LINCOLN, R.I.— Pare Corporation, a multidisciplinary engineering and planning firm, has been recognized with three Engineering Excellence Awards from the American Council of Engineering Companies of Rhode Island (ACEC-RI), honoring the firm’s innovative work on infrastructure, environmental restoration, and resiliency projects across the state.
The awards were presented at the 2026 ACEC-RI Annual Meeting on June 4 and recognized three recent projects designed by Pare that demonstrated outstanding professional design excellence.
Pare received the second-place Gold Star Award for Outstanding Professional Design Excellence for a Project with Construction Costs of Less than $10 Million for the Kickemuit Dam Demolitions project in Warren, Rhode Island.
The project involved the removal of two aging and obsolete dams at the head of the Kickemuit River on behalf of the Bristol County Water Authority. The dams no longer served a functional purpose and would have been prohibitively expensive to rehabilitate. Their removal marked a rare effort to restore a long-standing freshwater impoundment to a tidal saltwater ecosystem.
The complex undertaking required extensive environmental analysis, hydrologic modeling, and coordination with regulatory agencies to evaluate anticipated changes to water levels, wetlands, habitat conditions, and storm surge impacts. The project also involved significant public outreach and engagement, as nearby residents voiced concerns about changes to the landscape and the loss of reservoir views. Despite these challenges, the project was successfully completed through careful planning, permitting, and construction management.
Pare also received two third-place awards for Outstanding Professional Design Excellence for Projects with Construction Costs of Less than $10 Million.
One award recognized the firm’s work at Independence Park in Bristol, Rhode Island, a waterfront recreation area located within the Bristol Historic District and the eastern terminus of the East Bay Bike Path. Town officials initially sought repairs to the park’s boat ramp, but the project evolved into a broader reconstruction effort focused on improving coastal resiliency. The final design incorporated parking lot improvements, shoreline protection measures, and stormwater management upgrades to help safeguard the site against future environmental challenges.
The second third-place award honored Pare’s Bridge Asset Management Program for the City of Providence. As part of the project, Pare conducted comprehensive assessments of 52 city-owned bridges and developed an asset management plan that ranks bridge conditions, prioritizes maintenance needs, and estimates the investment required to bring the city’s bridge inventory into a state of good repair.
The awards reflect Pare Corporation’s continued commitment to delivering engineering solutions that improve infrastructure, enhance environmental sustainability, and strengthen community resilience.
Founded in 1970, Pare Corporation provides planning, engineering, permitting, and construction-phase services throughout the Eastern United States. The firm specializes in site and civil engineering, highways, bridges, waterfront and marine facilities, dams, water and wastewater systems, geotechnical and structural engineering, transportation, municipal infrastructure, and environmental services. Pare is headquartered in Lincoln, Rhode Island, with branch offices in Foxboro and Holyoke, Massachusetts, and Kingston, New Hampshire.
