North Avenue Smart Corridor Cited in National Engineering Competition

The Atlanta, Georgia-based team of Atkins North America Inc., and Arcadis has earned a National Recognition Award for exemplary engineering achievement in the American Council of Engineering Companies’ (ACEC) 51st annual Engineering Excellence Awards (EEA) for the North Avenue Smart Corridor project in Atlanta.

The North Avenue Smart Corridor serves as a “living lab” for smart cities technology. Comprising multiple transit operators and routes, intersections with important bicycle routes, and 26 signalized intersections, the corridor offers a unique setting for current and emerging technologies that can improve safety by managing multimodal traffic flow for special events and normal traffic conditions.

Combining artificial intelligence with traffic theory, the project team designed a system that responds to real-time events on demand for all mobility types. Advanced video detection systems with built-in analytics detect vehicle types, speed, volumes, queues, and traffic data statistics. Data gathered will also support short- and long-term transportation planning, including the corridor’s next phase of deployment—automated vehicle shuttles with transit priority.

The project is among 146 engineering achievements from throughout the nation and the world being recognized by ACEC as the year’s finest examples of engineering excellence, and eligible for additional top national honors. Judging for final awards — known industry-wide as the “Academy Awards of the engineering industry”— took place in February, conducted by a national 36-member panel of built environment leaders, along with experts from government, the media and academia. Award criteria focuses on uniqueness and originality, technical innovation, social and economic value, and generating excitement for the engineering profession.

Recognition of all award winners including top commendations — 20 Honor Awards, 16 Grand Awards and the prestigious “Grand Conceptor Award” for the year’s most outstanding overall engineering achievement — will take place at the annual EEA Dinner and Gala, a black-tie event to be held Tuesday, April 17, 2018, at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel in Washington, D.C.