Innovative website wins a pair of national awards

The Wisconsin Department of Transportation’s (Wis-DOT) Federal Discretionary Grant Awards dashboard website, was recently recognized by two national organizations, for its innovative use of technology to show where Wisconsin is maximizing federal investment in transportation.

The dashboard is an interactive map, featuring advanced geographic information system (GIS) technology. It shows where more than $2.16 billion in federal discretionary grants were awarded to communities, municipalities and Tribes across the state.

Web visitors can find it linked to the WisDOT’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) webpage, which details how historic federal infrastructure funding is impacting Wisconsin. The WisDOT is one of only two states to incorporate this technology, and the only state to present the federal funding data with such interactive detail.

One award from the Center for Digital Government (CDG), recognized the dashboard’s technical innovation and selected it as a State Government Experience Project Winner. The award recognizes outstanding work by state governments, that “have raised the bar on the experience of government services, to create a better engaged constituency and a more responsive government.”

The other is from the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) Committee on Communications, TransComm, that selected the dashboard as 2024’s most outstanding state department of transportation website, designed without a consultant.

“WisDOT is committed to maximizing federal infrastructure investment, to improve people’s lives across our state,” said WisDOT secretary Kristina Boardman. “I’m proud of our team for creating this innovative resource and I’m excited to see what we can do next.”