By Chris Krueger

Congestion on Twin Cities Metro area highways increased from 18.2 percent to 21.5 percent between 2009 and 2010, according to the recently released Metropolitan Freeway System 2010 Congestion Report. This is the second straight year congestion has increased in the Twin Cities Metro area.

Many factors affect congestion levels, including the local economy, population growth, gas prices, transit ridership and vehicle miles traveled.

“Mn/DOT has been and continues to be a leader in active traffic management,” said Jesse Larson, assistant freeway operations engineer.

The Regional Transportation Management Center, Mn/DOT freeway operations, Metro Maintenance and the Minnesota State Patrol coordinate responses to incidents on the metro freeway system.

“This partnership helps improve safety and reduce congestion for motorists,” Larson said.

Every minute a freeway travel lane is blocked during a peak travel period results in four minutes of travel delay after the incident is cleared. In addition, chances of another crash occurring from other incidents increase by 2.8 percent for each minute the first incident is not cleared, according to Larson.  

One of the newest strategies that helps mitigate congestion includes Smart Lanes, which was activated on 10 miles of Interstate 35W south of downtown Minneapolis last year and will be installed on 10 miles of I-94 between St. Paul and Minneapolis by fall 2011.

Smart Lanes provide drivers with real-time advisory speed limits and information on electronic signs above each lane of traffic to help them make informed decisions about their commute, according to Larson. The real-time information varies with road conditions to help reduce crashes, improve traffic flow and increase overall road efficiency.

MnPASS Express Lanes, which opened on I-394 in 2005 and expanded to I-35W in 2009, also aid in congestion management by providing motorists who drive alone the choice to pay a toll to access lanes that are free to carpools, buses and motorcycles.

Other strategies that help reduce incidents by decreasing stop-and-go traffic on freeways include the use of FIRST trucks, traffic cameras and ramp meters, according to Larson.

In addition, Mn/DOT engineers are constructing projects that are lower in cost and deliver a high-benefit improvement by providing bottleneck relief, improving design of acceleration/exit lanes and sight distances and addressing safety hazards.

For more information on congestion relief efforts in the Twin Cities Metro area, visit http://www.dot.state.mn.us/upa/.

By Bob Filipczak

By many accounts, spring 2011 may be a high-water mark for flooding in Minnesota. Newsline recently caught up with employees from six Mn/DOT districts to see how they are preparing for what could be unprecedented flooding.

District 2

Curt Larson, District 2 Maintenance superintendent, is in charge of flood preparations for a district that includes the Red River and Wild Rice River.

Larson said he anticipates they will need to set up a temporary levee system in East Grand Forks to keep the Hwy 2 Kennedy Bridge open.

Because flooding is a rule rather than an exception in District 4, Larson said they have been doing a lot to prevent flood damage to roads, including using integrated concrete materials to help stabilize slopes.

District 4

Dana Hanson, District 4 Public Affairs, said her district faces a lot of overland flooding that could close many sections of road, resulting in extensive detours that constantly change as waters rise. District 4 monitors all bridges in the district, in particular the Interstate 94 bridge and Hwy 10 bridge over the Red River between Fargo and Moorhead.

District 4 also is anticipating construction of three separate dikes for a stretch of Hwy 210 about six miles east of Breckenridge.

Predictions for unprecedented flooding this spring do not ruffle Hanson too much.

“This year we are even more prepared,” Hanson said. “The cities and the counties are more prepared as well—so I believe even if the flooding is a little worse, our preparation should make up for it.”

Metro District

Jim Michael, Metro District transportation operations supervisor, and Bev Farraher, Metro District Maintenance engineer, are in charge of Metro District’s flood preparations. Michael and Farraher said they think this season will be more intense due to fast thawing and huge snowfalls, so they are making sure materials needed to respond quickly to flooding are in place, including plans and paperwork.

A couple of things the district is looking at in preparation for the floods is restriping Hwy 169 so it can handle more traffic when Hwy 41 and Hwy 101 are closed and a possible temporary traffic signal on Hwy 25 near Belle Plaine to improve traffic flow.

“It’s all under discussion about how to make it work right, make it work safely and make sure it works with the city’s needs,” Farraher said.

District 6

Craig Falkum, District 6 Bridge Office, joked that in preparation for this year’s floods, he has tied up a canoe outside his office.

Although Falkum’s team has had a lot of experience with floods, he is anticipating that this spring could throw him a few curveballs, including the possibility of seeing flooding in areas that typically don’t cause problems.  

Falkum has about a dozen bridges he monitors for scour, which happens when water begins to erode the bottom of a channel, exposing the bridge’s piers and abutments. When the water gets to a certain height, the team monitors bridges that might experience scour using sonar and dropped weights.

“We’ve had some experience with flooding before and we think we understand where it’s going to go, but we are monitoring it because we don’t know the exact locations,” Falkum said. “This may be of a magnitude greater than we’ve ever seen before so we are being watchful and wary.”

