advertisement

---

American Public Works Association (APWU) Sept. 10 named Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) one of the Top 10 Public Works Projects of the 20th Century in the United States and Canada. BART celebrated its 28th service anniversary Sept. 11.

APWU cited several BART innovations including its role as the first system in the world to use computer-supervised train control, and its automatic train control and magnetic farecards use. APWU also noted that BART’s 3.6-mile Transbay Tube "revolutionized transportation" and for a month provided the only direct means of transportation between San Francisco and Oakland, Calif., following 1989’s Loma Prieta Earthquake.

Other projects rounding out the Top 10 include the Golden Gate Bridge; Grand Coulee Dam and Columbia Basin Project; Hoover Dam - Boulder Canyon; Los Angeles’ Hyperion Treatment Plant; interstate highway system; Panama Canal (a U.S. possession during construction); reversal of the Chicago River; St. Lawrence Seaway/Power Project; and Tennessee Valley Project.

"When you look back across the past 100 years and the incredible public works projects that were built in the United States and Canada — the bridges, the dams, the interstate highways, not to mention other urban transit systems — this is truly a proud and humbling moment," said BART General Manager Thomas Margro, in a prepared statement.