Woodrow Wilson Bridge Project Wins the ‘Oscar of Civil Engineering’          
          
Highest Honor in Civil Engineering Awarded by the American Society of Civil Engineers          
          
          
The Woodrow Wilson Bridge Project was awarded civil engineering’s highest award last night as it took home the 2008 Outstanding Civil Engineering Achievement Award from the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). Only two weeks before the second new bridge is dedicated, the project was presented the prestigious international honor at a gala awards ceremony in Arlington, Virginia. The project is sponsored by the Federal Highway Administration, Maryland State Highway Administration, Virginia Department of Transportation and the District of Columbia Department of Transportation.           
          
The ASCE award recognized Wilson Bridge Project’s significant contributions to the civil engineering profession, singling out for particular praise the project’s innovative and extensive environmental program and its keen sensitivity to travelers and local communities. The project was selected from a group of 26 outstanding projects from around the world.           
          
“I couldn’t be more proud of our entire team for managing this project in an on-time, on-budget manner, while showing enormous care for the natural environment as well as our travelers and neighbors,” said Robert Douglass, project director for the Maryland State Highway Administration. “The cooperation we have received from local jurisdictions and the public at large has been a critical contributor to our success.”           
          
Ronaldo “Nick” Nicholson, project director for the Virginia Department of Transportation, seconded his counterpart’s sentiments: “I am deeply honored to receive the award on behalf of our talented team – designers, contractors and many others – but I would be remiss if I didn’t emphasize the enormous credit deserved by our customers, the public, who have shown so much patience as we have built this monumental project.”           
          
“The success we have achieved could only have come with across-the-board partnership and hard work,” Nicholson said. “We look forward to continuing that spirit of teamwork as we tackle the remaining portions of the project, particularly the Telegraph Road Interchange, which just this year began substantial construction.”          
          
ASCE annually recognizes an exemplary civil engineering project with the Outstanding Civil Engineering Achievement award. Established in 1960, the prestigious award honors the project that best represents civil engineering progress and its contribution to society as a whole.           
          
Past notable winners include the St. Lawrence Seaway and Power Project on the St. Lawrence River, New York; the John F. Kennedy International Airport in Queens, New York; the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, Missouri; the Leonard P. Zakim/Bunker Hill Bridge in Boston; and the Trans-Alaskan Pipeline in Alaska.           
          
The Wilson Bridge Project is now 80 percent completed. The second new Wilson Bridge will be dedicated on May 15 and open to traffic in late May/early June, weather permitting. On landside, the interchanges at U.S. Route 1, Interstate 295 and Maryland 210 will be completed in late 2008 or early 2009. The interchange at Telegraph Road will be finished in 2013.          
          
          
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Media Contacts:          
          
John Undeland           
Woodrow Wilson Bridge Project           
(571) 237-2690          
          
Joan Buhrman          
American Society of Civil Engineering (703) 295-6406          
(703) 295-6406