An industry magazine recently named two Cobb County Department of Transportation professionals to a list of the 100 most influential women in Georgia engineering. Karyn Matthews and Ligia Florim work as engineers for Cobb DOT and have been highlighted multiple times by the American Council of Engineering Companies of Georgia. Both have worked for Cobb County for more than a decade. The annual Top 100 list by Engineering Georgia magazine features women who are executives of companies, government officials, and professional engineers.

“I always enjoyed math.  I sort of fell into engineering after I decided to major in Physics at Emory,” Karyn Matthews said. “Since I have been at Cobb, I have been fortunate to be involved in many great projects – several of them winning design awards as well,” Matthews said her favorite project was the Windy Hill/Terrell Mill connector project.

“I was handed the project when I first walked in the door in 2013 as a scoping project - figuring out where a new road location could go,” she said. “I got to follow that project from the beginning to the end of construction.  It's not every day that you see a brand-new road get built in such an urban environment.”

Ligia Florim said her favorite projects have been ones that involved cooperation with multiple stakeholders and design complexities such as the Mableton Parkway Pedestrian Improvements, New Macland Road Improvements, Chattahoochee Trail, Old 41 Highway, and South Barrett Reliever Phase 3.

“Engineering is a rewarding field when you make it about serving others,” Florim said.  “Do your best at whatever job you do, no matter how small it might seem … Nowadays, I enjoy working and coordinating with commissioners, developers, and individual property owners, helping them resolve issues that directly impact them and the County's transportation system.”

Cobb County is the state’s third-largest county and one of its fastest-growing. The Atlanta Regional Commission forecasts that Cobb will grow to more than 1 million residents by the year 2050. Traffic is also on the rise due to institutions and businesses such as Lockheed Martin, GE Energy, Kennesaw State University, and the Atlanta Braves making Cobb County their preferred home. To keep up with this growth, the county has made significant investments in new transportation infrastructure and safety and operational improvements to existing roadways.

An integral piece of keeping up with the growth of Cobb County are the engineers in the Department of Transportation who oversee all projects from the scoping process to project completion.

Click https://www.engineeringga.com/march-april-2024-issue-available-now/ to view the magazine.