AASHTO Journal - Southern State DOT Projects Win Regional Awards

Eleven state department of transportation projects from Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, Georgia, South Carolina, Florida, West Virginia and North Carolina won regional honors in the 2025 America’s Transportation Awards competition.

[Above photo by the Florida DOT]

Selected from 30 projects submitted by 10 of the 15 states in the Southern Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials or SASHTO region, these entries are part of 113 nominations from 35 state DOTs in this year’s overall competition.

Sponsored by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, the annual America’s Transportation Awards contest highlights transportation projects that deliver meaningful community benefits.

Projects are judged in four categories – Quality of Life/Community Development, Operations Excellence, Best Use of Technology & Innovation, and Safety – that demonstrate transportation’s vital role for drivers, cyclists, pedestrians, rail users, and transit riders alike.

“The America’s Transportation Awards shine a spotlight on the vital projects state DOTs deliver for their communities to enhance safety, expand mobility for users, deliver a better quality of life for residents and visitors, and keep our economy moving,” said Jim Tymon, AASHTO’s executive director, in a statement.

[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.]

“The America’s Transportation Awards competition continues to show us that state DOTs are able to transform communities in a variety of ways,” he added. “And as Congress works toward a new federal surface transportation bill, lawmakers need to only look at the tangible benefits that states deliver to their customers through examples like these winners to see why robust federal funding to states is so important.”

For the 2025 competition, AASHTO also asked nominees about the impact of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act or IIJA on their projects to showcase the importance of federal investment in the nation’s transportation systems.

Many of the SASHTO regional winners were directly impacted by the IIJA, highlighting the vital role the next federal surface transportation funding measure will play in continuing the progress in making communities safer and providing mobility and access for all.

All nominated projects first compete at the regional level against projects of their own size: “Small” (projects costing up to $10 million), “Medium” (projects costing between $10 million and $100 million), and “Large” (projects costing more than $100 million).

This year’s winning SASHTO projects are:

Kentucky Transportation Cabinet’s Right-Sizing, Roundabouts, and Revitalization: Ashland’s Winchester Avenue Streetscape Improvements (Quality of Life/Community Development, Small Project)
Tennessee Department of Transportation’s I-65 June Lake Boulevard Interchange (Quality of Life/Community Development, Medium Project)
Virginia Department of Transportation’s I-64 Southside Widening and High Rise Bridge, Phase 1 (Quality of Life/Community Development, Large Project)
Georgia Department of Transportation’s I-20 Eastbound Exit Ramp Roundabout at Maynard Terrace (Operations Excellence, Small Project)
South Carolina Department of Transportation’s Emergency Bridge Repair US 17A/21 (Operations Excellence, Medium Project)
Florida Department of Transportation’s I-95 Express Phase 3 (Operations Excellence, Large Project)
South Carolina Department of Transportation’s Hurricane Helene Utility Coordination (Best Use of Technology & Innovation, Small Project)
West Virginia Department of Transportation’s I-79 Widening (Best Use of Technology & Innovation, Medium Project)
North Carolina Department of Transportation’s Complete 540, Phase 1 (Best Use of Technology & Innovation, Large Project)
Florida Department of Transportation’s State Road 26 Safety Improvements (Safety, Small Project)
West Virginia Department of Transportation’s Hal Greer Boulevard Bike and Pedestrian Improvements (Safety, Medium Project)

Following the completion of one more regional competition this summer, the top three scoring projects in each region will be named to the “Top 12” finalist list, which will be revealed in early September. Those 12 projects will then compete for two national America’s Transportation Awards honors.

The Grand Prize will be chosen by an independent panel of judges, while the People’s Choice Award will be decided through online public voting. Each winning project will receive $10,000 to donate to a scholarship fund or charitable cause of their choice.

AASHTO will reveal both winners at its Annual Meeting in November 2025 in Salt Lake City.