NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. – State departments of transportation across the country are working to make transportation systems stronger and safer every day through life-changing projects. Today, six of those projects from four northeastern states were honored in the regional America’s Transportation Awards competition for their work in optimizing and expanding transit for inner-city users, saving lives on a busy seasonal roadway, and helping drivers avoid a 42-mile detour with an innovative bridge replacement, to name a few.

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

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 differentiated by size—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).

Here are the names and links to the descriptions and photographs of winning projects in the Northeast region:

  • New Hampshire Department of Transportation’s NH Route 125 Reconstruction, Contract G (Quality of Life/Community Development, Small category)
  • Maryland Department of Transportation’s Upgrade of MD 404 (Shore Highway) (Quality of Life/Community Development, Medium category)
  • Delaware Department of Transportation’s SR 1/SR 72 Diverging Diamond Interchange (Operations Excellence, Small category)
  • Maryland Department of Transportation’s BaltimoreLink (Operations Excellence, Medium category)
  • Pennsylvania Department of Transportation’s Statewide Demand-Response Transit Scheduling Software Implementation (Best Use of Technology & Innovation, Small category)
  • Pennsylvania Department of Transportation’s Hunter Station Bridge (Best Use of Technology & Innovation, Medium category)

Winners from the Western states region were announced last month, while winners in the Midwest and South regions will be announced throughout the summer. The three highest-scoring projects from each region will be included in the “Top 12.” Those 12 projects will compete for the Grand Prize, selected by an independent panel of industry judges, and the Socrata People’s Choice Award, 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. The winners of the top two awards will be announced Sept. 23, at the AASHTO Annual Meeting in Atlanta.