Truss of old Rocheport Bridge blasted! | |
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Interstate 70 closed the morning of Sept. 10 for the blast, which removed the truss of the old Missouri River bridge at Rocheport. For the safety of motorists and the demolition team, the interstate and a perimeter around the blast, including a portion of the Katy Trail, were closed and secured during and immediately after the blast.
Traffic on I-70, in both directions, was stopped just prior to the blast. Once the area was secured, the demolition team used a controlled explosion to drop the old truss into the river. Crews then swept and inspected the new westbound bridge to ensure all debris was clear before the interstate was reopened to traffic.
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Click the image above to view a recording of the demolition. | |
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Photos of the demolition can also be viewed here on Flickr.
The blast only lasted a moment, but it dropped approximately 1,100 feet of truss, including 6 million pounds of steel into the Missouri River. The demo team removed the pieces of the truss from the river in order to reopen the river channel to boat and barge traffic as quickly as possible.
Construction on the new eastbound bridge began almost immediately after the blast. A $220 million project to build the new bridges began in early 2022 and is on time to be completed with both bridges open to traffic in December 2024.
For more information on the project, visit modot.org/RocheportBridge.
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Typical Applications effective Sept. 15 | |
At the 2023 spring meetings, the new Traffic Control Typical Applications (TAs) for MoDOT were shared with all employees. These apply to all MoDOT team members that perform work on the roadway, shoulder and beyond the shoulder. The Engineering Policy Guide (EPG) has been updated to reflect these changes: 626.8 Typical Applications (MUTCD 6H) - EPG.
All of these Traffic Control TAs for MoDOT employees are effective Sept. 15, 2023.
Before each work shift, all employees are required to participate in a pre-shift safety briefing. During this briefing, the applicable TAs should be printed out and discussed so that everyone knows the procedures to follow for that day's work. This should also include the risk-based assessment.
The TAs shown in the EPG are considered current and should always be followed, but changes can occur; therefore, a new copy should be printed each time it is needed. Employees should not print all sections and reuse them. This may result in employees relying on outdated information.
Employees should note that the implementation of these TAs will look different between MoDOT work zones and industry partners and contractors under specific contracts. MoDOT has been working with industry partners on its new TAs for traffic control. Industry is required to follow the Manual for Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD). MoDOT's TAs are not required for industry, including its construction contracts, permit holders and LPA.
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ENGAGE 2.0 evaluation period closes soon | |
The current evaluation period for ENGAGE 2.0 is halfway over!
As of Sept. 14, 29.8% of MoDOT employees have completed the evaluation response forms and 12.4% have provided upward feedback.
Remember, the last day to complete your evaluation and upward feedback is Sept. 30.
Supervisors: The ENGAGE 2.0 Resources page now has a link that will take you to the ENGAGE 2.0 evaluation login.
Please don’t delay in completing evaluations and upward feedback. If issues arise, it is easier to resolve those early in the evaluation period. If you have any questions or difficulty logging on, contact the Office of Administration - Talent Management Help Desk at 573-526-4500 or Engage@oa.mo.gov.
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Program making major strides | |
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From Aug. 28 to Sept. 7, the Improve I-70 team hosted a public information meeting roadshow, stopping in seven cities along the Interstate 70 corridor. Approximately 600 people attended the public meetings, which highlighted the draft program schedule and plans of MoDOT’s existing I-70 right-of-way and environmental processes. Additionally, the meetings invited the public to leave comments - public input is important ahead of the design stage of the projects. While the first round of meetings is over, the public can still review the meeting materials and leave comments online through Friday, Sept. 22. More than 2,100 people have viewed the information online to date.
The first project in the program is slated to be the 20-mile section of I-70 between U.S. 63 in Columbia and U.S. 54 in Kingdom City. The Improve I-70 team hosted an industry meeting in Columbia on Thursday, Aug. 24. More than 100 industry partners were in attendance.
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Improve I-70 Program Director Eric Kopinski discusses the program schedule with citizens at the Jonesburg public meeting. | |
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The Request for Qualifications has been posted, and industry teams have until Monday, Oct. 2 to submit their qualifications.
