2004 success stories

The Smart Road Bridge

VDOT Commissioner Philip Shucet was named among the "Top 25 Newsmakers of 2004" by the Engineering News-Record for streamlining agency spending, boosting agency accountability, and implementing new cost estimating systems that have increased the number of projects delivered on-time and on-budget.

VDOT’S Equipment Management earned the inaugural Fleet Masters Award presented by the Association of Equipment Management Professionals and Construction Equipment Magazine. The award honors the nation's best public and private fleet equipment managers.

VDOT’S Web site series “How Virginians Move” won a second place award in the National Federation of Press Women 2004 Communications Contest.

The Smart Road over Wilson Creek in Blacksburg, Virginia won a 2004 Excellence in Structural Engineering Award from the National Council of Structural Engineers Associations.

A project to widen and improve Route 17 in Chesapeake has received national recognition from the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) for protecting wildlife and preserving the ecosystem along the Great Dismal Swamp. The project, managed by the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT), is one of seven in the country that the FHWA has designated as a 2004 Exemplary Ecosystem Initiative. The FHWA gives the special designation to transportation projects that develop innovative and forward-thinking ways to enhance and preserve ecosystems.

The Route 17 project will protect wildlife habitat, provide safe passageways for animals, link habitats, give visitors numerous wildlife-viewing opportunities and offer scientists a large outdoor laboratory. The12-mile long improvement project runs along the Great Dismal Swamp from Dominion Boulevard to the North Carolina state line. The project involves widening a section of existing pavement and building a stretch of new roadway to improve safety for motorists and better handle the increased traffic volume heading to North Carolina and the Outer Banks.