Pedestrian-friendly diverging diamond interchange, Indiana’s first, honored with engineering award

The American Council of Engineering Companies of Indiana (ACEC Indiana) awarded Indiana’s first diverging diamond interchange (DDI) with its Grand Project Award during the association’s recent 2016 Engineering Excellence Awards.

Engineering excellence awards go to “outstanding engineering achievements that demonstrate a high degree of merit and ingenuity,” and are judged on several factors including technical innovation and social and economic value.

ACEC Indiana had also previously named the $3.5 million project its Civil Engineering Project of the Year.

Burgess & Niple, based in Columbus, Ohio, designed the DDI as a means of adding traffic capacity and relieving congested at the I-69 and State Road 1 interchange in Fort Wayne.

Roughly 40,000 motorists are estimated to travel the interchange every day, and the new design, in addition to help with traffic volume, has been improving access for emergency vehicles to two nearby hospitals. The interchange opened in October 2014.

Additionally, the DDI includes a median designed for pedestrians. Officials say the barrier-separated feature “has proven to be a safer path for pedestrians to navigate the interchange and connect to Fort Wayne’s existing trail network.