Date:  Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Contact: Steve Pierce, WSDOT Communications Director 360-705-7076
Meagan McFadden, WSDOT COmmunications 509-577-1618

YAKIMA – A $10,000 prize for a local community service project is at stake in a competition that ends Monday, Oct. 18, and more votes are needed to bring home the grand prize.

Currently, the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) is in second place for the country’s Best Transportation Project and is vying with Mississippi for first.

WSDOT has been recognized nationally for its hard work and collaboration to restore access to hundreds of residents and businesses after a massive landslide destroyed SR 410 west of Yakima.

The project is one of 10 finalists competing in the 2010 America’s Transportation Awards. Two winners are selected in the competition sponsored by the American Association of State Highway Transportation Officials (AASHTO).

A panel of transportation experts will select one national winner and online voters will pick a second winner, the “People’s Choice Award.” The two national winners each receive $10,000 to fund a local community service project or charity.
WSDOT hopes to take first place and plans to put the money back into the Nile Valley community.

WSDOT encourages voters to cast many votes for Washington’s Nile Valley Landslide project at www.transportation.org (AASHTO’s America’s Transportation Awards website). Voting ends Oct. 18.

For more information about the landslide project, visit the WSDOT website at www.wsdot.wa.gov/Projects/SR410/NileValleyReconstruction/.

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