A Publication for Employees of the Missouri Department of Transportation Connect ions March 2010 10 12 8 District Winners Tool and Equipment winners in D7 will go to statewide event in the spring 15Safety Celebration Blueprint partners honored in D3 InSync High-tech signals mean smoother travel in D5 Helping Hand Two D8 employees hon- ored for helping co-work- Inside New Technology D10 is the first in the state to test tempera- ture-s ensitive reflectors 13 Missouri was awarded $3 1 million for high-speed rail projects under the Ameri- can Recovery and Reinvestment Act. “We are very pleased. This is t he best news we could have hoped for given the extreme competition for rail funding,” said Brian Weiler, director of MoDOT’s Multimodal Operations Unit. “We are excited to have funding for additional projects that will support jobs and carry on the momentum of building a faster and more reliable pas- senger and freight train service in Mis- souri and a stronger rail corridor across the Midwest.” The recovery act funding will be used for three shovel-ready projects that will sup- port approximately 190 direct jobs: ■ A second rail bridge over the Osage River that will eliminate delays caused Missouri Receiv es Millions for High-Speed Rail Projects by a bottleneck, plus additional crossovers that will reduce mainte- ■ A universal crossover near the Kirk- wood Amtrak station that will ease the ■ Safety improvements at several rail crossings, primarily west of Sedalia. It will also fund preliminary engineering on six futu re improvement projects worth approximately $1 00 million, including double tracks between Lee’s Summit and Pleasant Hill, a passing siding at Kings- ville, a grade separation at Strasburg, a passing siding extension at Knob Noster and universal crossovers - a device that allows trains to crossover to another trackin either direction - at Bonnots Mill and Hermann. Missouri’ s success was part of a larger Midwest regional effort that, as a whole, captured $2.6 billion of the $8 billion in ARRA f unds available for high-speed rail corridor improvements. The state con- sortium, known as the Midwest Regional Rail Initiative, is involved in an ongoing effort to develop and expand access to an improved passenger rail system in t he Midwest. Besides Missouri, other partici- pating states are Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, Nebraska and Wisconsin. Feb. 1 7 marked the one year an niversary ofthe American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and the start of construction on a Mis- recovery act project. Within minutes of President BarackObama signing the recovery act into law, Mo DOT made history by signi ng a contract and beginning construction on the replacement of a Depression-era bridge over the Osage River near Tuscumbia, Mo. Today , this recovery act project is a steady symbol of progress. According to a Roads & Bridges magazine article, the bridge is “a prime example of ARRA’s intent.” First Stimulus Project Is On TrackOne Year Later Design work was already in process to replace the bridge. Recovery act funds helped push the timetable up, and today the bridge is more than halfway complete. built portions of the bridge deck and the approaches on both the north and south sides of the river. Work is under way on the foundation, and soon girders will be placed and the deck spanning the river will be constructed. It will provide a much wider and safer passage over the Osage River with two foot wide shoulders. The project also met ARRA’s objective to quickly put people back to work and jump- start the economy . “With a quick blast of an air horn, the project immediately began connecting people with jobs that are still being supported today by ongoing construction on the new span,” Director Pete Rahn said. Overall, the $525 million in ARRA funds received by the Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission will complete work on 196 highway and bridge projects and bolster Missouri’s economy by sup- porting more than 14,000 jobs. The first stimulus project in the nation - a new bridge over the Osa ge River near Tuscumbia - is on target to be completed this fall. Missouri celebrated the first recovery act project in the nation on Feb. 17, 2009.
Let’s Pick It Up – April isthe No More Trash! Bash
Director Rahn Receives Awardsfor Dedication and CommunityBetterment
Ruth Ann Short from Marthas-ville is an adopter in the MissouriAdopt-A-Highway program. Shortsets out each day in her safety vest,yellow bags in hand, to clean upall the roadsides leading into hercommunity.
