The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials has revealed the Top 12 finalists in its 2025 America’s Transportation Awards competition.
[Above photo by AASHTO]
After four regional contests this summer, state departments of transportation from Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri, New Jersey, North Carolina, North Dakota, and Utah achieved the highest scores on their projects.
[Editor’s note: To view the winners of the Northeast Association of State Transportation Officials or NASTO region contest, click here. To view the winners of the Western Association of State Transportation Officials or WASHTO region contest, click here. To view the winners of the Southern Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials or SASHTO region, click here. And to view the winners of the Mid-America Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials or MAASTO region, click here.]
Selected from 113 nominations by 35 state DOTs, the top 12 finalists in the 2025 America’s Transportation Awards contest will now compete for the Grand Prize and the People’s Choice Award, each offering a $10,000 cash award for a charity or transportation-related scholarship of their choice.
AASHTO noted that the Grand Prize will be decided by an independent panel of transportation experts, while the People’s Choice Award will be determined by online voting, weighted by state population. The winners will be announced at the AASHTO 2025 Annual Meeting in Salt Lake City this November.
“The projects included in this year’s Top 12 show the wide range of work state DOTs tackle on a regular basis,” said Jim Tymon, AASHTO’s executive director, in a statement.
“Whether they are striving to save lives by creating a new vulnerable road user assessment tool or restoring waterways through dredging projects to help local businesses stay in operation, states are delivering for communities,” he added. “We want to highlight this work and showcase how state DOTs are positively impacting our lives, especially as we work toward legislation that will reauthorize the federal surface transportation programs.”
Projects are nominated for the 2025 America’s Transportation Awards contest in four categories – Quality of Life/Community Development; Operations Excellence; Best Use of Technology & Innovation; and Safety – that all emphasize the vital role of transportation in every community and for all travelers.
The Top 12 projects in alphabetical order by state are:
- Connecticut Department of Transportation’s Fairfield Avenue Bridge
- Delaware Department of Transportation’s SR 299, SR 1 to Catherine Street Widening Project
- Florida Department of Transportation’s I-95 Express Phase 3
- Kansas Department of Transportation’s Safer Roads Ahead with the Kansas Vulnerable Road Users Safety Assessment Tool
- Kentucky Transportation Cabinet’s Right-sizing, Roundabouts, and Revitalization: Ashland’s Winchester Avenue Streetscape Improvements
- Idaho Transportation Department’s Robotics On Clearwater Bridge
- Illinois Department of Transportation’s Connecting Springfield – Jefferson and Madison Street Underpasses
- Missouri Department of Transportation’s Focus on Bridges
- New Jersey Department of Transportation’s Maintenance Dredging and Channel Improvements
- North Carolina Department of Transportation’s Complete 540, Phase 1
- North Dakota Department of Transportation’s Wrong Way Detection Project
- Utah Department of Transportation’s Provo 300 South Improved Project
The public can visit https://americastransportationawards.org/ to vote for their favorite projects. People can vote once per day up until 11:59 p.m. ET on Monday, November 17.
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