By Nick Carpenter

Thirty-one state highway workers and 13 contract workers who died in the line of duty since 1960 were honored April 28, a day recognized nationally as Workers Memorial Day.

The department observed a moment of silence and switched the LED lights on the Interstate 35W bridge in Minneapolis to orange in honor of those injured or killed on the job.

Ceremonies were held at the Mn/DOT maintenance facility in Oakdale, the District 6 headquarters in Rochester and the District 7 headquarters in Mankato.                                                 

The Oakdale event featured numerous guest speakers, including Bill Boran, a Freeway Incident Response Safety Team driver who has been involved in three separate roadside incidents with motorists during his nine-year career.  

In addition, the Metro District presented four awards to individuals for improving and promoting work zone safety in traffic and maintenance operations. This year's recipients are Howard Van Vleet, transportation generalist senior in Shakopee; Aaron Leibel, transportation generalist senior in Arden Hills; Andrew Fischbach and Bitsey Surniak, both transportation generalists in Lakeville.

More than 110 people showed up in Mankato to hear speeches from the Minnesota State Patrol, District 7 maintenance and safety personnel and local union representatives. The local AFSCME chapter sponsored the informal ceremony.

In Rochester, about 150 people gathered to hear Owatonna-based bridge maintenance employees share the life-changing experience that took place on I-35 near Northfield one year ago today. The incident occurred when a semitrailer driver entered the work zone at 70 mph, hit an attenuator truck and then collided with the crew’s water tanker.

Mark Burkhartzmeyer and Mike Kiesler, drivers of the Mn/DOT trucks who were wearing seat belts at the time of the incident, were treated at the hospital for minor injuries.

“You can do all you can for safety, but it doesn’t mean you can’t still get hurt,” said Curt Broughten, who was spraying the bridge with a hose when the accident occurred. He escaped injury when Kiesler locked the brakes of his truck to keep it from rolling forward and striking Broughten.

“All I have to say is: just believe you’ve got a beginning date and an end date,” said Kiesler, who transferred to the district’s Office of Construction shortly after the incident.

Overall, death and injuries in work zones decreased in the last year. The number of work zone crashes on Minnesota state highways decreased from 1,231 incidents in 2007, to 1,053 work zone crashes in 2008.

Fatalities and injuries also decreased. In 2007, 15 people died and 27 were severely injured, while four died and 11 were seriously injured in 2008, according to the Minnesota Department of Public Safety.

Mn/DOT has obligated half of its allocated federal stimulus funding in half the time mandated by the federal government, and has begun construction of the first of its American Recovery and Reinvestment Act road and bridges projects.

“Minnesota is one of the first states to reach that obligation threshold, which makes us eligible for potentially more funding,” said Commissioner Tom Sorel. “We developed our projects and had them out for bids quickly and now we are able to start work as early as this week. That means jobs for construction workers and better roads and bridges.”

The ARRA required that a state receiving economic recovery funding obligate 50 percent of its total allocation by June 29, 2009. Any amount of the 50 percent not obligated by a state will be returned to the federal government for redistribution later this year. Mn/DOT reached the milestone in mid-April, making Minnesota eligible for any funding redistribution that might occur.  

The first ARRA project began April 27 on Hwy 61 northeast of Duluth. Crews are applying anti-skid treatment in the tunnels along that roadway north of Two Harbors.

ARRA projects slated to start next week include:

• Hwy 10 mill and overlay from Staples to Wadena
• Hwy 75 mill and overlay from Ortonville to Graceville
• Interstate 90 mill and overlay from CR 15 to Hwy 63
• Hwy 7 concrete overlay from Montevideo to Clara city
• Various guardrail projects in District 7

For more information on ARRA and other Mn/DOT programs, visit www.mndot.gov.

By Donna Lindberg

In April and May, Mn/DOT will be traveling statewide soliciting input from members of the traveling public, transportation stakeholders, transit providers and local government officials for the development of the 2009 Minnesota Comprehensive Statewide Freight and Passenger Rail Plan.

At the same time, Mn/DOT staff also will be asking the public to comment on the draft Greater Minnesota Transit Plan.

Public input from these open houses will help Mn/DOT develop a vision for effective use of the state’s rail network and public transportation across Minnesota.

