Awards & Rankings

Rankings

No. 73    2011 Hot Firm List
No. 365   ENR’s  2011”Top 500 Design Firms”
No. 23    Midwest Construction’s 2011 “Top 80 Designers”
No. 14    Indiana’s Best Places to Work, Small/Medium Company Category

2011 Hot Firm List Winner

BLA has been ranked No. 73 on the Zwieg Letter’s 2011 Hot Firms List!!

The Hot Firm List recognizes the fastest-growing architecture, engineering, planning and environmental consulting firms in the US and Canada. These are the firms that have outperformed the economy and competitors to become leaders in their chosen fields.

Rankings are based on a survey of industry firms conducted by ZweigWhite. Firms are ranked according to their 3-year growth rate in gross revenue from 2007 to 2010, with 50% of the ranking based on percentage growth and 50% based on dollar growth. architecture, engineering, and environmental consulting firms.

2010, 2009 PSMJ Circle of Excellence Award

PSMJ, a premier management consulting firm for the A/E/C industries, chooses Circle of Excellence firms by ranking them according to 13 benchmarks to measure exceptional performance, including project performance and staff utilization. BLA was one of only 40+ North American firms selected for the honor.

The ranking highlights firms that “are well managed, have a strong client base, and are led in a responsible and sustainable manner,” said H.E. “Dan” Daniels, PSMJ Survey Editor. “PSMJ believes that clients prefer to work with well-run firms because they are more likely to provide superior service and value.”

Keith Lochmueller, BLA’s CEO and Chairman of the Board, said the firm is deeply honored that its work garnered this international recognition. “We put clients’ long-term needs first and run our firm with a long-term vision,” Lochmueller said. “I’m glad this has helped us grow in a sustainable, responsible manner.”

ESGR Patriotic Employer

The National Committee of the Employer Support of the Guard & Reserve recognized BLA as a Patriotic Employer after an employee recommended the company. The professional is a Senior Master Sergeant in the Air Force Reserve and was deployed to Afghanistan, returning in late 2010. The award recognizes BLA for “contributing to national security and protecting liberty and freedom by supporting employee participation in America’s National Guard and Reserve force.

2009 American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC) Merit Award
Rehabilitation of Eastbound 82nd Street over White River
Bernardin, Lochmueller & Associates - Construction Inspection · Beam Longest Neff, LLC - Design

BLA provided construction engineering and inspection for the rehabilitation of this steel truss bridge over the White River that serves as a major thoroughfare connecting two of the city’s busiest retail districts.  Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the bridge was built in 1942 and overall deterioration and collision damage on the eastbound lanes necessitated the rehabilitation. The project required significant public involvement to keep local business owners and media up-to-date on the project’s progress.  Once rehabilitation began and inspectors were better able to examine hidden elements of the structure, it turned out that deterioration was more advanced than anticipated.  For example, once the deck was removed, the floor beams over Pier 3 showed more deterioration than expected, so BLA worked with the design firm and the contractor to develop options for repairing the beams. The gussets and stringers also turned out to be more deteriorated than assumed.  This discovery coincided with the release of the National Transportation Safety Board’s study on the collapse of the Minnesota Interstate 35W Bridge that recommended recalculating maximum loads on steel deck truss bridges, which was immediately incorporated into the gusset redesign. Despite these changes, thanks to close coordination among the firms involved, construction was completed and the bridge re-opened in time for the busy holiday shopping season.

2008 Association of Indiana Counties (AIC) County Achievement Award

On September 24, 2008, the Perry County Parks & Recreation Board received a County Achievement Award from the Association of Indiana Counties for the redevelopment of an abandoned park overlooking the Cannelton Locks & Dam on the Ohio River. 

BLA provided site design and construction engineering for the site that features a pathway and road containing a rubber-asphalt material made from recycled tires.