The team plans to take the proposals to the February 2024 Missouri Highways & Transportation Commission meeting for approval. Construction could start in summer 2024 with an anticipated completion in late 2027.
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The Improve I-70 team will continue to grow to cover the work over 200 miles. Interviews for the east project director and central deputy project director will be held soon. Additionally, a Financial Services and an External Civil Rights position will be posted in the coming weeks. Future positions will be posted to MO Careers.
To learn more about the Improve I-70 Program, visit modot.org/improvei70/home.
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Director of safety division announced | |
Safety Director Chris Engelbrecht. | |
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Chris Engelbrecht has been selected as the director of the Safety Division and started this new role effective Sept. 1. The new Safety Division was recently created out of the Safety & Emergency Management work unit lead by Becky Allmeroth but has been broken out into its own division to better align with MoDOT’s commitment to safety.
Engelbrecht has worked at MoDOT for more than 27 years and previously served as the assistant to the chief safety and operations officer in the Safety & Emergency Management unit. He has spent his entire MoDOT career in safety, health and emergency management roles in both Central Office and district roles.
Engelbrecht possesses a Bachelor of Science degree in Safety Management from the University of Central Missouri and is a Certified Safety Professional. He is excited to put his years of experience into leading the new Safety Division.
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September Commission summary | |
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At its Sept. 7 meeting, the Missouri Highways & Transportation Commission heard presentations from the Missouri S&T Research Enterprise and the Meramec Regional Planning Commission. A debt and bonding program workshop was held in addition to the normal monthly meeting.
Deputy Director Ed Hassinger thanked the nearly 100 MoDOT team members who worked the 10-day State Fair, interacting with citizens at the Highway Gardens. He also reported on the Aug. 14-15 bill signing ceremonies held with Gov. Parson on the Improve I-70 project and shared that the I-70 team is currently soliciting for Design-Build teams to submit their Statement of Qualifications for the first project. On Aug. 21, the Improve I-70 team submitted a grant application for the U.S. Department of Transportation Multimodal Project Discretionary grant, which stands to leverage $2.8 billion of General Revenue into $3.1 billion if awarded.
Hassinger noted that this is a busy time of year for construction and maintenance. There are currently almost 400 active construction contracts across the state and approximately 800 total construction and maintenance work zones on any given day. Crews are hard at work to make sure we are prepared for winter and that we can get through winter with as few lane impacts to drivers as possible.
Starting in late July, MoDOT held three rounds of quick hiring events in the Northwest, Kansas City and St. Louis districts to fill vacancies, especially in maintenance. Throughout nine job fairs, MoDOT extended 150 job offers, and 129 applicants accepted. This is a great effort to remove some barriers to the hiring process and get employees on board quickly.
The annual Missouri State Employee Charitable Campaign started last week. Last year, MoDOT had a participation rate of nearly 19% - a 450% increase from the previous year. Of all state agencies, MoDOT was named most improved!
Read the full meeting summary, which topics include: Director's Report, Consideration of Bids, Central District Update, Multimodal Operations Division Rail Crossing Project Update and Workforce Update.
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MoDOT co-hosts traffic incident exercise | |
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MoDOT’s Traffic Incident Management Team worked with the Missouri State Highway Patrol to host a full-scale traffic incident exercise on Sept. 6 to promote Crash Responder Safety Week. The event was held at the Emergency Vehicle Operation Course inside the National Guard complex in Jefferson City and involved a multi-agency response to a pre-staged roadway crash between vehicles and an overturned bus full of training dummies. Emergency responders had to direct traffic around the crash, extricate the passengers, tow away the affected vehicles and then clear the scene, with a goal to have the roadway reopened in less than 90 minutes.
The mock crash also included the Jefferson City Fire Department, Cole County EMS, American Red Cross and local tow companies so that the groups could collaborate on how they fit into the emergency response equation. They also had real-life challenges, such as local media interference and the safe coordination of agency UAVs sharing the same air space, which is becoming a more common concern.
MoDOT’s Traffic Incident Manager Owen Hasson led the exercise and spoke about the importance of this multi-agency emergency response coordination.
