Southern DOTs Win Top Honors in National Transportation Competition

August 5, 2025

Lexington, KY — Eleven state department of transportation projects from Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, Georgia, South Carolina, Florida, West Virginia and North Carolina won regional honors in the 2025 America’s Transportation Awards competition. From emergency bridge repairs to bike and pedestrian improvements, these projects provide long-term benefits to the communities they support.

“The America’s Transportation Awards shine a spotlight on the vital projects state DOTs deliver for their communities to enhance safety, expand mobility for users, deliver a better quality of life for residents and visitors, and keep our economy moving,” said AASHTO Executive Director Jim Tymon. “The America’s Transportation Awards competition continues to show us that state DOTs are able to transform communities in a variety of ways. And as Congress works toward a new federal surface transportation bill, lawmakers need to only look at the tangible benefits that states deliver to their customers through examples like these winners to see why robust federal funding to states is so important.”

Selected from 30 projects submitted by 10 states in the Southern Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (SASHTO) region, these entries are part of 113 nominations from 35 state DOTs in this year’s overall competition. Sponsored by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO), the America’s Transportation Awards highlights transportation projects that deliver meaningful community benefits. Projects are judged in four categories—Quality of Life/Community Development, Operations Excellence, Best Use of Technology & Innovation, and Safety—demonstrating transportation’s vital role for drivers, cyclists, pedestrians, rail users, and transit riders alike.

This year, AASHTO also asked nominees about the impact of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) on their projects to showcase the importance of federal investment in the nation’s transportation systems. Many of the SASHTO regional nominees were directly impacted by this historic law, highlighting the vital role the next federal surface transportation law will play in continuing the progress in making communities safer and providing mobility and access for all.

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 SASHTO projects are:

Following the SASHTO competition, one final regional competition will occur at the end of the month. Once those regional winners are announced, the top three scoring projects in each region will advance to the Top 12, which will be revealed in early September. These standout projects will then compete for two national honors in the 2025 America’s Transportation Awards.

The Grand Prize will be chosen by an independent panel of judges, while the People’s Choice Award will be decided through online public voting. AASHTO will reveal both winners at its annual meeting in November 2025 in Salt Lake City. Each winning project will receive $10,000 to donate to a scholarship fund or charitable cause of their choice.

Visit https://americastransportationawards.org/ to learn more about this year’s SASHTO 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.

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