Traffic congestion on state roadways in the Twin Cities metropolitan area has decreased for the third time in four years, according to the 2008 Congestion Report released earlier this month.

The report, which relies on traffic data collected by sensors embedded in the roadways, indicates 263 miles of congested freeway in the Twin Cities area in 2008 out of 379 miles. Congested miles are down from 305 in 2007 and 267 in 2006. A “congested mile” is defined as one mile of traffic moving slower than 45 miles per hour.

Mn/DOT attributes much of the 2008 decrease in congestion to the reconstruction of the Interstate 35W bridge over the Mississippi River. In addition, the congestion drop was large enough to improve upon 2006’s congestion levels. This improvement in congestion is attributed to the completion of the I-35E/I-694 interchange reconstruction project and an overall decline in the vehicle miles traveled.

“Completion of the I-35W bridge, as well as several major construction projects, has caused a significant improvement in reducing congestion across much of the Twin Cities freeway network,” said Commissioner Tom Sorel. "Congestion levels have also decreased in the past several months due to economic factors.”

Jim Kranig, director of Mn/DOT's Regional Traffic Management Center, said that Mn/DOT has measured an overall decrease in VMT of about 2 percent across the entire metro area.

“While this year’s congestion levels increased slightly during the morning rush hour, they decreased dramatically in the afternoon rush hour,” he said.

“It is commonly accepted that the a.m. peak periods include proportionately more commuting trips and the p.m. peak periods include a larger proportion of discretionary trips,” added Brian Kary, freeway operations engineer. “Clearly, people are reducing travel when practical.”

Future changes in economic conditions will affect future congestion levels. In addition, other capacity-adding projects will provide congestion relief in the coming years. These include completion of the 35W/Highway 62 (Crosstown) reconstruction project, the I-494 Wakota bridge project spanning the Mississippi River and a new interchange configuration at Highway 169 and County Road 81.

This year, Mn/DOT plans to manage congestion aggressively with the Urban Partnership Agreement projects, a joint effort by Mn/DOT and the Metropolitan Council to improve transit use and traffic speed on I-35W and Highway 77 from Minneapolis to the southern suburbs. The projects include bus rapid transit, park-and-ride lots, a high-occupancy toll lane similar to I-394's MnPASS lane and the promotion of telecommuting.

More information on the UPA is available on Mn/DOT's Web site at http://www.dot.state.mn.us/funding/upa/.

A PDF of the 2008 Congestion Report is available at www.dot.state.mn.us/hottopics/CongestionReport2008.pdf.

Norman Foster, Resource Management and Budget director, has been appointed as acting chief financial officer until a permanent CFO is named.

As interim CFO, Foster is responsible for the office of Financial Management, which provides financial, contracting, budget management, accounting systems and transaction support for the agency.

Foster’s experience at Mn/DOT and the Minnesota Management and Budget department, as well as his familiarity with the Legislature and history of agency budget development and finances, make him a good fit for the role, according to Commissioner Tom Sorel.

“His solution-oriented and collaborative perspectives are a tremendous asset to our agency,” he said.

Foster will be located on the fourth floor. His telephone number remains 651-366-3161.

By Qin Tang

In honor of National Library Week, Mn/DOT Library is having an open house on Tuesday, April 21, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., to showcase the global reach of its resources.

First sponsored by the American Library Association in 1958, National Library Week is celebrated each April.

“It is a time to celebrate the contributions of libraries, librarians and library workers—and the perfect time to discover how Mn/DOT Library is ‘Your Local Connection to Global Information,’” said Sheila Hatchell, library director.

Mn/DOT Library has a wealth of information and research that is just a phone call, click or a few steps away, Hatchell said, allowing transportation professionals and the public access to the knowledge and resources that are available here and through the department’s partners around the world.

The open house will feature informational displays and some of its new materials, as well as allow employees to meet the library’s information professionals who are trained to navigate the complex world of global information resources.  

Refreshments and treats will be provided, and visitors will have the opportunity to sign up for a chance to win door prizes.

For more information, contact Mn/DOT Library at 651-366-3791 or library@dot.state.mn.us.  

