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Idaho Transportation
Department
Public Affairs Office
P.O. Box 7129
Boise, ID 83707
208.334.8005
Fax: 208.334.8563
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Districts 5, 6 join for annual maintenance fair

Maintenance personnel from districts 5 and 6 went back to the classroom for a day Thursday to learn about a multitude of topics from bridge-building to quick clearance.

Nearly 75 ITD employees attended the fourth annual Maintenance Fair at the District 6 yard in Rigby. They were engaged in six 50-minute classes taught by experts in their respective fields. The fair also featured lunch and door prizes.

Classes included:

  • Bridge demonstration – United Brotherhood of Carpenters of Portland, Ore.
  • RWIS overview and development of the statewide RWIS Network – Matt Weatherford of Denver
  • NOAA radar interpretation – Jack Messick of Pocatello
  • Idaho’s new Quick Clearance Law, communication with ISP, railroad safety – Idaho State Police and Union Pacific Railroad
  • Permit process – Tony Black, District 6 Traffic Section, and
  • Design issues – Ryan Day and Mike Arneson, District 6 Design

In addition to the classroom instruction, the workers received brochures and fliers on related topics.

A former Union Pacific Railroad engineer talked about the 3 E’s of Operation Lifesaver: Education, Engineering and Enforcement. He said drivers are 40 times more likely to be killed in a car/train collision than a car/car crash. It takes a mile for an average train to come to a complete stop, and the average train weighs 12 million pounds. The train/car proportion is roughly the same as a car/aluminum can.

Idaho State Police officers talked about the Quick Clearance Law that went into effect July 1. The law gives immunity to ITD and certified peace officers for ordering vehicles cleared from a lane or road as quickly as possible to reopen the route to traffic. They also talked about “wrong-way” drivers, roadblocks and the importance of cooperation between ITD and ISP.

Ryan Day explained projects designed by ITD that sometimes leave maintenance workers bewildered. He also discussed the geometrics of guard rail design.

The workers were told that guardrail is itself a hazard and should only be used to shield traffic from something more damaging than the guard rail itself – such as a steep cliff or river.

The United Brotherhood of Carpenters brought a cross-section of a bridge to the maintenance fair to demonstrate proper bridge construction and maintenance.

ITD trainers Dennis Jackson and Joe Tamasco coordinated the 2005 maintenance fair along with ESTs Randy Drake and Wayne Curtis.

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Photo: Maintenance workers learned about bridge construction by poring over the cross-section of a wooden structure provided by the United Brotherhood of Carpenters.