ITD Transporter

May 28, 2010

If your Memorial Day holiday plans involve travel, please
drive safely and buckle your seat belts.

Highways
Most highway construction suspended for holiday weekend
|Work will be suspended on all state highway construction projects in Idaho for the Memorial Day holiday (May 31), except in special circumstances. In most cases, work will resume Tuesday (June 1). ITD requires contractors on highway construction projects to discontinue work on any roadway open to the traveling public during the holiday, except for normal maintenance operations.
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ITD to assist holiday travelers on Idaho 55
If your Memorial Day weekend (May 29-31) plans include travel on Idaho 55, the Idaho Transportation Department advises you to avoid the heaviest traffic by traveling outside peak travel times or using alternate routes. ITD also will again supply flaggers to help traffic flow. Since 1995, ITD has assisted motorists over the longer Memorial Day, Fourth of July and Labor Day holiday weekends at the heavily used intersection of Idaho 55 and the Banks-to-Lowman Wildlife Canyon Scenic Byway.
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District 'Roadeo' schedule

D-5, Wednesday, June 2, Pocatello main yard
D-4, Tuesday, June 8, Twin Falls Maintenance Shed
D-6, Thursday, June 10, Idaho Falls Maintenance Shed
State finals, Tuesday, June 15, Idaho Falls Maintenance Shed, Rigby (D-6)

Highway safety
Early data shows 35 percent decline in fatalities for first four months
Idaho motor vehicle fatalities declined by more than one-third during the first four months of 2010, according to preliminary ITD data. Early numbers from ITD show 40 motor vehicle fatalities occurred in Idaho from January through April, a decline of more than 35 percent. Last year, 62 people died during the same four-month period.
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Wildfire
ITD agreement pioneers traffic control during wildfires
ITD and the Idaho Department of Lands recently signed a memorandum of understanding that is the first of its kind in the nation to align wildland fire traffic control with the federal “Incident Sign Installation Guide.” The agreement, completed in April, specifies the roles of both state agencies when a forest or range fire impacts the transportation system.
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Transportation board
Transit group receives I-Way honor
Linx, a regional initiative that coordinates transportation in the Greater Yellowstone Region, earned the I-Way Leadership Award for public transportation in eastern Idaho last week. The Idaho Transportation Board and the Community Transportation Association of Idaho (CTAI) presented the award to Linx representatives during the board’s regular business meeting in Pocatello
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Careers
ITD teams with Department of Labor to present career fairs
Who will replace today’s retirees after they leave the construction workforce? How will today’s young adults prepare to inherit those jobs? And who will provide the training? Those concerns are being addressed through a series of job fairs jointly organized by ITD and the Idaho Department of Labor. ITD secured a $38,000 grant from the Federal Highway Administration to help fund the series of eight career fairs and workshops held throughout the state this year.
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Planning
Economy will help drive transportation decisions
ITD's Transportation Planning Division staff members toured the state in April and May to meet with chambers of commerce, city planners, city engineers, legislators, metropolitan planning organizations, business owners, Native American tribes and others to gather input on how ITD’s highway system can benefit communities.

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Highways
Idaho communities to benefit from new bridges
Weiser and Payette stand 15 miles apart in rural Southwest Idaho. Although they reside in different counties, Weiser (in Washington County) and Payette (in Payette County) have many things in common. They are about to share anther commonality – new bridges.
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Technology
Spam incidents increase slightly in 2009
McAfee highlights trends in the types of Cyber security threats being identified. There has been an increase in spam after a slight decrease in 2009. The amount of malware continues to be very high, such as fake anti-virus tools and exploits against social networking sites such as Facebook. Cyber criminals continue to exploit vulnerabilities in software as well.
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Published previously

May 21, 2010

Direct from the Director

Becoming the best transportation agency in the country

ITD employees,
Earlier this year I introduced my vision for ITD – the direction we should go as a department and the steps we will need to take to get there. I would like to fill in some of the details that will enable us to move forward together.

