Engineering feats

Engineering feats
Sometimes it takes the most impressive equipment in the world to find the smallest, most easily overlooked particles in the universe. Fermilab's Neutrinos at the Main Injector (NuMI) project is a perfect example. With a 4000-foot underground tunnel, two elevators that travel fifteen and thirty stories underground, a beamline of near light-speed neutrinos, and two large scientific labs 150 and 350 feet below surface, the NuMI project almost sounds like science fiction. The project's engineering feats are so impressive that NuMI is one of five finalists in the running for the 2006 Outstanding Civil Engineering Achievement Award (OCEA) given by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). The nomination puts the NuMI project on par with the world's longest cable-stayed bridge (last year's winner), which connects Peloponnese and mainland Greece.

Photo: Reidar Hahn, Fermilab

The NuMI project, which seeks to determine neutrino mass and other properties, sends an underground neutrino beam 435 miles from the Fermilab campus in Batavia, Illinois, to a research laboratory in a former iron mine in Northern Minnesota. Produced by Fermilab's Main Injector accelerator, neutrinos travel through a 1000-ton underground particle detector on site, and then travel through solid bedrock to a 6000-ton far detector at the Minnesota mine. "It took over a million hours to complete this project, and this is a real tribute to the ability of everyone who worked on it," says project manager Greg Bock. "I still consider it a treat each time I visit the underground site."

The OCEA winner will be announced April 26, at the seventh annual Outstanding Projects and Leaders gala in Washington, DC. "The 2006 finalists are outstanding examples of how civil engineering can contribute to a community's economic success, improve residents' quality of life and facilitate scientific progress," says ASCE Executive Director Patrick J. Natale. "Every finalist is to be congratulated for their incredible achievements."

Siri Steiner

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