Weather StationsImprove WinterOperations
Meet Your Commissioners
What Are Your Thoughts?Let us know at www.modot.org/ConnectionsSurvey
Feb. 3 was Transportation Day a the Missouri State Capitol. Displays set upin the rotunda included information about multimodal, motor carrier andsafety programs.
Harrison County Commissioners hosted a meeting of stakeholders onFeb. 8. It gave MoDOT an opportunity to alert everyone at one timeabout the impact of this year’s construction season.
Holly L. Murphy
Holly L. Mur
phy
Beam Me Up
A Little Bit of History
Holly L. Murphy
Jon Morrow
The beams, traveling in groups ofsix, made an imposing sight onthe highways.
Each beam and trailer measured200 ft. in length and weighed210,000 lbs.
The beams were installed at the bridge as soon as they were delivered,even if it meant at night.
Local farmers and their teams of mules or horses were hired to pull ourequipment in the mid-1920s to keep our dirt roads passable.
lower than 27, which was 25 in 2006.The highest total since 2004 occurred
in 2005 with 46 fatalities.
Skouby said the district was off to a
great start early in 2009, but then a
couple of bad months brought the total
back up.
With regard to safety belt usage, the
breakdown came out like this:
03-Buckled 01-Motorcycle
22-Unbuckled 01-ATV Accident
Statistics showed that many accidents
were one-vehicle, and the occupants
ejected or partially ejected because they
were not restrained by a safety belt.
“It is very disheartening to think that
probably at least half of these fatalities
could have survived if they were only
wearing their safety belt,” said Skouby.
Won’t Stop Until We Drop!
Although the truth about these fatali-
ties is very sad, it will not discourage
or hamper the conviction of the North
Central Region’s coalition to continue
its efforts in education and training.
Last year, Skouby, Co-chair Amy
Crawford and Diane Nanneman at-
tended over 90 events visiting all kinds
of groups from schools to rotary clubs
to talk about highway safety. They also
enlisted the help of other employees in
various departments as well as other
members of the coalition.
Some of the most enjoyable groups are
the very young kids. They love seeing
Buckles the Bear and learning about the
“Get Your Buckle On” dance. They are
taught about the importance of wearing
safety belts, bicycle safety including
recognizing and obeying road signs and
School programs are customized to be
age appropriate. Older driver training
courses and child passenger technician
The coalition has completed working
with the schools for the Battle of the
Belts Program and will soon be pre-
senting the winning schools their cash
prices. This year’s winners were:
Statewide Winner
Level
Regional Winners
Overall
Improved
Currently the coalition is gearing up
for spring, working with high schools
to bring the Arrive Alive message into
prom and graduation activities; and
scheduling visits for the elementary and
middle school groups as well.
Some of the things the group plans to
focus on this summer is town and coun-
ty fairs, summer school opportunities,
safety towns, older driver training and
Buckles and his two biggest fans at the January Lifestyle Fair in Moberly.
Buckles the Bear and Diane Nanneman join the Moberly school kids.
As the Miami Bridge project continues throughout the year, you cannow log on to the project Web site and follow the progress with ournew Miami Bridge newsletter. Each newsletter is packed with projectinformation and great photos to keep you updated. Login at www.modot.mo.gov/northcentral/miamibridgeproject.htm . Resident Engi-neer James Gillespie and Construction Project Offi ce Assistant Suzie
Regional Blueprint Partner and Chief of Foristell Police Department
Doug Johnson.
In conjunction with
Highway Safety,
the regional com-
mittee held a recog-
nition event thanking
their Blueprint partners for their efforts.
A “1950” Safety Celebration“We’ve seen 10 fewer fatalities in our
region alone,” Chief Johnson said. “If
we can just keep working together to
implement safer engineering features
on our roads, increase law enforcement
and offer education to all dr ivers, I’m
optimistic we will see the number con-
tinue to drop,” he commented.
The group was entertained by a presen-
tation comparing 1950 to more recent
years, which included video clips of
vehicles from another era, 1950’s music,
inventions, prices, Missouri laws, andlifestyles.
