Top 12 Finalists Announced in America’s Transportation Awards Competition

WASHINGTON - The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials has unveiled the Top 12 finalists for the 2025 America's Transportation Awards competition. Following four regional competitions, state departments of transportation in Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri, New Jersey, North Carolina, North Dakota and Utah achieved the highest scores on their projects to advance to the finals.

Selected from 113 nominations by 35 state DOTs, these finalists will now compete for the Grand Prize and the People's Choice Award, each offering a $10,000 cash award for a charity or transportation-related scholarship of their choice.

"The projects included in this year's Top 12 show the wide range of work state DOTs tackle on a regular basis," said AASHTO Executive Director Jim Tymon. "Whether they are striving to save lives by creating a new vulnerable road user assessment tool or restoring waterways through dredging projects to help local businesses stay in operation, states are delivering for communities. We want to highlight this work and showcase how state DOTs are positively impacting our lives, especially as we work toward legislation that will reauthorize the federal surface transportation programs."

Projects at the regional level are nominated in four categories: Quality of Life/Community Development; Operations Excellence; Best Use of Technology & Innovation; and Safety. These awards emphasize the vital role of transportation in every community and for all travelers.

The Top 12 projects in alphabetical order by state are:

• Connecticut Department of Transportation's Fairfield Avenue Bridge
• Delaware Department of Transportation's SR 299, SR 1 to Catherine Street Widening Project
• Florida Department of Transportation's I-95 Express Phase 3
• Kansas Department of Transportation's Safer Roads Ahead with the Kansas Vulnerable Road Users Safety Assessment Tool
• Kentucky Transportation Cabinet's Right-sizing, Roundabouts, and Revitalization: Ashland's Winchester Avenue Streetscape Improvements
• Idaho Transportation Department's Robotics On Clearwater Bridge
• Illinois Department of Transportation's Connecting Springfield - Jefferson and Madison Street Underpasses
• Missouri Department of Transportation's Focus on Bridges
• New Jersey Department of Transportation's Maintenance Dredging and Channel Improvements
• North Carolina Department of Transportation's Complete 540, Phase 1
• North Dakota Department of Transportation's Wrong Way Detection Project
• Utah Department of Transportation's Provo 300 South Improved Project

The Grand Prize will be decided by an independent panel of transportation experts, while the People's Choice Award will be determined by online voting, weighted by state population. Winners will be announced at the AASHTO Annual Meeting in Salt Lake City in November. Online voting begins today at americastransportationawards.org and continues through 11:59 p.m. ET on Monday, Nov. 17. Individuals can cast no more than one vote per day per project.

Visit https://americastransportationawards.org/ to learn more about this year's top 12 nominees.

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The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials represents State Departments of Transportation in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. AASHTO is a nonprofit, nonpartisan association catalyzing excellence in transportation.