The Missouri Department of Transportation recently completed its 16th annual Innovations Challenge.
The challenge provides employees the opportunity to showcase their ideas to MoDOT's senior leaders while they compete to be chosen as a MoDOT best practice.
Since the inaugural event in 2007, more than 2,000 employee innovations have been submitted, and more than 300 have been selected as a best practice in one of three categories -- Project, Productivity and Tool & Equipment.
The Project category includes efforts resulting in exceptional results for transportation users or internal operations. This can range from new ways to construct transportation improvements to taking an innovative approach to an assigned project.
Productivity best practices include improvements to office and field processes, materials and products. Entries can range from automating or streamlining a time-consuming process to purchasing innovative materials or products to get work done better, faster and safer.
Tool & Equipment innovations were the focus of the challenge program for its first five years and continue to be an active area for innovations. These include items fabricated or modified by MoDOT employees.
A list of past innovations chosen to be best practices is available
here, and a comprehensive photo album of the Innovations Challenge is on the MoDOT
Flickr account.