Awards and Recognition

Commonwealth of Pennsylvania- Department of Transportation

Straw Construction Co., Inc. was presented the Excellence in Transportation award, Urban Structures – 200 feet or less by the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation for our construction of this project

The project was for the replacement of the Jacks Run Bridge and roadway approaches, which were originally constructed in 1942. The existing structure consisted of a concrete filled steel deck I – Beam stringer structure. The project’s difficulty was increased by its odd configuration to provide for right turns onto a connecting state roadway and a private roadway.

The new Jacks Run Bridge structure consisted of a 45 foot long, single span, adjacent box beam bridge structure with a poured concrete deck. The new structure is 65 feet in width with two 12 foot lanes and two flared lanes to provide right turn ability to both state and private roadways.

American Council of Engineering Companies of Pennsylvania

Diamond Honor Award for Water Resources Modifications to Bakerton Dam West Carroll Township Water and Sewer Authority Presented for excellence in design to Gwin, Dobson & Foreman, Inc. Engineers

Bakerton Dam is a 12 million gallon capacity reservoir located at the West Branch of the Susquehanna River headwaters. It serves 775 water customers in northern Cambria County. The reservoir measures 455 feet in length and 25 feet high. It was originally constructed in 1922 as a composite earth embankment / Amberson concrete slab and buttresses dam. The dam had experienced severe deterioration of the concrete buttresses and slabs resulting in leakage and instability.

Reconstruction work was done on the entire existing structure. This work included installation of compacted earth and a concrete overflow spillway, as well as a crest cap filling the downstream buttress areas. Also, the normal pool elevation was lowered to provide additional spillway capacity, and the basin area was dredged to compensate for loss of storage capacity. Pressure mortar surfacing was applied to the upstream concrete slab deck and a precast concrete intake tower was installed in addition to a downstream drainage control system.

Completed in 2005 for a total cost of $1,150,000.00