Transportation Projects Earn Statewide Awards

The Colorado chapters of two professional organizations recently recognized the city of Aurora with two transportation-related awards.

The American Planning Association's state chapter in late October awarded the city with a 2026 APA Colorado Honor Award in the category of Planning Excellence for the city's Connecting Aurora Multimodal Transportation Master Plan.

The Aurora City Council adopted Connecting Aurora, the city's first citywide multimodal transportation master plan, in June. The plan, which will serve as a roadmap for creating safe, connected and sustainable transportation options for all modes of travel in Aurora, reflects the voices and perspectives of the Aurora community gathered through extensive conversations, surveys and workshops.

The project team received the award Oct. 29 at the association's annual conference in Keystone.

Also in late October, the American Public Works Association's state chapter awarded the city with a 2026 APWA Colorado Chapter Award in the category of Transportation: Large Community for the city's I-70/Picadilly Interchange Project.

The city successfully delivered a transformative diverging diamond interchange project under a design-build contract, marking a major milestone in the region's transportation network.

The I-70/Picadilly Interchange Project, which is the largest design-build transportation project ever completed by the city of Aurora, opened to traffic in February. It improves regional mobility, enhances safety, supports multimodal travel, and demonstrates the city's ability to successfully deliver large-scale, complex projects through innovative delivery methods and strong interagency collaboration. A $25 million federal grant partially funded the project.

The APWA handed out the award to the project team at its Oct. 27 annual conference luncheon in Golden.