ARTBA names 2015 Transportation Development Hall of Fame honorees

Updated Oct 9, 2015

The American Road & Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA) named the latest members of its Transportation Development Hall of Fame during its recent national convention in Philadelphia, honoring three individuals.

This hall of fame began in 2010 and recognizes those making “extraordinary contributions to U.S. transportation development” throughout their careers. It honors individuals or families.

In the Transportation Design & Construction Industry Innovators category, ARTBA honored two individuals posthumously; T. Wallace Hawkes, past senior vice president and director of transportation for URS Corporation, and Sanford H. High, founder of High Welding Company.

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Hawkes was recognized for his contribution to the design and application of the single point urban interchange (SPUI) more than 40 years ago, for which he is credited in originating the design and application on State Route 60 in Clearwater, Florida. A SPUI is used in densely populated urban areas and features an inverted left turn lane that allows left turns “simultaneously over or under a free flowing road” on a smaller footprint. It also allows a lone traffic signal rather than two or more signals.

He served on the advisory board for the Center for Urban Transportation Research, the National Society of Professional Engineers, the Florida Engineering Society, a member of the steering committee of the Florida Transportation Initiative and vice chairman of the Southeast U.S.-Japan Association. Hawkes passed away in 2014.

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High, who passed away in 1983, began High Welding Company in 1931 in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. His company eventually became High Steel Structures. He is credited with pioneering the welded bridge concept during the Great Depression as a method of bridge construction that saved time and money in switching from riveting.

For the Transportation Designs & Construction Industry Leaders category, ARTBA recognized Dr. C. Michael Walton, who holds the Ernest H. Cockrell Centennial Chair in Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin, and posthumously honored Rep. Jim Oberstar (D-Minnesota).

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Civil engineering professor Walton was the first member of ARTBA’s Research & Education Division to be elected chairman of the association in 2006 and is the first educator to be named to the hall of fame. He as been at the University of Texas since 1971 and has consulted with 30 state departments of transportation. He has served as chairman of the Transportation Research Board (TRB) executive committee and is a founding member of the Intelligent Transportation Society of America.

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Walton was been named to the list of “America’s Top 100 Private Sector Transportation Design & Construction Officials of the 20th Century” for 2004, received the Institute of Transportation Engineers’ Theodore M. Matson Memorial Award in 2011, received the TRB W.N. Carey, Jr., Distinguished Service Award in 1998 and received an Outstanding Projects and Leaders award from the American Society of Civil Engineers.

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Oberstar, who passed away in 2014, served as chairman of the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee from 2007 to 2010. He also served as chairman of the House Aviation Subcommittee (1989-1994) and subcommittee on Investigations and Oversight (1987-1989). Oberstar also was “a driving force and author” of transportation funding laws in 1991, 1998 and 2005.