LOS ANGELES—The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Los Angeles District and the San Francisco-based South Pacific Division have won two prestigious engineering awards presented each year for achievements in saving taxpayers’ money and time.

The District won the Alphonse J. Dell’Isola Award for “outstanding accomplishment in construction” related to the mammoth $216 million Los Angeles County Drainage Area (LACDA) flood control project in southern California.

The Division won the Gordon Frank Award for its “reinvigoration of the regional Value Engineering Program” throughout its three districts in five states,

SAVE International, a Dayton, Ohio-based global professional organization dedicated to the advancement of Value Engineering and related project management disciplines and techniques, administered the awards. They are scheduled to be presented June 27 at the group’s annual conference in San Diego.

Value Engineering is used to identify improvements in defense systems that can reduce costs and increase performance. The Corps’ own VE awards recognize “substantial and innovative value engineering contributions,” according to the Under Secretary of Defense’s office.

In addition, in June the District won the 2004 VE Organization of the Year Award, also presented by the Pentagon.

Bill Zeigler, the Los Angeles District’s VE officer (who himself won the 2002 Value Engineering Award presented by the Pentagon), said the VE study on LACDA was held in 1993. He estimated that a total of about $61 million—a 13% cost reduction--was saved on the project; $10.5 million from ideas related to the parapet walls of the L.A. River and another $50.5 million on other modeling of the river. The VE study cost $770,000 (including $700,000 for the additional modeling). Zeigler calculated the cost/savings ratio for LACDA at $79.22 to $1.00.

LACDA was completed five years ahead of schedule and $150 million under budget.

In the nomination for the Gordon Frank “Outstanding Achievement in Government” Award, South Pacific Division said that in the three fiscal years after 2001, the Division rose to first among its peers in Value Engineering performance. In Fiscal Year 2004, the Division accounted for one-fourth of total Corps monetary savings and undertook one-third of overall Corps VE studies. That same year, savings credited to VE more than doubled to $22 million and scheduled VE studies nearly tripled.

The Division has 2,200 federal employees spread throughout the region and annual spending of just over $1 billion. At any one time, it has more than 100 projects under construction and many more under design.

Tom Chambermand, Division VE officer, nominated the LACDA project for the SAVE award. Said Alan K. Adelgren, director of honors and awards for SAVE: “Congratulations to all USACE South Pacific team members who contributed to these achievements.”