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ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Seven weeks after the pumps came on, RiverRenew is collecting hardware.
Engineering News-Record, the construction industry's most widely read trade publication, named AlexRenew's RiverRenew Tunnel System Project an Award of Merit winner in the water and environment category of its 2026 MidAtlantic Best Projects competition. Judges picked 35 projects across 16 categories from entries in Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Delaware, West Virginia and Washington, D.C., scoring them on how teams handled construction challenges, contributed to their communities, performed on safety and delivered design quality. The category's top honor — Best Project, and with it eligibility for the region's Project of the Year — went to the James River Crossing in Newport News.
AlexRenew announced the recognition Aug. 19. ENR published its winners July 29.
RiverRenew came online July 1, beating a state deadline that officials had once been told was impossible. The system — a 2.2-mile tunnel running more than 100 feet beneath Old Town, a new sewer pipeline through African American Heritage Park, two diversion facilities and a 12-story underground pumping station — is built to cut the city's combined sewer overflows from about 70 events a year to fewer than four, and the annual volume reaching local waterways from roughly 140 million gallons to under 17 million.
The award is the project's second in as many years. Tunnel Business Magazine gave RiverRenew its 2025 Tunnel Achievement Award last August.
ENR will profile the winners in its Oct. 12 East print issue and honor them at an awards event Oct. 30 in Baltimore.
Ryan Belmore
