By Craig Wilkins

They ranged from truck tractors to a startlingly turquoise ’59 Cadillac to a very plain 1966 Ford sedan that once belonged to Mn/DOT’s vehicle fleet. Some of the vehicles rumbled deeply; others burbled as their drivers eased them into their parking spots.

The arrival of the vintage cars, a shiny row of chevrons along a sleeve of asphalt, marked the start of the June 29 celebration of the 50th anniversary of the interstate highway system.

The day also recognized Mn/DOT’s role in creating the system and honored three current employees whose careers had already started when President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the Federal Aid Highway Act on June 29, 1956.

The celebration at the Transportation Building in St. Paul continued with music from the 1950s and 1960s, displays about the system’s history and remarks by transportation leaders.

Tom Sorel, Federal Highway Administration regional administrator for Minnesota, said the interstate highway system might be considered the greatest public works project in the nation’s history.

The interstate system comprises just more than one percent of the nation’s roads, Sorel said, yet carries nearly 25 of total vehicle travel, including 40 percent of total truck miles.

“The interstates are so much a part of daily life that most of us do not realize that the system we often use to get to work, school, the mall and for vacation trips is one of the ‘wonders of the world,’” he said.

Lt. Gov./Commissioner Carol Molnau sounded a similar theme in her remarks.

“Building the interstate highway system has shaped our state and our country,” she said. “Interstate highways are critical links between urban and rural areas and make it easier for us all to connect with family, goods and services, education and recreation.”

She cited examples of continuing innovation on Minnesota’s interstates such as the Minnesota Road Research Project that uses a three-mile section of Interstate 94 to test various pavement designs and vehicle tolling on I-394 in the Twin Cities metro area to better use excess capacity on the freeway’s high-occupancy vehicle lanes.

Dick Braun, a former commissioner who was extensively involved in planning and building the system, recounted the many problems and pitfalls and eventual triumphs experienced during its construction.

Braun also led the recognition of three current employees whose careers were already under way when the interstate system began: George Thibault, Office of Freight and Commercial Vehicle Operations, and Jack Pirkl and Darlene Lazer from the Metro District.

“This trio of employees has worked in the transportation field since the dawn of the interstate system,” he said. “Their careers began with the system’s start in Minnesota and paralleled its design and construction. Now, they share in shaping innovations under way to improve its longevity and capacity,” he said.

Minnesota’s observance was part of a national celebration of the interstate highway system’s beginning.

See also:

• The interstate at 50: celebrating the people who helped build it (Mn/DOT Newsline, June 21, 2006 )

• Mn/DOT’s 50th anniversary of the interstate Web site

By Kristine Hernandez, District 6 public affairs coordinator

Nearly 100 community leaders focused on ways to reduce traffic deaths and injuries in southeastern Minnesota during the annual Southeast Minnesota Toward Zero Deaths conference held June 14 in Rochester.

Mn/DOT and the Department of Public Safety lead the statewide TZD initiative with support from the Department of Health, the University of Minnesota’s Center for Transportation Studies and the Federal Highway Administration.

The purpose of the southeastern regional initiative is to create a comprehensive approach to reduce traffic deaths and severe injuries. In the southeastern region, District 6 Engineer Nelrae Succio and State Patrol Capt. Randy Slinger co-chair the TZD steering committee.

Conference participants represented law enforcement, traffic safety, health and emergency medical services, education and city, county and state governments.

“I was very impressed with the turnout for the workshop this year and the efforts the attendees made to help identify additional safety initiatives we can focus on during the next year,” Succio said.

“We’re very fortunate to have such an enthusiastic group of safety professionals to work with here in District 6. We’re also very fortunate to have such a good relationship with the State Patrol and Capt. Slinger. Without these, we would not be successful,” she said.

At the conference, leaders announced that traffic fatalities in the state’s 11 southeastern counties decreased from 70 in 2004 to 63 last year, a 10 percent drop, and by more than 20 percent compared with the 2000-04 five-year average traffic death count of 78.

During the past year, the regional TZD effort focused on 15- to 19-year-old high school students, who as a group have the highest fatality rates on regional roads, as well as on the 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. time period, which experiences the highest number of teen traffic fatalities.

Conference workshops provided an opportunity to expand the program into new communities. Slinger led the panel discussion entitled “What Have We Done?” which shared best practices from the past year’s efforts, including Winona County’s “Bluff Country Buckle Up” seat belt use campaign.

In conjunction with the conference, the State Patrol launched its second Summer HEAT speed enforcement campaign.

The campaign combines the efforts of the State Patrol and 44 other law enforcement agencies from the region; it serves as an example of a regional approach to reducing fatal traffic crashes. Last year, participants in the Summer HEAT campaign issued nearly 5,300 speeding citations.

