Transportation officials from Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee were honored today for their extraordinary leadership, resilience and dedication to reconnecting communities in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene.
The organizations and their employees were recognized by the American Road & Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA) during the group's annual convention in Kohler, Wis., and presented with the ARTBA Award.
Honorees include the Florida Department of Transportation (DOT) and Florida Transportation Builders' Association; Georgia DOT and the Georgia Highway Contractors Association; North and South Carolina DOTs and Carolinas AGC; and the Tennessee DOT and Tennessee Road Builders Association.
"In moments of crisis, the importance of transportation infrastructure becomes unmistakably clear," said ARTBA CEO Dave Bauer. "The men and women who worked quickly and collaboratively to rebuild infrastructure following Helene remind us of the vital role transportation professionals play in connecting, restoring and sustaining American communities."
Helene, which made landfall two years ago, is the most destructive storm since Katrina hit New Orleans in 2005. Helene's devastating floods, wind and landslides affected large portions of the southeastern United States and southern Appalachia, wiping out infrastructure and taking 250 lives.
Within hours of the storm's passage, each state deployed thousands of workers to restore access to communities cut off from critical resources. In Tennessee, where 49 road segments were destroyed, crews logged 90,000 labor hours in the first few days alone. North Carolina mobilized 2,000 transportation workers to reopen access across a region where more than 1,400 roads were closed, ultimately repairing or replacing 270 bridges and 870 culverts within the first six months. In Florida, 800 crew members cleared 12,300 miles of roadway within days, including 61 crews that reopened I-10 in less than six hours. South Carolina reopened 859 of its 900 damaged bridges within a month. Meanwhile, in Georgia, 2,000 GDOT employees, more than half the agency's workforce, removed 4.8 million cubic yards of debris from 35 sites.
The ARTBA Award recognizes outstanding contributions that advance the association's broad goals. Past recipients include a U.S. president, governors, more than 25 members of Congress, two U.S. secretaries of transportation and dozens of senior leaders from government and the private-sector transportation construction industry.
