Collin Castle from the Michigan Department of Transportation (above, center, in  photo by Georgia DOT) and Alison Ragan with the Wyoming Department of Transportation were named the winners of the 2018 Transportation Vanguard Award during the annual meeting of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials in Atlanta Sept. 20-24.

The award is designed to recognize a state DOT professional at the forefront of new developments and technologies and AASHTO first created it in late in 2012 in honor of James McMinimee, a professional engineer who worked for the Utah Department of Transportation for 25 years in roles in maintenance, operations and project development.

McMinimee led the implementation of many UDOT initiatives in diverse areas including performance management, innovative contracting, partnering, maintenance management, traffic operations, design, software development, Olympic operations and project management.

Under his leadership, that agency pioneered the use of self-propelled modular transporters to move completed bridge sections into place in a matter of hours. He also served as AASHTO’s implementation manager for the second Strategic Highway Research Program – known as SHRP2 – where he worked to apply innovative research to transportation projects across the nation.

The Transportation Vanguard Award is sponsored by infrastructure engineering software maker Bentley and architectural, engineering, and consulting firm HDR Inc.