The Wisconsin Ready Mixed Concrete Association (WRMCA) recently announced winners of the organization’s 2024 Concrete Design Awards. MSA Professional Services, Inc. (MSA) of Baraboo was chosen to receive an award in the Agricultural category for its design of a new co-digester and “tangoon” in Eden, Wisconsin.

L to R: Josh Wilsmann, EXCEL Engineering; Jesse Vercauteren, Carew Concrete; Josh Pipping, JP Tank; Kaesey Glaess, MSA; Bennett MacGregor, Vanguard Renewables

The Concrete Design Awards are part of the organization’s prestigious program showcasing the best uses of ready-mixed concrete in Wisconsin and Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. The award program recognizes excellence in a variety of categories, with judging criteria including design and best-use, engineering design skills, unique design demands, project aesthetics, construction techniques, percentage of ready-mixed concrete used and use of ready-mixed concrete in relation to site challenges and landscape design. Winners are determined by a panel of Wisconsin/Upper Michigan construction professionals.

MSA served as agricultural engineer for the Eden digester project, which included site civil engineering, permitting, and structural design for a new digestate storage facility. The storage facility is unique in that half is constructed of vertical wall concrete and the other half of sloped wall concrete, resulting in a partial-walled tangoon design for wastewater treatment. The tangoon is 116,160 square feet in size and 26 feet deep. It utilized approximately 2,772 cubic yards of ready-mix concrete and provides 6.5 months of available manure storage at a volume of 17.1 million gallons.

In addition to MSA, the WRMCA award recognizes Vanguard Renewables as the project owner, Dinnerbell Farms as the contributing farm, and Carew Concrete & Supply Co., Inc. of Appleton as the concrete supplier and project contractor. All award winners were formally recognized at the 43^rd Annual Concrete Design Awards Ceremony on January 30, 2025, in Wisconsin Dells.