Batavia, Illinois – The American Council of Engineering Companies of Illinois (ACEC-Illinois) selected the Neutrinos at Main Injector (NuMI) Tunnels and Halls Project, for an Honor Award in its 2005 Engineering Excellence Awards Competition. This facility is one of the first deep underground facilities specifically designed for high-energy physics research in Illinois.
Designed by MWH and Fluor Daniel together with Fermilab’s engineers and scientists, the NuMI Tunnels and Halls Project is located at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab) site in Batavia, Illinois. The project includes an interconnected series of tunnels, shafts, and caverns, approximately 4,200 feet in length, constructed primarily in bedrock at depths of up to 340 feet below ground. Construction of the underground space was completed in November 2002, the design of the underground facilities for the NuMI project involved the use of the latest state-of-the-art numerical modeling techniques to evaluate the stability and behavior of the excavations and structures under various ground conditions and loads. In addition, the project design included drainage control and special lining systems that help maintain a relatively dry environment for the experiment components and radiation considerations.
Fermilab engineers and scientists have completed the final outfitting of the facility and the installation of equipment and experiment components to initiate the Main Injector Neutrino Oscillation Search expected in January 2005. When operational, it will create a beam of neutrinos (neutral elemental subatomic particles with no electrical charge and negligible mass), which will travel 435 miles on a straight path through solid bedrock to an underground detector facility in Soudan, Minnesota. This will be the first high-energy, long-baseline neutrino experiment in the world and play a key role in our understanding of the universe and basic particle physics.
The NuMI Tunnels and Halls Project is one of twelve projects eligible for the Eminent Conceptor Award, the top award given by ACEC-Illinois in January 2005.
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About MWH
Headquartered in Broomfield, Colo., MWH is a private, employee-owned firm with approximately 6,000 employees worldwide. The company provides water, wastewater, energy, natural resource, program management, consulting and construction services to industrial, municipal and government clients in the Americas, Europe, Middle East, India, Asia and the Pacific Rim. For more information about MWH, please visit the company’s Web site at www.mwhglobal.com.
