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Courtesy Raul Leal,
AUSTIN – The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) is proud to announce selection of the winner and honorees of its annual Environmental Achievement Award.

The award recognizes the best projects or processes that meet TxDOT’s transportation goals while also protecting or enhancing the environment.  Eligible projects must show ability to proactively protect or enhance the environment without being the result of any mandate.

TxDOT’s Lubbock District won top honors for its “Restoration of Playa Lake 44 Project.”

The Lubbock District is located in the Central Flyway for migratory birds and contains the largest concentration of playa lakes in the world.  These shallow, seasonal wetlands are vital to millions of migrating birds and are endangered by urban and agricultural encroachment.

The city of Lubbock has preserved several playas as parks; however, by 1990, 30 years of urban sprawl reduced Playa Lake 44 to a concrete drainage ditch surrounded by parking lots and rundown buildings.  The Lubbock District restored this playa as part of the extensive Marsha Sharp Freeway project.

Exceeding federal permit requirements, Playa Lake 44 replaces an area of urban blight with a sustainable wetland that channels floodwater to Playa Lake 43 in nearby Maxey Park and provides a safe haven for migratory birds.

Completing a plan first envisioned more than 20 years ago, the Lubbock District reached far beyond basic environmental requirements with restoration of Playa Lake 44.

TxDOT’s Lubbock District also won first place last year for its public education outreach program and is the first of TxDOT’s 25 districts to win the award three times in the 14-year history of the award.

“It is a great credit to TxDOT that our districts reach beyond the basics and produce these proactive environmental efforts,” said Amadeo Saenz, TxDOT Executive Director.  “These projects will benefit Texans today and for generations.”

TxDOT’s Wichita Falls District “Seymour Park Streambed Rehabilitation” project was selected as runner-up for its effort to mitigate environmental impacts in the nearby U.S. 277 expansion project.

Seymour Creek in Seymour City Park was a bald wasteland.  Unable to effectively mow the banks, the city maintenance crew stripped away all vegetation with herbicide.  Severe erosion ate away the creek bank and sediment choked the dilapidated check dam.

TxDOT used interlocking concrete blocks covered with topsoil to stabilize sensitive bank areas.  New plantings of native grasses, wetland plants, wildflowers and more than 100 trees and shrubs anchored the repaired banks.  The old dam was replaced to maintain a pond within the park.

In less than a year, water and habitat quality improved to the point that numerous species of aquatic and upland wildlife returned to the park for the first time in many years.

Going beyond simple mitigation, TxDOT’s Wichita Falls District turned a ruined ecosystem into a living heritage for generations of Texans.

TxDOT’s San Angelo District received honorable mention for the “Refurbished Rocksprings Main Street Project”

The streets around the Edwards County Courthouse in Rocksprings were severely cracked, the sidewalks were crumbling, and rainwater flooded the crossroads.  As a part of the U.S. 377 improvement project, TxDOT renovated Main Street with little disruption to town life.

The resurfaced roadway was widened to provide street parking.  Americans with Disability Act (ADA) compliant sidewalks replaced the old walkways.  A new storm drainage system that emptied into the city park was installed with minor impact to the existing foliage.  The district landscape architect designed planters that contain native vegetation, including 35 bur oak trees.

The Laredo District of TxDOT also earned an honorable mention for its “Three Points Interchange Project.”

In Laredo, U.S. 83, SH 359 and Arkansas St. converge into a dangerous intersection prone to flash floods.

The intersection’s middle (triangular) area was contoured and surfaced with concrete to drain storm water away from the streets into nearby Chacon Creek.  A “dream-catcher” design was incorporated in the concrete and a pedestal built to hold a sculpture that symbolizes local hospitality.

Historically, in this parched landscape it is traditional to offer travelers fresh drinking water.  The sculpture represents three cánteros, or water jugs. 

Despite several design challenges TxDOT’s Laredo District took extra steps to build a well-organized, safer traffic interchange that clearly reflects the heritage of the borderlands.

Environmental Affairs Division Director Dianna Noble, P.E., said “I’m so proud to be associated with the professionals at TxDOT who put so much planning and care into these projects.  These are win-win projects for all Texans.”