The city of Burien's Maplewild Avenue Southwest repair project has received national recognition as a Public Works Project of the Year by the American Public Works Association (APWA).

This prestigious award salutes the city's management of the earthquake-repair project.

"Your selection puts you in a very elite group of winners and APWA is proud to have you and your partners on this project epitomize the public works profession," the association stated in a letter that congratulated Burien Public Works Director Stephen Clark.

City officials have been invited to receive a plaque recognizing the Public Works Department's achievement at the APWA annual Awards Recognition Ceremony in conjunction with the 2006 International Public Works Congress and Exposition in Kansas City, Mo., in September.

The project repaired damage from the 6.8 magnitude 2001 Nisqually Earthquake to the narrow roadway, which is cut into the side of a steep slope that drops to the Puget Sound waterfront.

Originally constructed in the 1920s, Maplewild Avenue Southwest, which provides access to the Three Tree Point neighborhood, loops along the Puget Sound and, at its closest, runs within 200 horizontal and 170 vertical feet of the water's edge.

The 40-second quake caused houses to slide down the hillside, shifting and compacting the relatively sidecast soil below the road. Nine-inch-thick concrete left a crater-sized hole that extended for nearly 600 feet. Subsequently, the road was closed to traffic until damage could be repaired.

The Federal Highway Administration and the city of Burien determined the relative high cost of repairs and the safety advantages afforded by a rebuild justified the somewhat more extensive rebuild option.

The project involved a road realignment, which required the city to obtain new rights of way, construction of a wider roadbed incorporating a pedestrian walkway, and building two retaining walls to protect the new roadway from future slides.

These features included a less dramatic curve at the north end of Maplewild and an innovative 600-foot offset cylinder pipe wall on the down slope.

Parking additions were also built and trees were removed.

Despite significant design, construction and site challenges, the project was completed on schedule in May 2005 and under budget. The result was a modernized roadway and enhanced earthquake protection.

City managers for the Maplewild project were John O'Brien and Dan Bath.

C.A. Carey Inc. was the contractor and the engineer was Berger-Abam Consulting Engineers Inc.

The city council will publicly recognize the staff at a meeting in the fall following the September ceremony.