An important international distinction for Olympia Odos which is among the five finalists for the Outstanding Civil Engineering Achievement (OCEA) Award established in 1960 by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) and awarded every year since then. 

The OCEA award annually recognizes the infrastructure projects that best illustrate superior civil engineering skills and represent a significant contribution to civil engineering progress and society. Projects that have already been honored with the OCEA award are, among others, the JFK International Airport, the World Trade Center, Walt Disney Epcot Center, as well as the Rion-Antirion Bridge.

Olympia Odos is the only motorway and the only project among the finalists for 2019 which has been constructed outside the US.  The other four finalists are:

• 150 North Riverside, Chicago, IL, the 54 stories tall high-rise building using many technical innovations, such as a reinforced concrete core three times thinner than the usual ones.  
• New United States Courthouse, Los Angeles, CA, a "floating" cube, a building which employs the innovative structural engineering concept of the “floating cube” that cantilevers the glass volume above its stone base;
• OARS-OSIS Augmentation & Relief Sewer, Columbus, OH, a 7.2 km long flood protection tunnel project designed to deal with the sewer overflows of Columbus City;
• SR 99 Alaskan Way Viaduct Replacement South Access, a double deck viaduct-tunnel in Seattle with an innovative seismic design which allows the bending and return of the piers to their initial position. 

Mr. Panayiotis Papanikolas, CEO of Olympia Odos SA made the followings statement regarding this great distinction: “It is a great honor for Olympia Odos and Greece that the motorway was chosen to be among the five finalists for the Awards of the American Society of Civil Engineers, a very prestigious international competition. This nomination vindicates a great effort made by a large number of people and proves who difficult this Project was both in terms of management (due to its construction under traffic) and in purely technical terms because of the important number of large structures implemented in a zone of particularly high seismic activity, in a narrow strip of land between the mountains and the sea, which is also one of the richest areas in archaeological findings all over the world.  This nomination belongs to all of those who worked and are still working on this major Project, the three large Greek construction companies, namely AKTOR, TERNA, J&P-AVAX as well as the French VINCI and the German Hochtief, all those who contributed to the Project, from the Independent Engineer to the specialized technical advisors, and of course to the Service of the State and the officials of the competent managing authorities. We are very proud of this nomination which incites us to dynamically progress and set new objectives for the service of the drivers and all the beneficiaries of this Project.”

In presenting Olympia Odos on its website, the American Society of Civil Engineers states that:  “It took more than a decade of work, but one of Greece’s most dangerous roads – previously known as “The Highway of Death” – was replaced with the Olympia Odos Motorway”, thus focusing on the fact that this modern motorway significantly improved the road safety level and in general upgraded the trips to hundreds of destinations.

The final phase of the competition and the award winner will be announced on March 14, 2019 during the OPAL Gala at Arlington VA, USA.