Bob Brown, currently the Metro District resource manager, has been appointed the new director of the Office of Land Management, said Dick Stehr, Engineering Services Division director.

Brown’s appointment is effective July 19. He succeeds Al Pint, who retired from Mn/DOT in July.

Brown has been in his current position for two years. His section’s efforts have resulted in approximately $350 million per year in expenditures of state road construction funds for construction projects and right of way acquisition, according to Stehr.

In 2004, Brown served as the assistant office director for Land Management on a nine-month mobility assignment and managed the Real Estate and Policy Development sections.

From 1994 through 2004, Brown was the Metro District state aid engineer and has held a variety of positions in the former Metro Division.  

Brown can be reached at 651/296-1132.

Scott Swenson, a District 2 transportation materials technician at the Crookston Inventory Center, has been approved for the state’s vacation donation program.

Swenson, who has worked for Mn/DOT since 1989, was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2005, and has not been able to work since last fall. His prognosis is unknown at this time.  

State employees are eligible to donate up to 12 hours of accrued vacation hours each fiscal year to one or more recipients.

For more information about the program, see the Department of Employee Relations Web site, http://www.doer.state.mn.us/deptwide/SEMA4/vacdonpr.htm.

For a list of other Mn/DOT employees eligible for the program, see Mn/DOT Newsline, June 21, 2006.

By Donna Lindberg

Mn/DOT is always looking for ways to reinforce the main purpose of the Minnesota rest areas it maintains—providing a safety break for motorists.

On Friday, June 30, the first day of the Fourth of July weekend, Mn/DOT partnered with Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota to make travel breaks both safe and fun. BCBSM installed a dance machine at the Kettle River rest area on northbound Interstate 35 to encourage motorists to wake up and get their blood flowing.

“Although there were no formal counts, the Kettle River Rest area was hopping and the visitors really got a kick out of the dance machine,” said Rob Williams, Safety Rest Area program manager.

“Fun partnership efforts like this help emphasize Mn/DOT’s message that motorists should take regular breaks during long trips and to pull off the highway when fatigued,” he said.

Several morning television programs promoted the event on the days leading to it, allowing a much broader audience to hear the unique personal health and motorist safety message.

BCBSM is moving its dance machine to various locations around the state as part of their physical fitness campaign, “do.”

“Being physically fit and healthy also includes driving safely,” Williams said. “Regular exercise, light meals and adequate sleep before trips help fend off driver fatigue. Travelers should also schedule rest breaks every 100 miles or 2 hours during long trips to reduce the chances for drowsy driving accidents.”

By Kay Korsgaard, Office of Communications

On June 29, Mn/DOT joined the nation with speeches, ice cream and vintage cars to celebrate the 50th anniversary of our interstate system.

For me, the capstone event was having the pleasure of being a preliminary judge for an essay contest sponsored by Mn/DOT and the American Automobile Association.

More than 40 high school students accepted the challenge to write an essay exploring the significance of the interstate system's past, present and future roles and its impact on Minnesota and the nation.

The depth and breadth of the essays were astounding. For most of these students, interstate highways are an accepted part of their landscape—they don’t know life without entrance and exit ramps, jersey barriers and noise walls—and yet they found ways to connect the history of the system with their lives today and look towards the future.

Some students took a very personal approach—one wrote about their grandma and how the nearby interstate connects her life with local Amish families. “That highway has connected my grandmother and the Amish as well as people from Minnesota and California,” the student wrote.

Others discussed how the freeway system helps them get to work, including one student who credited the interstate system with allowing them to travel more easily to their job as a camp counselor in northern Minnesota. “Without the highway, I would have been more confined to my town and wouldn’t have met the interesting individuals I work with,” the student wrote.

And some were very creative. One student wrote a prose poem that offered a new perspective on our highway system with lines like “… I-that river of steel and light contained within median banks and cemented bottom.”

Reading these essays brought back my own memories of watching the interstate system grow as we made the annual pilgrimage from Wisconsin to my grandparents’ cabin in the Black Hills of South Dakota. As we drove across Minnesota and South Dakota in our ’64 blue Galaxie 500 station wagon, we counted Wall Drug signs and noted how much faster the trip got as the years and the freeway marched on. Our time in small towns along the old highway decreased, but the time at our final destination increased.

This summer, as the interstate and I both turned 50, I made the journey to South Dakota again for a family reunion. Much has changed—the gas-hogging Galaxie 500 has been replaced by a fuel-saving Toyota Prius, and stops for a burger and fries replaced by breaks for yogurt and fruit.   

But the heart of it remains. As we barreled across the prairie I looked forward to the final destination, where family awaited. And yes, I still counted Wall Drug signs.

Editor’s note: The winners of the student essay contest will be announced in August at Mn/DOT’s State Fair exhibit and in Mn/DOT Newsline.