District 7

Gordon Regenscheid, Assistant District Engineer, is overseeing preparations in District 7, which had two substantial floods in 2010. Regenscheid and his team are going over a lot of what-if situations based on last year’s experiences. He is also looking at getting some sand and plastic together for worm dikes— low barriers designed for water that’s only about a foot deep.

“It’s a fast way to keep a road open,” Regenscheid said.

Communicating road closures is key, according to Regenscheid, who called Mn/DOT’s 511 system the “backbone” when it comes to flood-related efforts.

District 8

Jeff Butson, District 8 Maintenance superintendent, is leading preparation efforts for District 8 and is working to set up the District Emergency Operations Center, which he said he thinks will be operational the week of March 21.

Butson said the district is planning to close Hwy 212 near Montevideo for a short time so the United States Army Corps of Engineers can construct a dike before the road floods.

Bernie Arseneau, deputy commissioner and chief engineer, has been selected by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials to serve on its Standing Committee on Highway Traffic Safety.

Arseneau is one of six transportation officials from around the country joining SCOHTS, which recommends and supports highway safety programs aimed at reducing fatal and serious injury crashes on all highway systems throughout the United States.

“Bernie brings an extensive background in safety leadership and innovation to the committee at a time when many traffic safety partners across the nation are taking a multidisciplinary approach to reducing serious crashes,” said Tony Kane, AASHTO director of engineering and technical services and SCOHTS staff liaison.

Arseneau is the co-founder of Minnesota’s Toward Zero Deaths initiative, a collaborative multi-agency effort that strives to reduce fatal and serious injury crashes on Minnesota highways. He also has worked closely on several additional efforts to improve traffic safety in Minnesota, including his work with the Federal Highway Administration on developing Minnesota’s Strategic Highway Safety Plan. In addition, Arseneau championed efforts to create Mn/DOT’s Central Safety Fund, which allocates money to county roadway projects, cable median barrier installation and improved speed enforcement.

“I am excited about this opportunity to collaborate with a great group of national partners as we work to improve safety on our nation’s highway system,” Arseneau said.

The six new SCOHTS members will serve their term through October 2015. The committee was founded in 1976 and is currently chaired by Commissioner Tom Sorel.

By Lucy Kender, Office of Human Resources

The deadlines have passed, the paperwork is in and the final offers have been made and accepted.
Mn/DOT will be losing 415 employees by the end of June to the Early Retirement Incentive, according to the Office of Human Resources. Some employees already have retired and several others will be leaving during the next few months, with the final 191 retiring in June.

“One of the hardest parts of the ERI process is bidding farewell to so many friends and co-workers in such a short period of time,” said Commissioner Tom Sorel. “Please take the time to personally share your appreciation to those who are retiring.”

Sorel said he also encourages employees to show patience with each other as they see workplace changes, relationship changes and personal changes.

“The changes that may take place once the retirees leave could leave you a bit anxious, but remember that change doesn’t happen overnight, it’s a process,” Sorel said.

Last July when Mn/DOT decided to offer the ERI to eligible employees, it was estimated that 1,400 people could potentially retire with the incentive.

“Mn/DOT’s goal in offering the incentive was to allow the maximum number of eligible and interested employees to take advantage of this incentive while fully preserving our ability to provide the best service to the public now and into the future,” Sorel said. “To that end, we hope to implement more areas of shared services when possible and achieve an overall reduction in payroll costs.”

Shared services

The department hopes to use this opportunity to find areas where consolidated and shared services within or across office and district boundaries would be beneficial, according to Eric Davis, Human Resources director.

“For example, District 6 is trying to do something new in their inventory center,” Davis said.

Three-fourths of the District 6/Rochester inventory center staff will retire with the ERI. Although those positions will eventually be refilled, an account technician from the district’s business office was temporarily reassigned to the center to learn their processes plus share expertise from the business office’s perspective.

“Not only did this provide an extra pair of hands, it enabled knowledge transfer before these seasoned and experienced employees retired,” said Judy Schmidt, acting financial management director. “Combining the expertise of the inventory center and the business office, even on a temporary basis, will reap long-term benefits.”

Schmidt also said District 6 is always looking for new ideas to more efficiently share services within the district.

“Our challenge, whether it’s due to budget changes or the impacts of the ERI, is to align our capacity with our needs," Schmidt said. “That takes considerable planning as we look out onto the budget horizon and see what’s on the landscape for the future.”

Payroll savings

Mn/DOT will realize nearly $12 million in net total compensation savings by the end of fiscal year 2013, according to estimates in the final ERI report submitted to Minnesota Management and Budget. This equates to $28,503 for each employee who accepted an incentive.

“The actual savings will naturally vary with each employee, the relative priority to fill their respective position and any future increases in total compensation for state employees,” Sorel noted in a letter to MMB.

For more information on the Early Retirement Incentive, including various statistics about incentive retirees, visit ihub.dot.state.mn.us/hr/earlyretirement/.

