Ten projects from state departments of transportation in California, Arizona, Utah, Washington State, Nebraska, South Dakota, Oregon, North Dakota and Texas took home top prizes in the 2024 America's Transportation Awards competition. These projects, ranging from implementing new safety countermeasures to save lives to enhancing active transportation networks to increase mobility for all, were recognized for making positive changes in their communities.
Selected from 32 projects nominated by 15 state DOTs in the Western Association of State Transportation Officials (WASHTO) region, they are among 106 nominations submitted by 39 state DOTs as part of the annual America's Transportation Awards contest. Sponsored by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, AAA and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the America's Transportation Awards competition highlights state DOT projects and their impact on the communities in which they reside.
Projects are nominated in four categories: Quality of Life/Community Development; Operations Excellence; Best Use of Technology & Innovation; and Safety. They showcase transportation's crucial role for every person in every community — regardless of how they travel. In response to rising level of fatalities on our nation's roadways over the last several years, 2024 marks the inaugural year of the Safety category, celebrating projects that successfully addressed safety challenges.
"The America's Transportation Awards competition highlights the critical role state DOTs play in improving safety, enhancing mobility, and improving quality of life for their communities," said AASHTO Executive Director Jim Tymon. "Our new safety category, implemented as part of AASHTO President Craig Thompson's emphasis areas, allows us one more avenue to learn from each other on ways to drive down fatalities and serious crashes across the country. We certainly started the competition off strong with these incredible WASHTO region projects that showcased successes in growing active transportation infrastructure, restoring critical connections after fire disasters, and implementing safety features like roundabouts to save lives."
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 WASHTO regional projects are:
- California Department of Transportation's McFarland Community Trail and Garden (Quality of Life/Community Development, Small Project);
- Arizona Department of Transportation's Loop 303 — 43rd and 51st Avenue Interchange Project (Quality of Life/Community Development, Medium Project);
- Utah Department of Transportation's West Davis Highway Project (Quality of Life/Community Development, Large Project);
- Washington State Department of Transportation's Winona Trestle Emergency Replacement Project (Operations Excellence, Small Project);
- California Department of Transportation's Interstate 10 Santa Monica Freeway Bridge Fire (Operations Excellence, Medium Project);
- Nebraska Department of Transportation's Ashland Modular Roundabout (Best Use of Technology & Innovation, Small Project);
- South Dakota Department of Transportation's Interstate 90 LaCrosse Street Diverging Diamond Interchange (Best Use of Technology & Innovation, Medium Project);
- Oregon Department of Transportation's OR 213 Roundabout at Toliver Road (Safety, Small Project);
- North Dakota Department of Transportation's State Street Safety Improvements (Safety, Medium Project);
- Texas Department of Transportation's SH 146 Expansion Project (Safety, Large Project).
Following the WASHTO regional competition, the "Top 12" nationwide finalists will be announced in early September, featuring the three highest-scoring projects from each region. These top contenders will then compete for the two 2024 America's Transportation Awards national prizes.
The Grand Prize will be selected by an independent panel of judges, while the People's Choice Award will go to the project with the most online votes from the public, weighted by state population. AASHTO will announce the winners at its annual meeting in October 2024 in Philadelphia. Both winners will receive $10,000 each for a charity or transportation-related scholarship of their choosing.
Visit https://americastransportationawards.org/ to learn more about this year's WASHTO nominees.
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