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Jason Brinkman nominated for WASHTO's Hewes Award

ITD’s GARVEE Program Manager Jason Brinkman has been nominated for one of the highest awards bestowed by the Western Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (WASHTO).

The Dr. L. I. Hewes Award recognizes outstanding contributions to the highway development program by an individual actively engaged in highway development in the West with a WASHTO state organization.

“Through Jason’s leadership, Idaho has developed and implemented a GARVEE program in excess of $855 million,” states Peter J. Hartman, Idaho division administrator for the Federal Highway Administration, in a letter to the Hewes Award Selection Committee.

“GARVEE improvement projects have been substantially completed in four of the six corridors statewide and are under way in the remaining two corridors,” Hartman adds.

“The design and construction of these GARVEE-funded projects have been accomplished in an efficient, transparent, and accountable manner,” Hartman writes. “Jason can be looked to as the primary driver for these successes.”

Citing Brinkman’s ability to build relationships with government agencies and private companies to advance the GARVEE program, Hartman adds, “Jason has been an example for other transportation professionals in modeling what partnering should look like.”

The Hewes Award was created in 1951 by Western Construction magazine, a journal devoted to engineering and construction in the western states, to honor Dr. Laurence Isley Hewes. He was part of the old Bureau of Public Roads before it became the FHWA.

Hewes was one of the WASHTO organizers and an important contributor to every phase of highway engineering that gave “great impetus to western highway development.”

The award now is sponsored solely by WASHTO and is presented during the WASHTO annual meeting. This year’s presentation will be made in Oklahoma City during the organization’s annual meeting, July 17-20.

Idaho has only four previous Hewes Award winners: A.J. Sachse, 1956; Hugh Lydston, 1980; Ray Mickelson, 1991; and Thomas S. Baker, 1998.