By Bob Filipczak

All Mn/DOT employees now have access to a new tool designed to reduce some of the time-wasting activities associated with meetings.

Adobe Connect is a Web conferencing software that gives you the ability to set up, host or simply attend a meeting without leaving your office. No driving, no meeting rooms—just an efficient exchange of information in a Web-based meeting space.

Gaylene Bissonette, transportation program specialist 2, oversees the training and communication around Connect, and has discovered that there are a lot of features built into the system. So let’s start with the basics.

Simple Meeting: Document sharing plus some audio will allow you to communicate with other Mn/DOT employees while you all are looking at the same thing. The audio can be a conference call using the phone system or a Web broadcast if you have a microphone for your computer. The main space will let you share any document you can call up on your computer—from Word documents to PowerPoint presentations to maps to CAD drawings. A chat screen lets all participants type in their input.

Intermediate Meeting: In addition to sharing documents and talking about them over a conference call, you can use other tools to increase participation and interactivity. A whiteboard will allow the presenter to make drawings in real time. The host can also pose a series of questions to the group with a live polling system. One or all participants can get increasing levels of access from the host, making them co-presenters or even co-hosts.  

Advanced Meeting: Connect can incorporate webcams, so you can have a face-to-face meeting with participants. You can either broadcast one person’s voice and image to all participants or include all the participants who have webcams. There are diminishing returns if you have too many webcams going because the images get smaller as more people join the conference. You can also have a large Web seminar with a presenter, a camera and a dispersed audience. This is especially useful if you have an existing conference and want to expand your audience to those employees who couldn’t make the trip. If you want to facilitate a workshop, you can create breakout rooms so participants can communicate in small groups.

Connect is a new enhancement for Web conferencing, but it is not a replacement for the existing video teleconferencing system, said Bissonette, who will be conducting classroom training, live online training and individual training.

Or, because this system is rated very highly for usability, you may want to get a few coworkers together and just try it out.

To begin using Connect, contact Desktop Support by calling 651-355-0200 or e-mailing DSSCO.Request@dot.state.mn.us.

Krysten Saatela, District 1 graduate engineer, poses next to a massive stuffed toy gorilla that flew off a trailer onto the Interstate 535 Blatnik Bridge on April 9.   

By happenstance, the incident took place 200 feet in front of John Bray, special assistant to the district engineer, who was driving into Duluth from Superior, Wis.

“All of a sudden, something huge and dark flew up into the air,” Bray said. “The thing was the size of a very, very large person and had what appeared to be arms and legs.”

Bray immediately turned on his vehicle’s roof-mounted emergency lights and flashers and pulled over onto the shoulder of the bridge. Donning his high visibility safety vest and hat, Bray cautiously exited his vehicle to haul the huge fuzzy primate off of the roadway and load it into his vehicle so the traffic could safely resume travel.  

The Associated Press picked up on the event, leading to numerous national and local media organizations to run the story.

Photo by John Bray

By Nick Carpenter

For more than 10 years, Mn/DOT has taken part in international exchange agreements with various European countries, particularly the Nordic nations.

The idea for an exchange program originated from the Mn/DOT maintenance staff’s interest in comparing their practices with those of Scandinavia, which boasts a climate similar to Minnesota. The program has resulted in several professional exchanges with Finland, Sweden and Norway during this past decade.

Last spring, Mn/DOT invited Mats Wendel, national coordinator of pavements for the Swedish Road Administration, to exchange information about various transportation-related issues with the department. Wendel also brought his wife and three children along to “experience life in Minnesota.”

While there have been numerous exchanges in the past, none of them have been as long as Wendel’s, who arrived last August and will return home this fall.

“His stay is longer so that we can truly learn from each other on a variety of subjects including pavement materials, design, maintenance and construction and contracting methods,” said Maureen Jensen, Mn/DOT road research manager.

Wendel specializes in working with road materials and has done so for more than 20 years. During his time in Minnesota , Wendel has shared his experiences through presentations given to a variety of audiences, including researchers at the University of Minnesota, the Transportation Engineering and Road Research Alliance Board and colleagues within the department.