2008 ACEC National Engineering Excellence Honor Award
2008 ACEC Indiana Engineering Excellence Honor Award

Bequeathed to Indiana University in 1938, Bradford Woods is a 2,500-acre nature preserve and international leader in outdoor education.  Host to a growing number of training, camping, research, and educational programs, in 2005 Bradford Woods’ aging wastewater collection system and treatment plant was long overdue for replacement.  Appreciating the Center’s dedication to environmental stewardship and innovation, Natural Concepts Quality Water Engineering, LLC, a subsidiary of BLA, was added to the team to design a wetlands-based Eco-Treatment System™.  Using only recirculation pumps, the constructed wetland system produces a discharge that rivals advanced mechanical wastewater treatment systems in biochemical oxygen demand, nitrogen, and suspended solids.  The result was a project that not only provided Bradford Woods with a cost-effective, environmentally-friendly alternative to traditional wastewater treatment, but the soil absorption area was designed as a prairie restoration project doubling as an educational and research tool for the University and its visitors. In order to enhance access by the Center’s many disabled visitors to this unique learning tool, the lead consultant designed a special trail through the wetland system using a variety of surface materials with the goal of identifying which environmentally-friendly surfaces work best for people with disabilities and look most natural. Thanks to the project team’s understanding and appreciation of the project goals, and also Bradford Woods’ overall mission and values, this effort far exceeded the original scope of simply replacing the worn-out wastewater treatment system.

2008 ACEC Indiana Engineering Excellence Merit Award
2007 National Precast Concrete Association Creative Use of Precast Concrete Award Second Place

Gibson County Coal, LLC produces nearly 16,000 clean tons of coal every day, requiring up to 700 trucks to haul it to regional barge facilities or power plants.  Escalating fuel costs and safety concerns, prompted the company to explore alternatives for moving the coal across the freeway.  A conveyor running through precast-concrete box culvert using an open-cut across the highway was determined to be the most desirable, given the project’s prominent location.  But this major freeway couldn’t be closed for any period of time, and INDOT required a unique fast-track approach for the installation.  Forty-seven precast box culvert sections, 8 feet in length, with 12-inch-thick walls, and weighing approximately 43,500 pounds each were constructed, labeled, and delivered to the job site in a precise sequence in order to limit traffic disruption to only 5 days, while keeping two lanes of the freeway open at all times.  The resulting project not only met the goals of the client (INDOT) and the city, but earned second place in the National Precast Concrete Association’s 2007 Cup Awards for creative use of precast concrete underground.

2007 Indiana Partnership for Highway Quality (Indiana Department of Transportation & Federal Highway Administration) Achievement Award

The city of Petersburg wanted a safe way for its residents to access the city park, located 2,000 feet beyond city limits, without having to walk or ride their bicycles along a busy section of state highway. The Indiana Department of Transportation developed this project as a design-build, and BLA delivered the project on a fast-track schedule with construction completed by the end of the year.

2007 National Precast Concrete Association Creative Use of Precast Concrete Award Underground Category

2006 Indiana Governor's Award for Environmental Excellence

The Indiana Governor’s Award is awarded to businesses, organizations and citizens that have brought innovative environmental strategies into their operations and decision-making processes that contribute to protecting Indiana’s environment. Rose Acres Farms, one of the world’s largest egg producers, implemented two large constructed wetland systems to treat stormwater runoff and augment their existing wastewater treatment system for their soy bean processing facilities.

2005 Association of Indiana Counties County Achievement Award

This new sewage treatment system will allow small unincorporated communities to eliminate failing septic systems by providing affordable solutions. The bio enhanced treatment system, that included a constructed wetland, saved residents $60 per month over more costly solutions.

2004 Indiana GIS Initiative Award for Achievement in GIS, Education Not-For-Profit Category

The GIS Atlas for Indiana was a collaborative effort of BLA, the Indiana Department of Transportation, and Indiana Geological Survey (IGS). The GIS covers 26 counties in Southwest Indiana with approximately 170 different layers of aquatic, terrestrial, mineral, social, and economic information. This GIS has been made available to the public through a website http://129.79.145.7/arcims/statewide_mxd/index.html. Offering interactive maps, downloadable datasets, detailed metadata, accessible web map services, in an easy-to-use web interface with free tutorials.

2001 Indiana Chapter of American Concrete Pavement Association Excellence in Concrete Pavement Award