AASHTO Journal, 25 September 2015
Two intriguing photographs and two compelling videos won top prizes in the 2015 Faces of Transportation awards competition, sponsored by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials.
David Dubov-Flinn, AASHTO’s web business manager who also handled the competition for the association’s communications division, said 29 employees of state departments of transportation plus nine private citizens submitted 103 photographs and 12 videos for this year’s contest.
Photos were judged in three categories – People Building America, People Touring America and Innovators in Transportation. Videos competed in two categories – Professional Production and In-House/Amateur/Novice.
Dubov-Flinn also narrates a video presentation (below) that explains the competition and announces the 2015 winners.
The judge-selected Grand Prize in photos went to Washington State DOT photographer Greg Phipps for his picture of ironworker Chris Solan, who was making sure the lift tower of a huge tunnel boring machine in downtown Seattle was running smoothly.
More than 4,500 online votes decided the People’s Choice award winner. It was Arkansas Highway and Transportation photographer Rusty Hubbard, who captured AHTD’s Kayti Ewing as she was about to plant milkweed in the median of Interstate 430 to draw monarch butterflies that migrate through the area.
Three other photographs capturing highway construction workers or people using transportation facilities also received awards. (See the full gallery at the competition website.)
Idaho Transportation Department photographer Mark Hall won the People Building America category for a shot of a worker overseeing the placement of girders on an overnight job.
Eric Goldmann, a private photographer in Burlington, Vt., won the People Touring America category with his picture of the Brookfield Floating Bridge, which plays a key role in the economy of the small town for which it is named.
Nebraska Department of Roads photographer Daniel Luedert won the Innovators in Transportation category with a photograph that captured a worker surveying the grade for a new bypass near Kearney, while a grading machine works behind him.
In the video competition, the Tennessee DOT won the Professional Production category for a high-quality short film highlighting that state’s multimodal freight plan. The film is titled “How TDOT Ensures You Get Your Stuff.”
The Nevada DOT won the In-House Production/Amateur/Novice category for an up-close video of a “Snow Plow Ride-Along on Mount Rose” in the western part of the state.
Here is the narrated slide presentation announcement of this year’s winners.