Two Georgia Department of Transportation (Georgia DOT) communications projects took home “best of” honors from the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials’ (AASHTO) Committee on Transportation Communications - TransComm.

“TransComm is all things in transportation communications,” said Georgia DOT Director of Strategic Communications Scott Higley, “and it means a lot to us to be judged so favorably by our peers from other departments of transportation across the country.”

GDOT’s bimonthly The Extra Mile blog won first place in the category “Writing/Best Blog” (honors shared with Arizona). Since launching in 2018, The Extra Mile has posted on 41 subjects ranging from clearing trees for safety to express lanes to the inner workings of the Transportation Management Center. Authors include GDOT subject matter experts, as well as guest bloggers. Read The Extra Mile blog at www.dot.ga.gov/AboutGDOT/TheExtraMile.

“Georgia DOT has important stories to share,” Higley said. “We don’t shy away from controversial subjects. We cover ‘hot button’ issues because those are the issues the public cares about most. Regular, compelling content is the key to the success of The Extra Mile.”

In the category of “Publications/Best of the Rest” GDOT received first place honors for the Fiscal Year 2018 Accountability and Investment Report. As a public agency entrusted with public resources, Georgia DOT is accountable for its actions, for the results achieved and for transparently disclosing those results. The Accountability and Investment Report, which functions as an annual report, tells the story of the previous fiscal year in layman’s terms and in a graphically pleasing manner. View the report at http://www.dot.ga.gov/AboutGDOT/TheNetwork/Publications.

The TransComm annual Skills Contest is considered the premier competition in the transportation industry and the awards have become a standard of public relations excellence among state departments of transportation. To see the 2019 winners, visit https://communications.transportation.org/2019-transcomm-skills-contest-winners/.