10/18/2013
District engineer
D-2 welcomes Dave Kuisti home
ITD announced this week the selection of Dave Kuisti as District 2 Engineer, succeeding Jim Carpenter who held the position the past 19 years. Kuisti will assume his new duties Nov. 4. He joined the department after earning a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from the University of Idaho in Moscow.
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Idaho Transportation Board
Board to tour southwest Idaho projects as prelude to meeting
The Idaho Transportation Board will hit the road for the last time this year to visit construction sites in Ada, Gem and Valley counties and to hold a business meeting at District 3. As part of the Wednesday tour, board members will look at the Idaho 16 extension to U.S. 20/26 funded with GARVEE bonds, and then travel north to the Cascade Airport and to Midas Gold in Lake Fork.
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Highways
Focus on greener side of black earns Ford national honor
Cathy Ford's commitment to roadside vegetation programs at ITD earned praise from a national organization recently. She was one of just six individuals selected from city, county and state levels to receive the 2013 Turney Hernandez award from the National Roadside Vegetation Management Association.
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Highways
ITD's Statewide Roadside Program
ITD implements a comprehensive and integrated vegetation management program that assures water quality, improves erosion and sediment control, reduces roadside maintenance, enhances natural beauty, manages noxious weeds, and protects natural habitats.
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Highways
Integrated Vegetation Management for Roadsides
Integrated Roadside Vegetation Management (IRVM) can be considered as quality management for roadsides. It is a decision-making process that considers a variety of tools to manage vegetation in an economically and environmentally-sound manner.
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Teen driving
Set rules for young drivers hitting the road
ITD encourages parents of all teenage drivers to set some rules before their teens hit the road. National Teen Driver Safety Week (Oct. 20-26) offers parents and others an opportunity to remind the nation’s youngest drivers about the risks of the road and the need for rules when behind the wheel of a motor vehicle.
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Highways
Spread the word about spreading wildflower seeds
Usually, ITD does not advocate throwing things from the back of a motorcycle, or shooting guns at hillsides. ITD officials generally get nervous when frozen water is put on or near state highways. But occasionally, that behavior is encouraged.
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Highways
ITD research focuses on reducing wildlife collisions
ITD’s Research Program has launched two projects to tackle environmental concerns involving vehicles and wildlife. The goal is to decrease crashes involving wildlife, thereby improving highway safety and preserving wildlife.
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After high water
September floods take toll on Idaho highways
A series of floods around southwest Idaho highways in early September cost hundreds of thousands of dollars in maintenance funds, took thousands of worker-hours and required the removal of millions of pounds of debris.
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Preparedness
Idaho practices for earthquake response
More than 84,000 Idahoans paused from their daily activities at 10:17 a.m. Thursday to participate in Idaho’s annual earthquake drill, the Great Idaho ShakeOut.
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Outstanding Customer Service
Incident Response ensures safe tire transplant
Friday, Oct 4, around 11:30 a.m. I was hauling a small load of freight to Garden City from south Nampa on Interstate 84 when a trailer tire on the passenger’s side blew. My son and I found it easiest to get out of the travel lane by moving one lane to the left and getting in the hazard lane. That put the problem side of the trailer on the traffic side.
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2013 Leadership Summit
Encore (10-11-13): Leaders aren't born — they are developed
Being a leader is about making those around you better, Director Brian Ness told 200 ITD employees assembled for the second annual Leadership Summit, Oct. 1.
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Encore (10-11-13): DeCoster presents essential elements of organizational leaders
“What got us here, won’t get us there.” That pronouncement came during opening remarks by Dr. Tom DeCoster, a national authority on organizational leadership. He told participants at the ITD Leadership Summit last week that flexibility and adaptation is essential in a rapidly changing world.
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Encore (10-11-13): Individuals influence organizational culture
ITD began a steady transition toward a “blue” culture the past year. But what does that mean, how do we get there and how will we know when we arrive? Jim Johnson created the Organizational Culture Inventory to assess the characteristics of an organization.
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Encore (10-11-13): Lt. Gov. Little: Buckle down, work hard, move forward
Idaho Lt. Gov. Brad Little and transportation board chairman Jerry Whitehead set the stage for last week’s 2013 ITD Leadership Summit by reminding the 200 attendees that we live and work in a fast-paced, ever changing world. How we respond to that change will dictate our level of success.
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Encore (10-11-13): Military, organization leadership share common traits
When retired Brig. Gen. Bill Bankhead stepped into the spotlight at the 2013 ITD Leadership Summit some attendees no doubt expected to hear a vastly different perspective on leadership than they heard in previous discussions. Indeed, Bankhead presented the tough side of leadership and individual accountability. But his message to 200 ITD employees also reinforced the views of fellow speakers.
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Encore (10-11-13): BSU men's basketball coach shares insights on team leasdership
Leadership has many common characteristics, whether it comes in a boardroom, during a maintenance foremen’s meeting or on the basketball court, Boise State University men’s basketball coach Leon Rice said last week.
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Preparedness
Encore (10-11-13): ITD emergency structure featured in TR News
ITD’s new approach to emergency management reached an international audience recently when it was featured in a Transportation Research Board's, TR News, special publication on the “Logistics of Disaster Response.” The publication included a major report on ITD’s new emergency management structure that establishes a department-wide approach
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Historic preseervation
Encore (10-11-13): Family, friends move ITD's Paddy Flat buildings
Last May, Irene Ragan was at home, reading the McCall newspaper, when the picture of a very familiar house caught her eye. It was a home she’d seen each summer when she traveled back to McCall from Independence, Ore. It had stood in the same place, near the edge of Idaho Highway 55 a few miles north of Donnelly at the Paddy Flat location, for more than 60 years. The newspaper reported the house and nearby shop were to be demolished; sad news, indeed.
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