AASHTO Journal - Alaska DOT&PF’s Langley Gets AASHTOWare Award

Christine Langley (above), a project manager with the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities, recently received the inaugural Prismatic Legacy Award for her work on behalf of AASHTOWare.

[Above photo by Alaska DOT&PF]

AASHTOWare, a division of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, offers a suite of transportation software products delivered through a collaborative business model with state departments of transportation across the country.

[Editor’s note: AASHTOWare recently issued AASHTOWare Pavement ME Design 3.0, the latest version of its core pavement design software platform.]

Volunteers from those state DOTs are intricately involved in the decision-making processes regarding AASHTOWare products; providing expert advice and insight that makes AASHTOWare’s software suite unique in the transportation industry.

To recognize and honor the valuable role state DOT volunteers play in its software development work, AASHTOWare created the Prismatic Legacy Award, bestowed on one volunteer across the AASHTOWare product line three times per year.

Christine Langley. Photo by the Alaska DOT&PF.

Alaska DOT&PF’s Langley received first Prismatic Legacy Award for her contributions on the Project User Group or PUG board, which she has overseen as vice chair and now as chair. Langley also serves as the Materials Technical Advisory Group or TAG coordinator as well.

While still relatively new to the AASHTOWare Project community, Langley has made a “large impact,” according to her peers – jumping right in and providing valuable leadership insights to those around her.

Langley said she enjoys getting to know the people and the transportation agencies they work for through AASHTOWare, with those connections giving the software a more “personalized” aspect that helps encourage fellow participants to share knowledge to help further grow product usage.

When asked about the challenges faced while volunteering for AASHTOWare, Langley said the “main one” is the time difference she must navigate between Alaska and the rest of the country, as many AASHTOWare contractors and transportation agency personnel are on Eastern Standard Time. Overall, she said Alaska DOT&PF is supportive of the volunteer time she spends with AASHTOWare.

Her agency is also appreciative of the knowledge she’s gained from experiences shared by other transportation industry personnel regarding AASHTOWare, which in turned helped improve her use of the software for Alaska DOT&PF.

Langley offers this advice for anyone who is considering volunteering for AASHTOWare: “There are many ways to get involved. You can pick the group for you based on your time requirements,” she explained. “There are also smaller roles for those that don’t have as much time but still want to volunteer.”