Pottawatomie County along with BG Consultants has won first place honors for the 2018 Kansas Public Improvement Award (PIA) for counties in the 10,000 and above population category. The PIA competition, sponsored by the American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC) of Kansas for 57 years, is unique in that it recognizes engineering projects for their benefit to the citizens of a community and not for engineering design. Pottawatomie County won for the Pottawatomie County Signing Major Collector Routes project. Pottawatomie County contracted with BG Consultants, Inc. to design the project. Receiving the award for Pottawatomie County were Robert Reece, County Administrator, Moni El-Aasar, BG Consultants Project Manager, Peter Clark, Pottawatomie County Director of Public Works, and Dee McKee, Pottawatomie County Commissioner.

The county was driven by the Design Engineer and all existing signs were recorded. Plans were then prepared showing the placement of the signs to be removed, replaced or added to conform with the new Federal guidelines. The installation was completed by Pottawatomie County forces which allowed the County to update their entire major collector system, which otherwise would not have been feasible with the allotted funds. A construction inspector from BG Consultants was utilized to provide quality control and use a GPS system to give the County a digital record of the current signs and location of each sign. 

A total of 219 miles of roadway, approximately 1,950 signs and 1,040 object markers, were upgraded to conform with the current federal highway standards. The new signage in place on these Pottawatomie County roadways with the highest volume of traffic furnishes all travelers the maximum available in safety warnings and indicators providing increased awareness of limits and hazards. 

The Kansas Department of Transportation administered the funds for this project from the High Risk Rural Roads (HRRR) allotment. Because of this, the funds allowed the County to move forward and provide the needed improvements without the need for budget allocations or increased timetables. It enabled the County to avoid the appropriation of funds to make the updates.

The American Council of Engineering Companies of Kansas is a professional association of private-practice consulting and engineering firms in the State of Kansas.