The New Jersey Department of Transportation recently announced that two of its projects had been named regional winners in the 2024 America’s Transportation Awards Competition.
The two projects – the Route 3, Route 46, Valley Road & Notch/Rifle Camp Road Interchanges and the I-76/I-676, Bridges and Pavement, Contract 1 – were chosen from a wide array of projects across the country.
The I-76/I-676 project received honors in the Operations Excellence, medium project category, while the Route 3, Route 46, Valley Road & Notch/Rifle Camp Road Interchanges won in the Safety, Large Category. The projects were chosen from a selection of 22 projects nominated by seven states in the Northeast Association of State Transportation Officials region.
“These awards are an example of Governor Phil Murphy’s commitment to a safe, reliable, and equitable transportation system for all New Jerseyans and demonstrate how the New Jersey Department of Transportation continues to be a national leader in delivering projects that improve the quality of life for our residents and travelers in our State,” NJDOT Commissioner Fran O’Connor said. “We should all be proud of the outstanding efforts of NJDOT’s employees and our contractors for the work they do every day to make our roads and bridges safe.”
The I-76/I-676 project replaced the bridge using the Accelerated Bridge Construction (ABC) methods using prefabricated materials to minimize the impact to traffic and speed up construction time. The $57 million project permanently fixed the bridges which had previously been subject to emergency repairs in order to maintain connectivity between New Jersey and Philadelphia.
The Route 3, Route 46, Valley Road & Notch/Rifle Camp Road project was a $253 million redesign of interchanges in Passaic County that posed daily challenges. Prior to the redesign, travelers along the route faced greater impacts when they missed connections, and unsafe traffic patterns. The redesign updated the road using modern traffic engineering, safety enhancement and improved access to NJ Transit’s Montclair State University Train Station.
The two projects were among eight selected from the 22 nominations from New Jersey, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York Ontario, Pennsylvania, Quebec, Rhode Island and Vermont. The projects will move forward to compete nationally, with the top 12 finalists across the country being announced in September. Those top contenders will compete for the two 2024 America’s Transportation Awards.
The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) will announce the winners at its annual meeting in October in Philadelphia. Winners will receive $10,000 each for a charity or transportation-related scholarship that they choose.