In The News: North Carolina’s Complete 540 Earns ASCE Honor Award

Established in 1960, the Outstanding Civil Engineering Achievement (OCEA) Award celebrates the project that best exemplifies superior civil engineering skills and contributes meaningfully to the advancement of the profession and society. Each year, the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) evaluates numerous entries from across the globe, making selection as an OCEA honoree a significant achievement. North Carolina’s Complete 540 Phase 1 will be recognized at ASCE’s esteemed Outstanding Projects and Leaders (OPAL) Gala on October 15, 2026, in Reston, Virginia. Our firm played a pivotal role in designing the extension from N.C. 55 Bypass to east of Pierce Olive Road (R-2721A), a critical 4.6-mile segment of Phase 1. 

With Phase 1 complete and open to traffic, the new highway is already delivering benefits to the Raleigh region. The corridor improves safety and vehicular flow, reduces congestion, and provides a more efficient route for road users throughout one of the state’s fastest-growing areas. This new, six-lane, limited-access expressway extension incorporates a diverging diamond interchange (DDI), nine bridges, 11 single- and multi-barrel reinforced concrete box culverts, more than 2.5 miles of brick noise walls, overhead sign structures, all-electronic tolling gantries, and a pedestrian tunnel. 

At the project outset, the team advanced a design-build delivery strategy for 65% of the conceptual design, an approach that shortened the overall project timeline by enabling the final design and right-of-way acquisition to occur concurrently. This innovation, combined with close collaboration across multiple disciplines and partners, helped ensure the project meets the region’s growing transportation needs efficiently and effectively. 

Being designated as an OCEA Honor Award recipient affirms the project team’s commitment to engineering excellence and highlights the project’s lasting contributions to North Carolina’s mobility, connectivity, and economic vitality.