Clark Nexsen Receives Two 2025 ACEC Virginia Awards

Clark Nexsen received two ACEC VA awards at the 2025 Engineering Excellence Awards Gala on February 6 in Richmond, Virginia, for the Bennett’s Creek Park Tennis Courts in Suffolk, Virginia, and the U.S. Naval Combat Demolition Units/Scouts and Raiders Monument Park in Saint-Laurent-sur-Mer, France. The event recognizes engineering firms for projects demonstrating exceptional innovation, complexity, achievement, and value. The gala also brings together Virginia’s leading engineering professionals, legislators, state and local agencies, and partners of the engineering industry, such as architects and contractors.  

Honor Award — Bennett’s Creek Park Tennis Courts 

Located along the banks of Bennett’s Creek in Suffolk, Bennett’s Creek Park is a 56.8-acre park featuring tennis courts, restrooms, covered shelters, a nature trail, open fields, a frisbee golf course, three boat ramps, and a crabbing and fishing pier with handicap access. As part of its Capital Improvements Program, the City of Suffolk sought to replace the existing tennis courts and provide additional parking. The project also involved designing stormwater management features, landscaping, and a walkway connecting the courts to a new parking lot. Key environmental design elements included relocating the tennis courts outside of the Bennett’s Creek Resource Protection Area Buffer and providing water quality enhancements through a bioretention facility and sheet flow through conserved open space. To further enhance the new courts’ value, flexibility, and functionality, the design included court line schematics so they can also be used as pickleball courts. 

Merit Award — U.S. Naval Combat Demolition Units/Scouts and Raiders Monument Park 

The U.S. Naval Combat Demolition Units/Scouts and Raiders Monument Park provides visitors with the opportunity to immerse themselves in the history of the Naval Combat Demolition Units (NCDUs) and Scouts and Raiders (S&Rs) on D-Day and their impact on the subsequent liberation of France. An international collaboration that brought together seven teams from across the U.S. and France, Clark Nexsen provided civil design, electrical engineering, landscape architecture, and graphics support for the project. Located on the Dog Red sector of Omaha Beach, the project is an interactive monument park that integrates with the local community and surroundings. Visitors can use the tree canopies for shade, sit on the benches, and easily access the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial, which is less than 1,000 meters away. In addition, the monument offers a variety of immersive and educational features, such as history panels with scenes from Omaha Beach on D-Day, an original 1944 hedgehog, and a ‘living beach’ to connect the service and history of previous, current, and future service members.
Photo: Andrew McLeish, courtesy of the Navy UDT-SEAL Museum.

About ACEC Virginia 

The American Council of Engineering Companies of Virginia is the state’s largest engineering firm association in the state, comprised of more than 85 engineering firms representing every discipline of engineering related to the built environment — civil, structural, mechanical, electrical, environmental, geotechnical — and affiliated companies. ACEC Virginia’s shared goals are to further the business interests of the membership, enhance the quality and safety of the environment, and ensure the vitality of communities in Virginia.