The 2009 Comprehensive Statewide Freight and Passenger Rail Plan will:

• Define public and private sector roles for use of rail in the state’s transportation system
• Identify priority intercity and high-speed passenger rail corridors for travel within and beyond Minnesota
• Enhance national and international freight access to markets, services and logistics
• Develop measures and guidelines for public investments in rail assets and services
• Outline requirements for Minnesota ’s participation in national rail initiatives, programs and resources

For information about the 2009 Minnesota Comprehensive Statewide Freight and Passenger Rail Plan, go to www.dot.state.mn.us/planning/railplan/.

The Statewide Freight and Passenger Rail Plan will be presented to the Legislature in late 2009.

The 2009 Greater Minnesota Transit Plan, scheduled to be finalized this spring, will:

• Provide content and direction on public transit programs in Greater Minnesota  
• Identify steps for preserving Minnesota ’s investment in current public transit services
• Look for opportunities to enhance public mobility options
• Focus on services for the elderly, low income, disabled and commuters  

The draft 2009 Greater Minnesota Transit Plan is available on Mn/DOT’s Web site at www.dot.state.mn.us/transit/reports.html.  

Ellingsworth has worked for the department since 1988. In his early career, he worked in the private sector and with Mn/DOT on the shop floor as a heavy equipment mechanic. Since 1999, Ellingsworth has been responsible for a broad range of central shop functions including supervision, specifications, procurement and equipment management system.

Ellingsworth is a certified automotive fleet manager through the National Association of Fleet Administrators and said he is looking forward to moving Mn/DOT’s fleet operation in the right direction.

“I want to make sure our vehicles are being utilized in the most efficient, cost effective manner possible, while still meeting the needs of our customers,” Ellingsworth said.  

While making plans to clean around your homes and gardens this spring, don’t forget another corner of the world that needs attention: your GroupWise account.

We all have those extraneous e-mails cluttering our personal cyberspace—those old notes making lunch plans or announcing brown-bag seminars or even notifying us of a new issue of Newsline. And don’t forget about the hundreds of other no-longer-needed electronic messages lurking on our desktops.  

All that is about to change, according to Kathy Hofstedt, Office of Information & Technology Services director and Mn/DOT’s chief information officer.                                           

As part of the governor’s Drive to Excellence initiative to reduce costs and find efficiencies in government, all state agencies are switching to a single e-mail and calendaring system, Microsoft’s Outlook/Exchange, Hofstedt said.

“This changeover will require employees to significantly reduce the size of their GroupWise accounts before Mn/DOT migrates to the new system,” she said.

The state Office of Enterprise Technology, which will centrally manage the system for all agencies, has scheduled Mn/DOT to migrate from GroupWise to Outlook in October.

In the meantime, Hofstedt said, employees should start deleting the following types of e-mails from their GroupWise accounts:

• Personal messages (e.g., joke of the day, lunch plans, messages from family and friends)
• General communications (e.g. Mn/DOT Newsline, NoteMailer announcements)
• Messages and attachments that are duplicates.
• Messages where you were cc'd or bc'd

She said that employees should clean their GroupWise personal archives, too.

“These personal archives will be inaccessible after we migrate to the new system,” she said.

“We understand there are many pressing responsibilities related to our daily work that divert our attention from such housekeeping tasks as cleaning out our e-mail systems,” Hofstedt said. “By starting the GroupWise clean-up process now, we hope to minimize the effects on day-to-day business operations when the changeover is made in October.

“Taking just a few minutes each day now will make a big impact—and save time—down-the-line,” she said.

More information about Outlook/Exchange and training will come this fall. In addition, Mn/DOT’s Office of Information & Technology Services has created a Web site providing more information about the project.

The immediate timeline for action includes:

• April – Project Web site was expanded to include a FAQ and instructions for how to save to appropriate records repositories.
• May - Project team will apply ceilings on all accounts to restrict further growth, provide instructions on how to check e-mail account size, hold a series of information sessions to provide tips and tricks for e-mail management, and roll out a revised e-mail policy and process instructions.
• June - All individual e-mail accounts will be limited to 500 MB. (While approximately 225,000 emails can fit in a 500 MB account, Hofstedt notes that attachment quantity and size will reduce e-mail space.) OET will roll out migration plan for new e-mail and calendaring system.

Time spent cleaning-out GroupWise accounts should be charged to the RCA job number T0P217 and activity code 0152.

For more information, contact Kim Roberson, project manager, Information & Technology Services, at kim.roberson@dot.state.mn.us or 651-366-4075.

Mn/DOT is one of several transportation industry and advocacy groups sponsoring a day-long workshop to discuss, debate and explore the future of transportation funding and financing alternatives. The event is this Friday, May 1, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., at the Crowne Plaza North in Minneapolis.

