Eleven state department of transportation projects from Illinois, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio and Wisconsin won regional honors in the 2025 America's Transportation Awards competition. From preparing for the 2024 solar eclipse to crafting vulnerable road user safety assessment tools, 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 Jim Tymon, AASHTO executive director. "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 21 projects submitted by eight states in the Mid-America Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (MAASTO) 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 MAASTO 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 MAASTO projects are:

• Michigan Department of Transportation's M-89 Roundabout (Quality of Life/Community Development, Small Project)

• Kansas Department of Transportation's De Soto Local Road Improvements Project (Quality of Life/Community Development, Medium Project)

• Missouri Department of Transportation's Buck O' Neil Bridge Design-Build Project (Quality of Life/Community Development, Large Project)

• Illinois Department of Transportation's Eclipsing Expectations — Managing the 2024 Solar Eclipse (Operations Excellence, Small Project)

• Ohio Department of Transportation's Norwood Lateral Rehabilitation (Operations Excellence, Medium Project)

• Missouri Department of Transportation's Focus on Bridges (Operations Excellence, Large Project)

• Wisconsin Department of Transportation's State Trunk Highway 54 Compact Roundabouts and Resurfacing (Best Use of Technology & Innovation, Small Project)

• Minnesota Department of Transportation's Integrated Field Tools for Seamless Digital Inspection (Tie — Best Use of Technology & Innovation, Medium Project)

• Missouri Department of Transportation's U.S. Route 160 Intersection (Tie — Best Use of Technology & Innovation, Medium Project)

• Kansas Department of Transportation's Safer Roads Ahead with the Kansas VRUSA Tool (Safety, Small Project)

• Illinois Department of Transportation's Connecting Springfield — Jefferson and Madison Street Underpasses (Safety, Medium Project)

Now that the regional competitions are over, the top three scoring projects in each region will advance to the Top 12. Those 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 americastransportationawards.org/ to learn more about this year's MAASTO nominees.