What innovations do you see in Sweden that could work in Minnesota?

Well, a greater use of thin asphalt layers such as Novachip would be one of them. Another would be the flow-mixing method, where the raw materials are mixed in a controlled sequence, which results in a more homogenous mix with better performance. Certain contracting applications to encourage the use of innovations could also be beneficial.

I think in some ways contractors have it easier here in Minnesota, which can lead to certain risks. In Sweden, we are more innovative with our contracting and I believe it allows us to conduct business more efficiently. SRA requires a five-year warranty on our construction projects, so the contractor is responsible for delivering a quality product. The warranty gives the contractor an incentive to perform good workmanship.

However, Mn/DOT performs a more thorough investigation of the materials before they go into the road. SRA relies on the warranty and the contractor to come up with the road materials, which still must meet SRA specifications.

What are some of the biggest differences regarding roads in Minnesota and Sweden?

There are a few key differences between roads in Sweden and roads in Minnesota. We don’t have a problem with extreme low-temperature cracking on our roads in Sweden. Even though we have similar temperatures, we do not experience the rapidly changing seasons accustomed to Minnesota. Our roads deteriorate mainly due to the use of metal-studded tires, aging and, in some cases, deformation.

Also, we use one-forth the amount of road salt that Minnesota uses due to environmental concerns. When the snow and ice melt in Sweden, the roads are black, while the roads here turn white. Our roads are not as clear during the winter months, but the tire paths are clear enough for travel, which substitutes for our lack of a clear-roads policy.

Another big difference is the way the roads are constructed. In Sweden, we build our roads with a thicker unbonded layer and a thinner asphalt layer on top. The supply of unbonded material is great so it’s a cheap practice. Asphalt is not as cheap, so we tend to apply a thin layer. Minnesota uses a thicker layer of asphalt and thinner layer of unbonded material than we do.

What are some other differences between Minnesota and Sweden relative to transportation?

Sweden is a lot more public-transportation-oriented as the cities are more connected. It boasts a highly efficient transit system complete with commuter bus and passenger rail lines.

We also have fewer concrete roads because purchasing the material is very expensive. In Sweden, we don’t strive to build the everlasting road so our design process is often set to incorporate a lifespan of 20 years.

What do you hope to take back to Sweden from your time with Mn/DOT?  

One of my main goals is to come up with three to five best practices from my work here in Minnesota that we can learn from and implement back in Sweden.

Along with that, I would like to share my knowledge with Mn/DOT and hopefully they can take ideas from me and implement them here. I now have a better idea of what might work in Sweden and what will not work in Sweden.

Also, I must mention the MnROAD facility. It is one of the great cold-climate transportation resources in the world; Sweden has nothing that is comparable. When I return to Sweden from my stay here, I will let my colleagues know about MnROAD and how it can be used as a valuable resource for data that could benefit our roadwork greatly.

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By Nick Carpenter

Mn/DOT’s Office of Freight and Commercial Vehicle Operations on April 8 received a national award for its efforts in state-conducted compliance reviews.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration presents the Motor Carrier Safety Assistance Program Leadership Award annually to organizations that produce the highest concentration of state-conducted compliance reviews of interstate and intrastate motor carriers.

Three states received awards. Minnesota won the “Large State” award, which is presented to a state that received more than $3 million in federal funding from the previous fiscal year.

OFCVO has a staff of 16 people who perform compliance reviews, on-site examinations of a motor carrier’s operations used to determine a motor carrier’s safety condition. These operations include driver qualification, driver hours-of-service, driver record and vehicle maintenance and inspection.

“Our staff visits hundreds of Minnesota-based motor carriers and shippers each year to make sure these companies are in compliance with state and federal regulations,” said Glen Jorgensen, CVO enforcement supervisor. “Each visit helps ensure that these carriers are putting safe drivers and equipment on our roadways.”

The goal of the MCSAP is to reduce commercial motor vehicle-involved crashes, fatalities and injuries through consistent, uniform and effective CMV safety programs.

To learn more about the MCSAP, visit its Web page.