“We were able to test new methods of communication that we wouldn’t be able to do during an actual event," said Hasson. "For example, we were all using one radio frequency, which doesn’t typically happen in an incident. We also had more drones in the area than we usually see, but they’re becoming more popular, so it was a good test.”
After the exercise, Hasson and other agency leaders took part in a debriefing about what worked and what can be improved in future incidents. There are plans to host more exercises like these around the state that will focus on different types of traffic impacts.
Photos from the event can be viewed here on Flickr, and information about Crash Responder Safety Week can be found on the SaveMoLives website.
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Save the date - Oct. 3, 2023
2023 Show Me Excellence Summit
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Show Me Excellence is a subset of operational excellence (OpEx) skills, capabilities, mindsets and processes that deliver lean and continuous improvement impacts at the department, team and project levels.
Missouri's Show Me Excellence community hosts an annual virtual summit to help build these OpEx capabilities for State of Missouri team members. The summit will be available at no cost, and any State of Missouri team member is welcome to join.
Achieving excellence is an ongoing journey, so the theme for this year is Road to Excellence! Sessions will focus on how to remove obstacles and pave the way for success.
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Throughout the event, attendees will hear from industry-leading inspirational speakers, meet Operational Excellence Leaders and interact with team members during virtual breakout sessions. There is something for everyone!
This great professional development opportunity will provide actionable steps team members can take to set a team’s direction, use data to map the path ahead and build bridges across teams.
2023 Show Me Excellence Summit
- Cost: No cost to attend
- Date: Oct. 3, 2023
- Time: 9:30 a.m. - 4 p.m.
- Register here!
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September marks the newest round of ENGAGE 2.0 evaluations, which brings supervisors and team members together for a meaningful professional development conversation to ensure there is a focus on "Being Better" for the good of the team.
The following courses review practices and strategies to provide and receive quality feedback from supervisors and employees:
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Keep yourself from getting the flu by taking one simple step and getting a flu shot; that way you can lower your chances of getting sick.
Influenza (also called the flu) is a serious illness, and it can affect people differently. Some people with the flu become much sicker than others. A yearly seasonal flu vaccine is the best way to lower your chances of catching the seasonal flu and spreading it to others.
Who should get vaccinated?
Everyone six months of age and older should get a flu vaccine every year. It’s especially important for children under 18 months of age, adults over age 65 and others with low immune systems since these people are at higher risk for developing serious problems caused by the flu.
The flu shot is covered under your preventive care benefits at 100% when you go to a health professional in your plan. Contact your primary care doctor to get your flu shot. You can also get it at urgent care facilities, retail health clinics, many pharmacies or walk-in doctors’ offices in your plan.
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Kansas City celebrates short-term service awards | |
On Sept. 6, Kansas City District employees celebrated short-term service awards at the Lee’s Summit district office. District Engineer Chris Redline shared noteworthy events that took place five, 10 and 15 years ago at MoDOT and within Missouri. They finished the celebration by receiving plaques, taking photos and enjoying treats. Congratulations and thank you for your service! | |
Five-year service award recipients. | |
10-year service award recipients. | |
15-year service award recipients. | |
Lance DeBrock
Southeast District Pavement Specialist
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Pavement Specialist Lance DeBrock has been with MoDOT since 2018, with most of his career spent as a planning technician. He has been in his current role for the last two years.
Lance says his job varies depending on the time of year. His duties include developing pavement designs for new projects, performing pavement inspections and analyzing data to help deliver the annual STIP. He also assists in maintaining the Asset Management Plan for tracking the life and quality of our roads.
Over the summer, he performed PASER inspections, and that’s been a highlight of his career thus far.
“I drove and inspected every single one of our major/minor classified routes in our district," DeBrock said. "I also got to meet and get to know a lot of our maintenance staff along the way. They were all very resourceful in sharing the ins and outs of the routes in their individual areas.”
When asked about the best part of his job, DeBrock said, “Getting to work with all the different folks in and out of our district. The needs of my position require me to connect with a very wide spread of fellow co-workers. I like to get to know people, and I feel like that really helps with communication.”
The healthy work environment and opportunities for continual learning are what draws him to continue work for MoDOT.
Outside of work, Lance enjoys spending time with his family and playing and watching sports.
