Selecting the Project of the Year is a hallmark of ENR MidAtlantic’s Best Projects annual awards competition. This year, ENR editors asked judges to select Project of the Year finalists before choosing an overall winner. To be considered as a finalist, a project had to be a Best Project-level winner in an individual category. The judges selected the following projects as finalists: Arlington National Cemetery Millennium Project, the Best Project in the landscape hardscape urban development category; Capital One Incubator Recruiting Office at University of Maryland, Best Project in the interior/tenant improvement category; CSX Virginia Avenue Tunnel Reconstruction, Best Project in the airport/transit catergory; and U.S. 50 Severn River Bridge Median Barrier Replacement and Lane Reconfiguration, Best Project in the highway/bridge category. After much consideration, the judges selected CSX Virginia Avenue Tunnel Reconstruction as the Project of the Year. Spanning nearly a dozen city blocks in the heart of Washington, D.C., the project replaced a more than 100-year-old, single-track tunnel with two new tunnels. 

Overall, this year’s winning project teams—hailing from Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia and the District of Columbia—represent a variety of skills and industry best practices. In the design department, several judges cited the International Spy Museum in Washington, D.C., as one of the most impressive projects. The project team erected architectural structural-steel beams above an existing, active parking garage and retail center.