| ODOT project takes top honors, three times! |
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| It's a sweep! Bridge project wins three national awards |
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TY Lin accepted the ASCE OCEA award on ODOT's behalf
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Although it doesn’t pack the punch of the Oscars or the MTV Music Awards, the civil engineering awards season can be an exciting time for those of us who dedicate ourselves to maintaining and improving our roads and bridges.
On this year’s awards circuit, ODOT’s bridge program has been recognized three times for stellar work replacing five bridges near Elkton, Ore.
The American Public Works Association, the American Society of Civil Engineers and the American Association of State Highway Transportation Officials each chose ODOT’s Oregon 38: Elk Creek-Hardscrabble Creek rapid replacement project from among a field of well-qualified and important civil engineering projects across North America.
- The APWA Project of the Year is an annual award that recognizes management and administrative excellence and superior relationships between managing agencies and their contractors and consultants. ODOT won project of the year in the transportation category for projects between $25 million and $75 million.
- The AASHTO America’s Transportation Awards recognize achievement in the engineering and construction of transportation projects, and transportation as a key element of our quality of life. ODOT won the award for an on-time project valued between $26 million and $199 million.
- The ASCE Outstanding Civil Engineering Achievement Award honors projects that demonstrate superior civil engineering skills and represent a significant contribution to society and civil engineering progress. ODOT was chosen as an OCEA finalist, and honored among the six largest and most important civil engineering achievements in North America.
The Elk Creek project started in 2006 and will finish this year. Two of the bridges sat extremely close to the mouth of a tunnel, so ODOT chose an innovative technology to replace the bridges. With this technique, known as rapid replacement, crews build the new bridges alongside the current ones, and then use massive hydraulic jacks to swap the structures during a short weekend closure. The use of rapid replacement was one of many positive steps ODOT took to deliver the project ahead of time, under budget and with minimal inconvenience to the community.
“This project is a shining example of the benefits of teamwork,” said ODOT Director Matt Garrett. “ODOT’s team not only completed a difficult project with time to spare, they used an innovative approach and inspired local students and the community to get involved and leave their mark on this project. We’re especially grateful to the citizens of Elkton for welcoming us into their community for the two years we worked on this project.”
Director Garrett accepted the AASHTO ATA award at the WASHTO conference in Seattle in July.
The competition was fierce for each of the awards. The bridge program’s small-town, coastal highway bridge replacement went toe to toe with nationally recognized projects such as the Orange County Groundwater Replenishment System, the I-35 Bridge in Minnesota and the Interstate 580/880 (MacArthur Maze) emergency repair in Oakland.
Even though ODOT projects aren’t regularly featured on the nightly news, the agency’s great work still earns national recognition. From improvements on the interstates to two-lane highways in the coast range, the agency’s award-winning commitment to greater safety and mobility for all Oregonians shines for the whole country to see.
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