The Connecticut, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Wisconsin DOTs have received the Asphalt Pavement Alliance's Perpetual Pavement Awards this year.

To increase participation, the Solid Waste Management Department of Hillsborough County, Fla., is offering free technical assistance to businesses in unincorporated areas.

Services range from providing waste audits to helping design waste reduction and recycling programs.

In addition to holding free seminars for the last two years, the department has used a state grant to create a a waste-reduction and building-maintenance manual for property managers. The department also launched a direct-mail campaign.

Two years ago, PUBLIC WORKS named U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) to our annual list of Trendsetters, published each November. Now the chair of the House Transportation and Infrastructure's Subcommittee on Highways and Transit is being honored again, this time by the American Public Works Association (APWA).

“As a tireless and committed advocate for transportation infrastructure investment, his leadership has produced improved safety and efficiency, enhanced quality of life, and protected our natural resources,” says APWA President Noel Thompson.

When negotiating the most recent federal highway bill, DeFazio helped get 13 colleges designated as National University Transportation Centers. Each university receives grants to support research and technological innovation, in the process developing the next generation of professionals with experience working with the nation's transportation system.

DeFazio has also advocated on behalf of water infrastructure and quality, aviation and railroads, homeland security, infrastructure protection, and natural resources.

The Portland Cement Association has identified leaders in eight cities, including the following infrastructure managers and departments, for specifying concrete and other cement-based products as sustainable building solutions:

• Dallas Department of Street Services for saving 40% per lane-mile by reusing an average of 80% of existing street materials.
• Brad Reed, inspection coordinator for Lubbock, Texas, for building low-income housing that incorporates insulating concrete form wall systems.
• Najib Fares, PE, infrastructure manager for Fort Worth's Transportation & Public Works Department, for making full-depth reclamation (FDR) part of the city's annual street maintenance program.
• Leawood, Kan., Director of Public Works Joe Johnson for giving the city a pervious concrete parking lot.
• Hancock, N.H., Public Works Director Kurtis Grassett for using FDR to rebuild a flood-prone road.