Awards under the Arch

No one starts a transportation project with national awards criteria in mind—ITD employees are much more focused on delivering high-quality products that further safety, mobility and economic opportunity for Idahoans.

But sometimes an outstanding project for taxpayers earns national notice, as was the case with construction on US-12 in District 2 and clay research on US-95 in District 3. Both projects won American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) President's Awards at their recent meeting in St. Louis, Missouri.

Members of the US-12 Lochsa project included D2 Resident Engineer Joe Schacher, Project Managers Janet Zarate and Kerby Kirkham, and Project Designer Kevin Dammon. For the US-95 project, members were D3 Resident Engineer Daris Bruce and Project Manager and Designer Mike Van Lydegraf.

As Zarate will tell you, there’s always more to the project than the one person accepting the award on stage.

“Success for any project involves an entire team, and there’s always more to it than any award criteria,” she said.

The President’s Transportation Awards are issued by AASHTO to recognize excellence in the industry.

ITD represents only about 2% of the entities eligible to enter the competition, so over 10 years, ITD could be reasonably expected to win two of the 120 President's Awards given in various categories. Yet, the department has won 15 of them in that span. It is even more impressive when you consider available resources for a small, rural, western state competing against other bigger DOTs.

This year’s recipients were invited to the annual meeting in St. Louis, gateway to the West and home to the arch.

St. Louis itself had plenty to observe in regards to transportation, even to the non-engineer eye. Janet and I’s adventures in the days leading up to the conference led us to highways labeled by the alphabet, inadequate Google Maps directions and crazy sign combinations.

We encountered new transportation experiences, and at the meeting, diversity in project management, agency organization and stakeholder needs. Based on Janet’s new collection of business cards, ITD is already set up to take conference lessons home.

If nothing else, Janet was able to practice her merging skills—something that isn’t a given in the interstate-free hills of North-Central Idaho!

Published 10-11-19