Retirement Party Reminder: Employees can list their retirement party information on the Employee Bulletin Board. Look for periodic e-mail reminders to check on the latest retirement listings.

Employees interested in attending the latest Commissioner’s Reading Corner discussion can still sign up at ihub/readingcorner/index.html. Rebecca Fabunmi, special assistant to the commissioner, will lead a discussion of “Eyeballs Out,” by Donna Sturgess.

The discussion will take place Wednesday, April 6, at 1:30 p.m., in the Mn/DOT Library at Central Office. Employees can also participate virtually via Adobe Connect and should log in as a guest no earlier than 1:15 p.m. All employees are encouraged to attend, even if they have not yet read the book, according to Qin Tang, Mn/DOT librarian.

This will be the second book discussion of the 2011 season. The first discussion, led by Commissioner Tom Sorel, drew nearly 70 participants—about 40 in person and 30 via Adobe Connect.  

For more information on the Commissioner’s Reading Corner, visit ihub/readingcorner. Website updates, including the addition of interviews with future discussion leaders, will occur in the coming weeks.

Employees with questions can contact Rebecca Fabunmi at 651-366-4808. To read an interview featuring Fabunmi’s take on the latest book, visit ihub.dot.state.mn.us/readingcorner/interviews.html.

By Qin Tang

The February 2011 edition of New Library Materials is now available at www.dot.state.mn.us/library/newlibmat.html.

Check out the latest New Library Materials to read more about the newly expanded TRIS database offered by the Transportation Research Board. Archived editions of New Library Materials are available at www.dot.state.mn.us/library/recacq-archive.html.

New Library Materials is a compilation of new titles and other resources added to the library collection during the previous month. If you would like to be added to the distribution list, please contact Pam Gonzalez at 651-366-3749.

By Lisa Yang and Rebekah Dahlberg

A new project that focuses on familiarizing employees, both new and existing, with Mn/DOT history and operational information is gearing up for its official debut this summer.  

Transportation 101, as it’s known, is one of four projects within the Workplace of Choice flagship initiative that was created through the E-magination JAM of 2009. The new project will give employees a clearer understanding of the agency and how it works, according to Susan Hall, Transportation 101 project manager.    

“We are going to put together materials that really speak to the employees and make it meaningful,” Hall said. “There is a need to better communicate to employees the story of Mn/DOT, who we are and what we do collectively.”

It can be difficult and overwhelming for individual employees to understand everything that goes on in the department, according to Hall. This is true not just for new employees, but experienced ones as well.

“We want employees to tell us the top 10 basic things they wish they knew when they first started at Mn/DOT, or that they want to know more about now,” Hall said. “We will use this information to put together materials for employees to help bridge their knowledge gaps.”

Employees can submit their top 10 list by March 25 to Hall at susan.hall@state.mn.us.

“The vision for the Transportation 101 project is that all employees have a shared, consistent understanding of transportation in Minnesota,” Hall said. “Who better to help describe how it all works and what would be helpful to know than Mn/DOT employees themselves?”

The official rollout of Transportation 101 for all employees is anticipated this summer. The materials also will be available at new employee orientation meetings.

For more information on Transportation 101 and other WPOC initiatives, visit ihub/emaginationjam/workplace.html.

By Fay Cleaveland, Office of Transit

As Mn/DOT celebrates Women’s HERStory Month, I reflect on the regular contributions women make each day to the transportation field.

As a member of Women’s Transportation Seminar Minnesota, I have the opportunity to interact frequently with women in this region who are making a difference in transportation.  

WTS Minnesota is a professional organization dedicated to advancing women in transportation. Members and friends meet monthly for social events and presentations on transportation and professional development topics. When I started attending WTS events, I enjoyed getting to know other transportation professionals in a relaxed atmosphere while learning more about local and global transportation topics. This year, I accepted a position on the WTS board as the scholarships and recognitions director. In that role I solicit applications and award scholarships to women studying transportation-related fields, host the chapter’s annual awards luncheon and help organize monthly programs. This work connects me with other women in transportation and the wide variety of projects on which women work. 

This month, I had the opportunity to share WTS Minnesota with my co-workers. In collaboration with Women’s HERStory Month, WTS Minnesota offered a discounted rate to public employees who wished to attend a March 8 luncheon featuring Judy Randall, Office of the Legislative Auditor, who presented findings from a recent report entitled “Governance of Transit in the Twin Cities Region.” At the luncheon, we listened to the presentation, discussed the legislative auditing process and the implications of the report’s findings, and enjoyed conversations with other transportation professionals working in the Twin Cities. 

Attending WTS Minnesota events has had a positive impact on my career. Through WTS, I have met several other professionals working in transportation, explored projects and topics in transportation beyond those that I encounter daily through my job and enhanced my professional development skills. I appreciate the regular opportunities to meet other women working in this field and recognize the work they do here in Minnesota. 

Editor’s note: Women’s HERStory Month promotions will continue throughout the month of March. Look for posters throughout Central Office and the district offices honoring women who have made notable contributions to the transportation field.

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