South Bend Smart Streets Initiative Wins First-Place ARTBA Globe Award

Corporate, Engineering + InfrastructureMay 16, 2019

The South Bend Smart Streets initiative, for which American Structurepoint provided roadway design, traffic engineering, and landscape architecture services, received a first-place national award for its contributions to environmental protection and mitigation.

Smart Streets received the first-place award from the American Road & Transportation Builders Association Transportation Development Foundation (ARTBA-TDF) Globe Awards program in the category of $10 Million - $100 Million Projects. The Globe Awards recognizes private-sector firms and public-sector transportation agencies that do an outstanding job in protecting and/or enhancing the natural environment in the planning, design, and construction of US transportation infrastructure projects.

More about Smart Streets
The Smart Streets initiative in downtown South Bend, Indiana, was a three-year effort to convert 8 miles of two multi-lane, one-way pair arterials through downtown to two-way urban “complete streets.” The project’s use of pervious pavement in new parking lanes, an environmentally friendly way to reduce storm water runoff, and tree plantings chosen based on their ability to thrive in an urban area were cited by ARTBA-TDF as key to the project’s win.

The Smart Streets project resulted in safer, more pedestrian- and bicycle-friendly streets while serving as a catalyst for economic development within the downtown district.