In this Direct from the Director, I will elaborate on my first vision element:

ITD strives to continually get better with the goal of being the best transportation department in the country.

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Employees
Rain proves to be toughest opponent at softball tournament
The only defeat ITD’s Road Rage team suffered at the State Employee Softball Tournament Saturday (May 22) came not from the opposition, but from the weather. Winner of its first two tournament games, Road Rage was on track for a title showdown until relentless rain/sleet forced postponement of the tournament. The Boise area received more than an inch of rain amid afternoon temperatures in the upper 30s.
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Highways
District 1 bids farewell, says welcome to foremen
It isn’t often that a district loses nearly 130 years of experience in one fell swoop, but that’s what happened recently in District 1 when four maintenance foremen headed into retirement. In the past two months, Jim Stam (32 years), Judd Reed (37 years), Greg Munden (33 years) and Mike Hutchinson (26 years) said good-bye to their ITD family and set out to enjoy some well-deserved fun time.
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Husband, wife and Rotary honored for cleanup efforts
Jack and Monica Naylor saw a large swath of the United States when they ventured west several years ago. Their travel, and eventual relocation to Pocatello, took them from coast to coast. They saw well-kept, clean highway corridors and those that suffered from neglect. So when they moved to Idaho, they made a personal commitment to do what they can to keep their piece of heaven clear of highway litter. Much for the same reasons, members of the Preston Rotary Club conduct regular campaigns to clean U.S. 91 between mileposts 4 and 6.
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D-3 operators show equipment-handling skills
District 3’s finest – there were 61 competitors, and more than 120 altogether counting judges, coordinators, cooks and management - took part in the 2010 Equipment Roadeo in Garden Valley Wednesday (May 19). Robin Freeman, a three-time state champ from the New Meadows shop, won in the foreman division. New Meadows lead worker Kraig Spelman won in the Transportation Technician division.
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Highway safety
Statewide campaign designed to increase seat belt use
Protecting lives, reducing serious injury and saving Idaho money may be as simple as clicking a seat belt so ITD will support efforts by law enforcement agencies throughout the state to increase Idahoans’ safety restraint use. A special law enforcement mobilization begins Monday and will continue through June 6 to increase seat belt use.
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Accolades

ITD recognized for support, participation in 'Safety Fest'

Bill Bankhead, a compliance assistance specialist with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, commended ITD for its continuing support of workplace safety programs. He also thanked ITD employees Trey Mink and Randy Norris, for adding to the success of the annual Safety Fest in Pocatello.

"I want to thank you for the unwavering support we received from the ITD during the Pocatello Safety Fest last week. The Safety Fest, held for the first time in Pocatello, was a huge success with over 40 different classes provided to approximately 630 attendees, free of charge."

Trey Mink, with the assistance of Randy Norris, also from District 4, presented two OSHA 10-Hour Construction Training classes at the Pocatello Armory and Fairgrounds on April 21 and 22. Trey and Randy are outstanding trainers with a wealth of field experience that brings instant credibility to their presentations and allows them to easily connect with the attendees," Bankhead said.

See Mr. Bankhead's letter

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In for the long haul/font>

Jeanne Bustamante, of Revenue Operations, ran her first 10k at the 32nd annual Idaho Famous Potato run on May 15. She completed the 10K run in 1:09:17.631. Congratulations Jeanne!

Turning cans into bicycle helmets

This week Linda Hammond, of Lowell Elementary School in Boise picked up the aluminum pop cans that were collected at various locations around the Headquarters complex.

Lowell reported to Sandy Harris of Business and Support Management that she received just over $46 for the pop cans when she presented them for recycling. With that money Hammond will buy nine bicycle helmets for children at the school who don’t have them. Thanks to all the employees who recycle their aluminum; it’s going to a great cause!

Please share information about your accomplishments or those of your colleagues with the ITD community. Send contributions to the e-mail link above.

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Do you have a question related to ITD processes, policies or projects? Has something been puzzling you about why we do what we do? Share your questions using the e-mail link above and let us find the answers.

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