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Women in Transportation select ITD
as employer of year
Vista Interchange to receive honor for innovative solutions

ITD will be honored as Employer of the Year by the Treasure Valley Chapter of WTS: Advancing Women in Transportation at its Dec. 3 awards banquet in Boise.

The nominating criteria for the award included “support of the goals and purpose of WTS”. Since 1990, 15 of 79 EITs for ITD have been women (19 percent), reflecting a surge in interest among women in the engineering field and greater acceptance of their contributions.

According to the Federal Highway Administration, more than 60 million women are in the workforce today, yet women make up only 8 percent of engineers, 18 percent of engineering technicians and 30 percent of natural scientists, such as chemists and geologists.

Beyond engineering, the transportation industry offers a range of careers, from design, safety, project managers, estimators and schedulers to contract officers, surveyors and material technicians, among others.

The Vista Interchange project and Stanley Consultants, the project designer, also will be honored as the Innovative Transportation Solutions award winner, for a project or service that improves the quality of life for its users and community.

The interchange will be a SPUI (Single Point Urban Interchange) design – the first in Idaho. When work is completed in September 2010, the interchange will handle larger traffic volumes, but it will also be easier to navigate. The interchange itself handles some 20,000 vehicles per day. According to projections, traffic on the I-84 East corridor (of which the Vista IC is central) will more than double by the year 2030, going from the current volume of 54,000 vehicles per day to 123,700 vehicles per day.

The Treasure Valley chapter was charted in February 2007. Growth in membership has doubled since 2007, and is currently 41 members strong. WTS has 44 chapters, several of them international, and approximately 4,500 members.

At the awards ceremony, Lisa Vernon of WHPacific will also be honored, as WTS Member of the Year. Vernon is the WTS Treasure Valley Chapter president. WHPacific specializes in architecture, building engineering, land development, survey, transportation and water resources.