Named for Ports and Waterway Director Dick Lambert’s grandfather, the Col. George C. Lambert towboat (above) heads south on the Mississippi River pushing barges loaded with grain. The Mississippi River system stretches more than 231 miles in Minnesota and supports five port areas whose combined transported cargo in 2001 was more than 14 million tons. Photo courtesy of Ports and Waterways Section

Pushing eight barges filled with fertilizer and aggregate, the towboat Reggie G opened the 2002 Mississippi River shipping season in St. Paul on Saturday, March 16.

The first tow arrived about a week earlier than the average and about seven weeks earlier than last year when severe flooding delayed the start of the season, notes Dick Lambert, Ports and Waterways Section director with Freight, Railroads and Waterways. The 2001 season didn’t begin until May 11, the latest start in 30 years.

Lambert said the mild winter and relatively thin ice on Lake Pepin that towboats could break through unassisted contributed to the early start of the season.

An upturn in the economy, an abundance of grain to move and favorable shipping rates, Lambert said, promise a busy shipping season on the river.

At Duluth-Superior, the first freighter will leave port tonight, Lambert said, to carry 60,000 tons of coal to a power plant at Taconite Harbor.

The full Great Lakes shipping season begins March 25 when the locks at Sault Sainte Marie that connect Lakes Superior and Huron open.

Click here for more information about Minnesota's ports and waterways.

By Craig Wilkins

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After reviewing the Shaping Our Future recommendations for the offices of Electronic Communications and Research Services, the Senior Management Team March 12 determined that limited changes be made in each of these offices.

The current functions of the Office of Electronic Communications will remain as they currently are. Recommendations were made to improve communication and personnel oversight in the districts in coordination with the distributed service model.

SMT, in reviewing the Office of Research Services, agreed that the amount of funding for research projects seems about right, but that the process should include more direction from department management to ensure that funding of research projects is consistent with Mn/DOT priorities.

The types and level of service provided by the Mn/DOT Library, part of the Office of Research Services, will continue to be assessed. SMT will review the new recommendations when the assessment is completed.

Click here for more information about Shaping Our Future. Send questions to change@dot.state.mn.us or to Change, Mail Stop 150.

By Sonia Pitt

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The proposed Northstar Commuter rail line will run along an 82-mile route along Hwy 10 and Hwy 47 from the St. Cloud/Rice area to Minneapolis, which encompasses nearly 30 cities, townships, counties and rail authorities.

The proposed Northstar Commuter rail line moved one step closer to construction March 15 when Mn/DOT received the project’s final environmental impact statement approved and signed by the Federal Transit Administration. An FEIS documents how a proposed project will impact social, economic and environmental resources.

"We’re excited to reach this milestone for commuter rail. This important approval step reinforces our belief that the Northstar Commuter Rail project is a positive transportation choice for Minnesota," said Gov. Jesse Ventura.

The governor has requested $120 million from the Legislature to fund the state’s share for the land acquisition, design and construction of the commuter rail line.

"The Minnesota State Legislature must act now to fund the state portion of this project. If not, Minnesota may be in jeopardy of losing the federal funding that would allow this project to move to final design and construction," said Commissioner Elwyn Tinklenberg.

The state’s first proposed commuter rail line will run on an 82-mile route along Hwy 10 and Hwy 47 from the St. Cloud/Rice area to Minneapolis, which encompasses nearly 30 cities, townships, counties and rail authorities. The Northstar line will link major economic and education centers to help support the region’s economic vitality. Construction is anticipated to begin in late 2005, depending on funding availability.

For more information, see Mn/DOT’s commuter rail Web page.

By Judy Jacobs and Lucy Kender

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The TripUSA Web site furnishes online road and weather information. According to Deb Fick, program administrator, 26,000 users accessed the site on Mar. 14 when the state was experienced a major snow storm. Typically, the site averages 800 to 1,000 user sessions daily.

March roused a once sleepy winter again March 14, sending snow accumulations that topped more than 20 inches in some West Central and Central Minnesota locations. Mn/DOT maintenance crews responded quickly, clearing the heavy accumulations with dispatch.

The storm lacked the drama of the March 8 storm, which mixed rain, sleet, snow and fierce winds that made clearing the state’s highways difficult or at times impossible.

At Morris, Dean Olson, maintenance superintendent, said his crews did an excellent job of getting the roads cleared quickly.

"The south end of our area got hit pretty hard, but we had it all cleaned up by the weekend," he said.

Randy Reznicek, maintenance supervisor at St. Cloud, said his area had accumulations of 15 to 18 inches, but he said the most difficult aspect of dealing with the storm was cutting through compacted ice and snow on some of the area’s roads.

A section of I-94 between the St. John’s University exit and New Munich was closed during the storm’s early hours when a semi-trailer jackknifed, blocking both lanes. Reznicek said highway advisory signs at St. Augusta worked well to keep motorists out of the area until maintenance crews and the State Patrol reopened it.

Crews from St. Cloud responded to a 26-car crash on Saturday morning that occurred in heavy fog that followed the storm.

Workers provided traffic control and spread sand to collect the fuel and other fluids spilled in the crash on Hwy 10 near Sauk Rapids.

Heavy snow accumulations also hit the Willmar District. Jeff Butson, maintenance supervisor at Hutchinson, said snow compacted in some areas, but generally the storm was an easy one to handle.

"We had a lot of snow, but we had de-icing chemicals still on the roads and the bright sunshine that followed the storm helped us a lot," he said. Fog also hit scattered parts of the region, a result, he said, of the moisture from the storm and the sunshine raising the dewpoint.

At Mankato, Jamie Kagel, weather reporter for KEYC-TV, rode along with snowplow operators John Slater and Jay Spencer as they plowed following the storm.

After his experience, Kagel commended their professionalism and pride in their work to the station’s viewers during the March 14 evening newscast.

By Craig Wilkins

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Mn/DOT’s business planning is now under way, according to Kevin Gray, chief financial officer. Along with activity-based budgeting, the department’s business plan serves as the primary financial tool for developing Mn/DOT’s 2004-2005 biennial budget.

"The business plan will communicate our story to the Legislature regarding levels of service we propose to deliver in product and service language, the results that citizens and customers will receive, and the resources required to deliver those products and services, Gray said.

Gray said that the goals for FY 2004-2005 business planning are "to simplify the process, make the information included in the end product consistent and comparable, and ensure an effective tool for internal and external budget management."

He said that this latest effort will leverage all the work completed in past business planning efforts and will complement the department’s work planning and strategic staffing efforts. Overall, Gray plans to minimize the number of plans done by each office or group and apply overall department guidelines on how to formulate the plans.

The business plans will serve as the primary tool for Mn/DOT’s Senior Management Team to judge and evaluate budget proposals. Longer term, the business plan’s key performance targets and measures can be used to track actual dollars to performance.

Mn/DOT has been a leader in the development of many management tools including business planning. Many other agencies have already applied learning from Mn/DOT’s model and are looking forward to learning more as its business planning evolves.

Brenda Wrobel, Willmar district business manager, and Judy Schmidt, Rochester district business manager, are project managers for the business planning effort. Also involved in the effort are a departmentwide steering committee and a user/key expert group.

Those employees directly involved in the business planning effort can expect to receive information shortly on timelines and business planning content. For more information, contact Wrobel at 320/214-3684 or Schmidt at 507/455-5861.

By Marie Blomquist

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