ADOT receives top environmental award

ADOT receives top environmental award 

ADOT among several team members recognized for US 93 project creativity and innovation  

KINGMAN - The Federal Highway Administration presented the 2011 Exemplary Ecosystem Initiative (EEI) Award during a ceremony held last week at the Arizona Department of Transportation Kingman District office.

In September the FHWA announced ADOT as one of only twelve national EEI award recipients. Karla S. Petty, FHWA Arizona Division Administrator, presented plaques commemorating the award to ADOT, National Park Service, Lake Mead National Recreational Area, Arizona Game and Fish Department, Bureau of Land Management, FNF Construction, Inc., AMEC Environment and Infrastructure and the FHWA Environmental Program management team.

The award was presented to team members of the US 93, milepost 2 to 17 project. The project, completed before Thanksgiving of last year, provides motorists with a continuous four-lane divided highway from Interstate 40 in Kingman to the Mike O’Callaghan – Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge over Hoover Dam.

The project also includes three specially designed wildlife overpasses designed to protect motorists on US 93 and also protect the bighorn sheep that are native in the Lake Mead National Recreation Area within the Black Mountains. The overpasses are the first of their kind in Arizona and the lower 48 states.

Cameras were installed on the overpasses during construction for monitoring and research, and on Feb. 1, 2011 the first video images captured a young ram bighorn sheep. “We now have video documenting between 70 and 100 big horn sheep, of all ages, using the crossings”, Ray Schweinsburg, Arizona Game and Fish Department Research Biologist, said.

“The US 93 project is a very deserving project for its creative and innovative solution to a major wildlife crossing and ecosystem connectivity problem caused by the expansion of US Highway 93 to a four-lane divided highway. The Arizona Division is very pleased and impressed with the cooperative and collaborative approach engaging the talent and knowledge of a multi-disciplinary team in a highly effective manner to meet objectives of all parties involved,” Petty said.

This is the third major award this project has received this year. In April, the Arizona chapter of the American Public Works Association named US 93 to Hoover Dam as the transportation project of the year in the $25 to $75 million category. In October the American Council of Engineering Companies of Arizona (ACEC) presented the 2011 Engineering Excellence Judges Choice Award to the project designer, AMEC Earth & Environmental, Inc.

Michael J. Kondelis, ADOT Kingman District Engineer, added, “This has been a model project, all agency partners and team members worked extremely hard, and there are so many things that helped make this project a success – thanks to everyone who made this possible.”

For more information about this project, please visit www.azdot.gov/US93Corridor, www.azdot.gov/statewide or contact Michele Beggs, Senior Community Relations Officer, at 928.681.6054 or mbeggs@azdot.gov. Local media should contact the ADOT Public Information Office at news@azdot.gov or 1.800.949.8057. Visit www.facebook.com/azdot or www.azdot.gov for more information about ADOT.

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For more statewide project information, visit www.azdot.gov/statewide.