AASHTO Journal - Southeast Transportation Projects Honored in National Competition

Eight transportation projects from six southeastern states were recognized for a wide range of achievements in the third regional America’s Transportation Awards competition, including the significant reduction in motor vehicle crashes via new roadway designs, the creation of safer routes for bicycles and pedestrians, plus restoring access to communities after natural disasters.

“State DOTs are committed to making America safer, better and stronger by improving connections between communities both large and small, urban and rural,” noted John Schroer, president of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials and commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Transportation, during the regional awards presentation.

“The transportation projects in this competition are part of a national multimodal network that is moving millions of people and tons of goods where they need to go every day,” he added.

Sponsored by AASHTO, Socrata, AAA, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the 11th annual America’s Transportation Awards competition recognizes transportation projects in three categories: Quality of Life/Community Development, Best Use of Technology and Innovation, and Operations Excellence.

Project categories are also broken down by size, AASHTO noted: small (projects costing less than $25 million), medium (projects that cost between $25 million and $200 million), and large (projects costing more than $200 million).

The Southeastern region winners are:

Georgia Department of Transportation’s Georgia 400 Trail/PATH 400 (Quality of Life/Community Development, Small category)
Tennessee Department of Transportation’s I-24 Improvements for Hankook Tire (Quality of Life/Community Development, Medium category)
North Carolina Department of Transportation’s Wilmington Bypass (Quality of Life/Community Development, Large category)
Texas Department of Transportation’s I-35E Managed Lanes Project (Quality of Life/Community Development, Large category)
South Carolina Department of Transportation’s Hurricane Irma Response on Edisto Island (Operations Excellence, Small category)
North Carolina Department of Transportation’s Piedmont Improvement Program (Operations Excellence, Large category)
South Carolina Department of Transportation’s York Street Bridge Replacement (Best Use of Technology & Innovation, Small category)
Florida Department of Transportation’s I-75 (SR 93) at University Parkway—Diverging Diamond Interchange (Best Use of Technology & Innovation, Medium category)

Winners in the final regional competition will be announced in late August at the Mid-America Association of State Transportation Officials meeting.

AASHTO noted that the three highest-scoring projects from each region will earn a place on the list of “Top 12” projects, which will then compete for the Grand Prize, selected by an independent panel of industry judges, and the Socrata People’s Choice Award, which is chosen by the general public through online voting.

The top two winners also receive $10,000 cash awards, to be donated to a charity or scholarship of the state DOT’s choosing.

Online voting begins Aug. 30 and the winners of the top two awards will be announced Sept. 23 at the AASHTO Annual Meeting in Atlanta.