Atkins wins national award for Atlanta program management and refocus

ATLANTA, Ga., USA: Atkins, a member of the SNC-Lavalin Group, won the American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC) National Engineering Excellence Award for the Renew Atlanta TSPLOST Program, a $540 million capital improvement program created to help address the $1 billion infrastructure backlog facing the City of Atlanta. The award was presented on Saturday, August 29th at the ACEC Georgia Engineering Excellence Awards event in Atlanta.

We have provided program management support services for the Renew Atlanta TSPLOST Program since its inception in 2016. Two years into the program, increasing construction costs, expanding project scopes and lower-than-anticipated sales tax revenue led to a $410 million funding gap between project estimates and projected funding availability.

Tasked with restructuring the program to address the funding gap, the team started with a robust community outreach and education effort that led to projects being redefined and prioritized. New techniques to mitigate cost and schedule risks were developed, and a program cash flow and several dashboards were developed. This data-driven management system has enabled the team to provide improved transparency of Program performance and has allowed for a greater percentage of funding availability for construction costs.

“Our team’s efforts have provided improved transparency into the true cost of maintaining infrastructure and have ultimately helped the Renew Atlanta TSPLOST Program better serve the citizens of the City of Atlanta,” said Ambika Burda, Project Director, Atkins.

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