The shared pathway He Ara Kotahi over the Manawatū Awa opened in June and more than 222,000 groups have used the network of paths.
The success of the paths that connects Palmerston North city to Massey University, Food HQ and Linton Military Camp has also been recognised with a top transport award.
The new landmark won the Sustainable Transport Leadership Award at the NZ Transportation Institute Awards this week.
The He Ara Kotahi project earlier won a New Zealand Planning Institute for consultation over the bridge location.
The New Zealand Transportation institute says He Ara Kotahi demonstrates extremely high levels of leadership, innovation, sound research and technical basis, clear benefits and good community engagement.