FCC was awarded the prize on the basis of deadline fulfilment, relations with the community, lack of accidents, and the contractor's quality and innovation; the jury included representatives of the Florida Department of Transportation and the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA). FCC will collect the award tomorrow at the FTBA's annual convention.

The contract, budgeted at 121.5 million dollars (around 100 million euro) involved widening both sides of a 17.7 kilometre stretch of Interstate 95, in the northern part of the Greater Miami area, in order to transition from one HOV (High-Occupancy Vehicle) lane to two HOT (High-Occupancy Toll) lanes while maintaining the same number of toll-free lanes (3-5, depending on the section). The project will be extended to over 38.4 kilometres (24 miles) of roads and two additional contracts will be tendered apart from the one awarded to FCC.

The contract includes the installation of ITS (Intelligent Transportation System) and tolling systems and the expansion of existing structures around the main junction, connections to various junctions, and resurfacing.

Innovative traffic management system

The highway is fitted with an innovative express lanes management system enabling drivers to travel faster and avoid traffic jams by paying a toll that varies with the speed of traffic in the other lanes.

The toll is higher when traffic in the other lanes is slower (i.e. rush hour) and lower when traffic there is faster. Speed is measured by cameras and the toll is calculated automatically.

To use these barrier-free toll lanes, drivers must have a Sunpass transponder, enabling the toll to be registered without having to stop at a toll plaza. In August 2009, I 95 also received the America's Transportation Award in the "Innovative Management" category, from SASHTO (Southeastern Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials), which is part of AASHTO (American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials).

FCC in the United States
FCC has been operating in the US since 1984, when Portland Valderrivas built a cement terminal in Boston. The company subsequently acquired three cement factories, in Maine, South Carolina and Pennsylvania, as well as other cement assets on the Eastern Seaboard, including seven distribution terminals.

It has invested 420 million dollars (around 335 million euro at the current exchange rate) in the three plants in order to make them more efficient and, above all, to fulfil more stringent environmental and safety requirements.

Another FCC subsidiary, Cemusa, which is specialised in designing urban furniture and selling advertising space, won the concession for bus shelters in Miami in 2002. It won the Boston contract in 2003 and the New York contract in 2005. The latter is the largest such contract ever awarded by New York City.

At the end of 2007, FCC Ámbito bought from Siemens two US subsidiaries specialised in processing and recovering industrial waste oils and other oil services for 182.4 million dollars (about 145 million euro at the current exchange rate). As a result, the Spanish infrastructure, environmental services and energy group, which is controlled by Esther Koplowitz, became the second-largest player in this segment in the USA.