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September service anniversaries | |
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30 Years
Carl Schwent SE
Dawn Haslag CO
James Duncan CD
Richard Orr NW
Russell Halton CO
Ryan West SW
25 Years
Lashawna Judon KC
William Cretzmeyer KC
Stephanie Buschmann CD
Russell Griffaw SL
Scott Ernst SL
Billie Torner SW
Craig Sweet SW
Donald Hills SE
Donna Hoeller CO
20 Years
Torrey Canady KC
Michael Silvey CD
Edwin Wilson CD
Joseph Molinaro SL
Miguel Noriega SL
Stewart Orr SL
Aaron Renfro SW
Jeffery Bouvier SW
Billy Evans SW
Lucas Tourtillott SW
Steven Yamnitz SE
Nicholas Elliott SE
James Fiske SE
Timothy Williams SE
Marcus Allen SE
Candy Groes CO
Cody Wilson CO
Angelia Otto CO
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15 Years
Doug Hahn NW
Jeb Stephenson NW
Brian Strong KC
Francisco Hernandez KC
Brian Hulett CD
Loren Groose CD
Gary Dave SL
Mark Hager SE
Richard Evans CO
10 Years
Joshua Holder NW
Kolt Kiger NE
David Meyer NE
Rojelio Lara KC
Ethan Shoop KC
Daryl Smith KC
Jordan Swing KC
James Miles KC
Scott Fries CD
Mark Loesing CD
Bruce Loomis CD
Bradley Murray CD
Randall Sercu CD
Brandon Sullivan CD
John Murphy SL
Marcus Hailey SW
Juli Smith SE
Tammy Young CO
Janette Vomund CO
Ploisongsaeng Intaratip CO
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5 Years
Christopher Howser NW
Jeffrey Champion NE
Aydian Foster KC
Sarah Hunt KC
Thomas Lee KC
Matthew Smith KC
Zackery Hess CD
Stephen Wood CD
Richard Beard SL
Sharyl Dawson SL
Danielle French SL
Michael Montoya SW
Jessy Coonce SW
Douglas Crockett SW
Travis Hill SW
John Rice SW
Jesse Shockley SW
Kurt Sledd SW
Lane Bright SW
Luke Cooper SW
Tyler Epperson SW
Cory Fox SW
Timothy Haase SW
Spencer James SW
Kyle Lightfoot SW
Justin Mcintyre SW
Jared Moore SW
Jonathan Raines SW
Dillon Gannon SE
Daniel Jacobs SE
Wayne Sumlin SE
William Rogers SE
Daniel Smith SE
Amy Reed CO
Debora Downing CO
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The following active employee passed away:
Ryan A. Erwin
NE – Sept. 2
The following retirees passed away:
Alfred S. Forsythe
CO – Aug. 14
Joseph H. Caselman
NW – Aug. 2
Kenneth L. Shewey
NW – Aug. 21
Dean E. Wright
NW – Aug. 4
Robert A. Bowen
KC – Jul. 29
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George L. Satterlee, Jr.
KC – Aug. 23
Ronnie E. Smith
KC – Aug. 17
Patricia E. Surrette
KC – Sept. 5
Kenneth W. Tackett
KC – Aug. 18
Claude P. Williams, Jr.
KC – Aug. 8
Roy L. Barnes
CD – Aug. 21
Robert H. Dieckman
CD – Aug. 21
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Nicholas Accardi, Jr
SL – Aug. 10
William C. Barker
SL – Aug. 2
Howard E. DeClue
SL – Aug. 12
Thomas Yancy
SL – Aug. 6
Rebecca A. Herron
SW – Aug. 9
Glennon J. Grieshaber
SE – Jul. 29
Boyd J. Stewart
SE – Aug. 12
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The mission of Connections is to be a source of MoDOT news
and feature articles that connect employees statewide.
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Comments
What would you like to see in Connections?
We want to hear from you!
Send comments and suggestions to:
bethany.belt@modot.mo.gov
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MoDOT Communications
P.O. Box 270, Jefferson City, MO 65102
573-751-2840 | www.modot.org
Editor: Sr. Communications Specialist Bethany Belt
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