, visit www.thomasandhutton.com
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