Jurors combed through 132 entries in this year’s ENR Texas & Louisiana Best Projects competition, representing work completed over the past year in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma and Texas.

To determine the winning projects, a group of independent industry experts reviewed each entry over the course of a month, ultimately selecting 34 projects across 18 categories, including 17 Best Projects and 17 awards of merit. These projects were completed between July 1, 2017, and June 30, 2018.

The region’s 17 Best Projects winners will now advance to the national level, competing with winners from ENR’s nine other regions to be considered for ENR’s Best of the Best awards.

The criteria judges used to evaluate these projects included project challenges and solutions as well as safety programs, innovative design and construction solutions. Also considered were a project’s contribution to the construction industry and community as well as design quality and construction craftsmanship. Any projects that had a construction-related death were immediately disqualified.

To avoid conflicts of interest, if a judge worked for a firm directly involved in a submitted project, that panelist did not participate in the scoring for that category.

Judges also selected a Project of the Year for the region, chosen from the following three finalists: Annunciation Greek Orthodox Cathedral (Best Project in the cultural/worship category), Gathering Place (Best Project for landscape/urban development) and The Rendon Apartments (Best Project for residential/hospitality).

In addition, four safety experts reviewed more than 70 entries for the region’s Excellence in Safety award,  selecting one overall winner and five award of merit winners. Among the safety judging criteria were lost-time and recordable incident rates versus total worker hours along with execution and quality of jobsite-specific safety and health programs.

Each winning project team will be honored at an awards luncheon in Houston on Oct. 29.