Tana Akright, community relations spe-
cialist and coordinator of the regional
Battle of the Belt program, received a
Noteworthy Award for her efforts to
obtain participation from more than
double the number of schools over the
previous year.
Around the District
To continue MoDOT’s efforts to be environ-
mentally responsible, The Green Team forthe NE District is helping identify the manyopportunities for recycling in northeastMissouri. This is a new D-Tracker measurefor the district (http://wwwi/intranet/ d3/TrackerTop10.htm ), and the “Team” isexcited about the opportunities. BrandiBaldwin, intermediate constructioninspector, believes everyone should makean effort to recycle, even if it’s a little
inconvenient at times. The team is alreadybringing awareness about the various items
that can be recycled.
Mike Haggerty, J.R. Epperson, and Larry Cornelius have begun install-ing 800 to 1000 new chevrons this year. More than 10,000 chevronswill be installed and/or replaced in the NE District over the next10 years, and the sign crews have already started. “This is a safetyinitiative to help motorists better identify curves that have a speedreduction of 15 mph or less on the route speed limit,” explained BrianUntiedt, traffi c engineer.
was recognized at the NortheastRegional Blueprint meeting witha Noteworthy Award for her ef-forts to coordinate and lead the
Battle of the Belt program forthe Northeast Region.
Chris Troesser, senior equipment techni-cian, demonstrates the proper lubrica-tion technique for a u-joint to MexicoMaintenance Crew Leader Jason Walton.
GREEN TEAM
These chiefs of police used snowmobiles for their own winter Olympic com-petition at the regional Blueprint meeting. The snowmobile was invented in1950 and these were given to the Blueprint members as a “thank you” fortheir efforts and as a reminder that not since 1950 have fatalities been aslow as in 2009. Left to right: Eddie Bogue, Palmyra; Rich McDermott, NewFlorence; Doug Johnson, Foristell; Greg Houdyshell, Warrenton.
Statewide, dump truck training wasbeing revised to include a pre-trip
inspection. Even before that knowledge,
Senior Equipment Technician Chris
Troesser had made a similar suggestion
to the district engineer. “I thought wehad room for improvement in the area of
A screen shot from the InSync camera captures ve-hicles moving through the intersection of RoutesAC and 163. The purple and yellow lane shading ispart of its sensor system.
Je
nnifer Ranabargar
Jason Sommerer
Crews finished work on the Tipton intersec-tion in late January.
by Holly Dentner
High-Tech Signals Mean Smoother Travel on Route AC in Columbia
Most of us have found ourselves sitting
at a red light, wondering how long
we’ll have to wait before it changes to
-
intersection.
movements and
volumes in these
locations to make
sure the signals
function in the
testing a new tool
job a little easier.
management software. It is used along
a corridor with a number of signalized
intersections and can calculate the need
for signal changes in real time.
count, which is just a snapshot of one
and adjust the timing as needed.”
Deanne Rickabaugh
A tow plow makes quick work of clearing Business Route 50
(Missouri Blvd.) in Jefferson City. The plow was out during aFeb. 5 snowfall.
Pettis County residentsexamine displays during acommunity briefing on Feb.10. MoDOT held the briefingto discuss ten bridge replace-ments scheduled for 2010as part of the Safe & SoundBridge Improvement Program.
Two Honored For HelpingCo-Worker Injured on Jobby Angela Eden and Bob Edwards
phone
help and
returned
around the
sponded to his
D8 at Work1. Mixing quick-setting concrete for a new sign post at Route 60 and Route125 in Rogersville is Seymour Senior Maintenance Worker Ken Evans.
2. Plowing snow on Route 65 north of Fair Grove is Buffalo Senior Mainte-nance Worker Sim Smitherman after he fi lls (inset) the rig’s calcium chloridetank.
