11/4/2014
Reed Hollinshead
ITD Communication
208-334-8881
reed.hollinshead@itd.idaho.gov
Return to Panhandle provides new Lewiston district engineer Kuisti with challenges and achievements
LEWISTON - The first year of anything is a time of significant, often unavoidable change, as the individual learns to grow and adapt to a new reality. For Dave Kuisti, the new district engineer in Lewiston, the last 12 months have been filled with challenges, obstacles, and ultimately, accomplishments.
And the traffic light that gave him an unmistakable Panhandle message.
He is new to the district engineer position. To call him new to ITD or new to Lewiston would not be accurate, however. Kuisti moved from ITD's District 1 (Coeur d’Alene) to District 2 (Lewiston) as an Engineer-In-Training (EIT) in 1993, and was in the district for approximately two years as an EIT. After that he moved to Boise for about a year as an EIT. He returned to the Lewiston area in the summer of 1995 and worked there as a staff engineer, resident engineer, and then project development engineer until the spring of 2006, when he moved to District 3 (Boise), where he stayed until his recent promotion.
Kuisti was selected as the district engineer position in Lewiston after more than 22 years with ITD (starting in May 1991) and several years as the second-in-command in the Boise area.
Click here for a picture of Kuisti.
His selection was made in mid-October 2013, and he became north-central Idaho’s new district engineer Nov. 4, 2013, succeeding Jim Carpenter, who had already moved to Boise Headquarters as ITD’s new chief operations officer. Carpenter was on the interviewing team that selected Kuisti.
As district engineer, Kuisti presides over a five-county area that features 1,500 lane miles, 175 bridges and more than 13,400 square miles.
In his first year, Kuisti was responsible for more than a dozen significant projects in the district, including late summer U.S. 95 improvements at Lewis Road and Moscow Mountain, a July-to-September project on White Bird Hill and near Lawyer’s Canyon, and a curve realignment project to enhance safety on a section of Idaho 162 in Lawyer’s Canyon. His initial tenure also included the resurfacing of a stretch of U.S. 12 near Syringa Corner, and multiple bridge-repair projects throughout the region. Kuisti also oversaw the most volatile avalanche-threat season on U.S. 12 in decades.
He said that “becoming reacquainted with the issues in the district, such as the projects we have in the statewide program and the ones in the early development queue, and stepping into the leadership role during a time when ITD is going through a significant change in the way we do business” have been the biggest challenges in his first 12 months on the job.
The move from Boise to Lewiston was a five-month odyssey that culminated in Kuisti buying a home in Lewiston in March 2014 and moving his wife and kids to the new locale. They did not finally sell their house in the Treasure Valley until just a few months ago, in August.
As anyone who has moved households from one location to another can attest, it is no small task. In fact, when asked about the biggest accomplishments of his first year, he lists “getting my wife and children relocated and settled into a different home and new routine” at the top of that list.
Kuisti said building working relationships with the Nez Perce Indian Tribe, counties, cities, towns and local agencies also were at the top of his to-do list as soon as he arrived in Lewiston, including getting up-to-speed on standing requests from those partners.
His time in southwest Idaho was valuable experience for Kuisti — being immersed in the Treasure Valley fishbowl, and the political scrutiny and daily commuter crunch of the region.
Kuisti chuckles when he recalls the moment he realized he had acclimated to the Idaho Panhandle and had distanced himself from the ever-present congestion of the Boise area.
“A while back, I sat through two cycles at a traffic signal on Thain Road here in Lewiston before proceeding through the intersection and I found the one-minute delay frustrating…at that moment I realized I had fully re-acclimated to District 2.”