“This workshop provides an excellent opportunity to hear from national, state and local experts about current and future alternatives for transportation funding and finance. It will also be an opportunity for employees and partners to learn more about Mn/DOT's innovative finance initiative, as well as innovative finance examples from around the country and world,” said Brad Larsen, Mn/DOT’s director of Innovative Finance.

Larsen said there is still time for interested managers and staff to register for the workshop. For more information and registration materials go the University of Minnesota Center for Transportation Studies Web sit at www.cts.umn.edu/Events/MaySummit/index.html.

By Bob Filipczak

The annual Spring Maintenance Training Expo, featuring an exhibit hall full of maintenance materials, trucks, research and even a solar-power traffic radio station transmitter, took place this year on April 14-15 in St. Cloud.  

“The Spring Maintenance Expo was another successful event,” said Rick Shomion, maintenance training coordinator. “The number of vendors and exhibits was up by about 15 percent over last year. There was plenty to see and do for all in attendance.”

The expo was sponsored by Mn/DOT, the Minnesota Local Technical Assistance Program, the Minnesota Public Works Association, the Minnesota Local Research Board and the Minnesota Street Superintendents Association.

By Nick Carpenter

District 6 maintenance personnel knew they were in for an interesting morning on April 17 when reports surfaced of a large pig wandering on Hwy 52 near the 55th street exit in Rochester.

Bob Langanki, Rochester subarea supervisor, and Dave Redig, District 6 maintenance superintendent, left their posts at the Rochester headquarters and headed for the scene. The department’s office is only a few blocks from the area where the pig was last spotted.

Upon arrival, Langanki and Redig noticed the fully-grown sow anxiously roaming the right of way alongside the highway. The animal was significantly scuffed up, a telling indication that it fell out of an open trailer onto the hard pavement.

Langanki and Redig were later joined by four other Rochester maintenance workers, two of whom were skilled farmers.

The crew was able to corral the pig by roping one of its front legs and neck, but in the process, further enraged the sow.  

“At that point the animal was irate, so our crew still had quite a fight on their hands,” Langanki said. “The main goal was to keep the pig from getting on the highway and causing a serious accident.”

After battling with the crew for more than 30 minutes, the pig finally tired and rutted a piece of earth in which to rest.

Rochester Animal Control officers were also on the scene, but did not have the appropriate vehicle or facility to accommodate the sow.

Richard Pagel, one of the assisting Rochester maintenance workers, was able to find an alternative.

Pagel called his brother, a nearby farmer, and asked if he would be willing to lodge the sow. Pagel’s brother brought a trailer to the scene and the sow was loaded and hauled to the Pagel farm.

Although little is known for certain about the pig’s original destination, Langanki said it’s a safe bet that the sow was heading to the slaughterhouse when it fell onto the highway. The owners of the pig had five days to claim their property, but were not heard from.

All of the pig’s scrapes and wounds have been treated by a veterinarian and the animal is doing well since arriving at its new home, according to Langanki.

By Tom Sorel, Mn/DOT commissioner

By now, most of you may have heard that I am a baseball fan. A huge fan.

Among the many aspects that I love about the sport is the team work—pitching, hitting, fielding, coaching—that’s required to put a notch in the “win” column (not always an easy task, as the Twins have shown us lately).

But I don’t need to go to the ballpark to see team work at its best; it happens here at Mn/DOT every day.

The first of Minnesota’s economic stimulus transportation projects began this week, with several more ready to kick off next week. This represents amazing team work by Mn/DOT employees from many areas of the department. In just a few short months, you pulled together a list of possible projects, solicited input, crunched numbers, wrote contracts and performed numerous other tasks to create Minnesota’s American Recovery and Reinvestment transportation projects program.

What’s more, the Mn/DOT team developed more than 60 projects and put enough of them out for bids to meet the federal mandate of obligating 50 percent of our total allocation by June 29, 2009.

Not only did we meet that deadline—one of the first states to do so—but we cut the timeline in half as well. Minnesota is now eligible for any funding redistribution that might occur later with money from states that did not meet the obligation deadline. That means potentially more funds coming to Minnesota to address our many transportation needs.

This will be one of the largest building years in the state’s history, mixing our regular construction program with projects funded through ARRA dollars and the special Chapter 152 funds from the 2008 legislative session. We are putting people to work and improving our transportation infrastructure. None of it would be possible without the individual contributions of each member of the Mn/DOT team.

I tip my hat to you. Thank you.