3. Transportation Project Designer Larry Colson, left, shows a customer thedrawings for a project to expand the interchange at Route 160/13 (CampbellAvenue) and Route 60 (James River Freeway) in Springfi eld and to six-lane a1.4-mile long section of Route 160/13 south of the freeway. This took placein a public meeting at the Springfi eld-Greene County Library Center.
by Angela Eden
Bridge Crew Maintenance Worker Kevin Keller,left, and Republic Maintenance Worker PaulHyde, right, visit with MoDOT Director PeteRahn after Rahn presented them certifi catesfor coming to the aid of injured co-workerTravis Tucker.
Students at Woodland High School conduct seatbelt checks as their peers ar-rive for school. To successfully complete the BOTB challenge, schools conductseatbelt checks at the beginning of the challenge, and then implement afour-week, educational campaign to improve usage rates. Finally, schoolsconduct a second check at the end of the campaign to gauge their progressin spreading the “buckle up” message.
And the Winner is...
With 32 Southeast District schools par-
ticipating in the 2009 Battle of the Belt
Challenge, 27 successfully completed
the statewide competition.
“We were thrilled to have such as over-
whelming response from our South-
east District schools,” said Southeast
District Youth Coordinator Belinda
McMurry. “This year, we had more
schools complete the competition than
ever before.”With 99 percent of students buckling up,
Saxony Lutheran High School was Dis-
trict 10’s winner for the h ighest overall
percentage of seatbelt usage. Addition-
ally, Saxony Lutheran High School tied
for the highest usage in the entire state.
Hayti High School, winner for the
most improved seatbelt usage, began
the Battle of the Belt Challenge with
only 21.6 percent of students wearing
their seatbelts. But by the end of the
challenge, the school’s usage rate had
increased by 66.34 percent, making
Hayti High School the most improvedin the district and statewide.
Six D10 schools also won statewide
recognition awards for completing the
challenge with seatbelt usage rates of
91 percent or higher. These schools in-
clude: Saxony Lutheran, Oran, Malden,
Notre Dame, Scott City, and Bell City
High Schools.
“The goal of BOTB is to help schools
increase seatbelt usage among their
students and to hopefully maintain
these improved rates -- ultimately re-
ducing fatalities and saving lives,” said
McMurry.
In addition to the statewide awards,
the Southeast District also presented
schools with local awards for the best
educational campaigns, “setting and
meeting their own goal,” and producinga safety video/PSA.
thers MoDOT’s values of being oneteam and seeking out and welcoming
any idea that increases our options.
“The ultimate goal is for employees to
share their ideas so that they can be
implemented throughout the district or
even statewide,” she said. “By sharing
our best practices, we can make the
best use of the taxpayers’ dollars.”
She said while innovative ideas have
ing even more crucial.
“With the current decrease in fund-
resources is a necessity,” said Ball.
“Luckily, the District 10 team is
willing to help develop new, innovative
solutions.”
Winners of the District 10 Tool and
Equipment Challenge include:
Belly Plow Jacks
Hydraulic Gate for the Tailgate
Spreader
Warning Cones for Overhead Lines CMP Band Clamp
Culvert Flusher
Winners of the district challenge are
currently preparing for the statewide
Tool and Equipment Challenge.
(below) As temperatures approachfreezing, the refl ectors change fromwhite to blue, telling drivers thatconditions which could result in iceare present.
New Technology Comes to theSoutheast District
This winter, motorists t raveling over
the Diversion Channel bridge on north-
bound Interstate 55 in Cape Girardeau
and signs. The Southeast District was
Roadway System™ installed.
With the Bluestar Roadway System™,
mounted on guideposts and placed
change from white to
blue as tempera-
tures approach
freezing.
Signs which
read “blue
indicate
freezing tem-
peratures” have
also been installed
near the bridge.
“We hope the system will
serve as a reminder to dr iv-
ers that icy conditions may be present,”
Compas. “But there is no substitute for
safe driving.”
Visit www.modot.org/southeast/Blue-
starRoadwaySystem.htm for more
information.
The hydraulic gate for the tailgate spreader allows thedriver to control the amount of materials released ontothe roadway, saving both time and money.
