The American Society of Civil Engineers Metropolitan Los Angeles Branch recognized the Los Angeles Department of Transportation with four Outstanding Project Awards for their 2021 awards cycle. Two of LADOT’s employees were also awarded with Outstanding Civil Engineer awards.

All six awardees will be pushed forward to the next round of awards that considers projects and individuals in the entire state. Many of the awards recognized LADOT’s role in the city of Los Angeles COVID-19 pandemic relief effort.

“LADOT was on the ground moving our city forward when the world was put on pause,” said LADOT General Manager Seleta Reynolds. “A majority of LADOT employees are frontline workers. Our field crews, traffic officers, engineers and planners worked directly with L.A. communities to provide support and relief to our most vulnerable constituents.”

LADOT Covid Relief programs were the LA Al Fresco, Food/Retail Pick Up Zones, COVID-19 Testing & Vaccination Site Support, Slow Streets Program, LAUSD Grab n Go support, L.A. County Food Drive support and redesigned signal timing to help the most vulnerable residents and hardest hit businesses across the city.

Economic development and community support programs prioritized BIPOC businesses and neighborhoods, which were shown to be the most vulnerable communities by the department’s Pandemic Travel Behavior Study.

While the COVID-19 pandemic relief effort was a large part of LADOT’s focus in 2020, the department also finished the 5th Street and 6th Street Improvement Project, jointly coordinated with Metro, which introduced improved bike lanes and part-time dedicated bus lanes along the major Downtown L.A. corridors. The project also featured improved lane striping, wide safety buffers along bike lanes, new high-visibility crosswalks and unique bikeway transitions at the project limits.