March 31, 2022

The morning of March 17, a deadly, multi-vehicle incident brought Interstate 57 traffic to a halt near Charleston. The number of vehicles coupled with severity of the crashes presented challenges along this busy stretch of roadway.

Coordination and quick action were the themes of the recent ceremony held to thank the I-57 emergency responders. Multiple agencies pulled together to assist with incident management, recovery and cleanup during this unfortunate incident. Through those joint efforts, I-57 reopened after a 20-hour closure.

During the ceremony, Lt. Gov. Mike Kehoe, MoDOT Director Patrick McKenna, Missouri Highways and Transportation Commissioner Dustin Boatwright and MoDOT District Engineer Mark Croarkin delivered remarks to thank the nearly 200 attendees for their actions.

Emergency responders were recognized from MoDOT, Missouri State Highway Patrol, Missouri Department of Natural Resources, Mississippi County, the City of Charleston and many other state and local agencies. Click here to view photos from the thank you ceremony.

Front (l to r): MoDOT District Engineer Mark Croarkin, MoDOT Director Patrick McKenna, MoDOT Senior Construction Inspector Kirby Woods, MoDOT Maintenance Supervisor Jason Estes and Lt. Gov. Mike Kehoe. Back (l to r): MHTC Commissioner Dustin Boatwright and MSHP Capt. Philip Gregory.

More than 80 MoDOT employees from the Southeast District and Central Office worked throughout the I-57 incident.

A message from Director McKenna:

“The past two years we have experienced together a worldwide pandemic at a scale unseen in over 100 years. It is a moment in our lifetimes that will be imprinted on us forever. Let’s also acknowledge that we have also experienced great loss, at MoDOT and in our circles of family and friends.

You should be proud of your role and accomplishments in your work through this pandemic. I’m proud of our team’s effort to keep providing public service through it all. We kept our work going. The designs were done. The bills were paid. We kept the construction program going. We kept up our road and bridge maintenance.

The number of cases in our communities and at MoDOT has declined dramatically. The number of citizens vaccinated continues to grow. I’m happy to report we have eliminated most of our COVID-19 guidelines effective March 30. Please refer to the new guidance documents on SharePoint.

Personal preference on mask wearing will continue. We will all be respectful of others as we do not know what personal reasons or family health situations each person has in their life. It’s also critical to continue to stay home if you are sick, and report to your supervisor immediately if you do test positive for COVID-19.

We are hopeful we have turned a corner on this pandemic, but we will continue to monitor what is happening and make adjustments if necessary in the future as the data indicates.”

MoDOT's Professional Development Institute is a voluntary, self-paced development program designed to help professional-level employees to be well-rounded and have greater organizational awareness. The goal of the program is to enhance professional-level employees’ business, interpersonal and professional skills.

PDI will be open for enrollment April 4-15. Learn more and enroll here!

Questions? Contact your local HR representative.

It’s springtime, and once again MoDOT's efforts turn from snow removal to cleaning up Missouri roadsides. Litter is more than a matter of aesthetics, it’s also a safety issue, and it’s one that needs to be addressed before mowing operations begin in the next few weeks.

Director McKenna is offering a challenge to all MoDOT employees to pick up litter on Missouri’s highways during the month of April. Employees are encouraged to assemble teams within their work group, challenge other work groups and get out of the office for up to four hours a week to help clean up state highways. Please take a couple of minutes to view Director McKenna's video message by clicking on the image below.

Participating employees should code their time to Activity R411 Litter Pick-up.

Questions? Speak with your supervisor or check out the guidelines for more details.

The MoDOT and Missouri State Highway Patrol Employees’ Retirement System (MPERS) provides retirement and survivor benefits, disability benefits and death benefits to its members, including MoDOT, MSHP and MPERS staff. The system operates as an independent trust fund under the direction of the Board of Trustees. The 11-member board is made up of three Missouri Highways and Transportation Commissioners, the director of MoDOT, the superintendent of the Missouri State Highway Patrol (MSHP), a state representative, a state senator, an active MoDOT employee, an active MSHP employee, a retired member of MoDOT and a retired member of MSHP. Current terms expire July 1, 2022.

Once you are eligible to retire, MPERS will provide a benefit payable each month for your lifetime. Your retirement benefit is funded by contributions paid by your employer and investment earnings on those contributions. As a result of pension reform legislation, 2011 Tier members are required to pay contributions (currently 4%). This is a “defined benefit” plan, which means your monthly retirement benefit will be based on the following formula that is “defined” by law. The more service you have and the higher your salary, the higher your monthly benefit. 

Whether you have been here 5 years or 25 years, you should understand this valuable benefit. Please take time today and create your myMPERS account at mpers.org. The website includes valuable resources to prepare now for your financial future in retirement. You can analyze your benefits, sign up for seminars and learn about the May elections for board members.

The Maintenance Management System has become the MoDOT Management System, with a new safety module that will be applicable to all employees across the state. This new module will be introduced April 10!

Click the image above to view a short video message from Chief Safety & Operations Officer Becky Allmeroth.

The first of three phases, Safety Dashboards, will gather data to understand frequency issues and provide feedback to everyone. Employees will receive feedback whether they are controlling their exposure or not, supervisors will know if they are supporting exposure controls or not, and management will know if they are creating a safe work environment. All data will be used to continuously progress our safety program by giving employees the knowledge of where they are successful as well as where there are opportunities for improvement.

The next phase will update the department’s incident reporting mechanism. All incidents, including injuries and fleet, will be captured in MMS through a single form. Both the crash and field injury reports will be condensed into a single electronic form. MoDOT's safety team will collect the same information that is currently collected as well as additional fields providing safety professionals with key information to systematically reduce incidents through identifying risks that lead to injury and property damage.

Lastly, the safety management module will include the integration of training records and other safety data to the assignment of work. Supervisors and crew leaders will have the ability to see an alert for any employee not trained in the selected activity or role, and they will see an alert in the assigned work if the employee did not meet the training requirements.

Even though they may not hear it said on a regular basis, MoDOT employees are seen as everyday heroes to many. Recently, Highway Safety Program Manager Kacey Wilson's son, Jaxon, was asked to write about his hero for a school assignment. Here's what he had to say:

Highway Safety Program Manager Kacey Wilson with her son, Jaxon, dressed as Batman for Halloween.

Kansas City District demolished the I-35 ramp in the northwest corner of the downtown loop on Saturday, March 26 as part of the Buck O’Neil Bridge project.

Kansas City had an explosive weekend, and for those near Interstate 35 downtown, the blast had nothing to do with March Madness or the Oscars.

MoDOT detonated the old I-35 ramp bridge in the northwest corner of the downtown loop on Saturday, March 26.

Crews will replace the structure with a new and improved ramp. This is all part of the Buck O’Neil Bridge project.

The process went according to plan. Footage of the demolition can be viewed here.

Missouri State Highway Patrol Sgt. Jeff Kinder began his career in law enforcement in October 1991, with the Texas County Sheriff’s Department.

On July 1, 1994, he was hired by the Missouri State Highway Patrol. Kinder spent his MSHP career in the Troop G area working assignments in Howell, Oregon and Texas counties, where he was the zone supervisor for seven years. In 2014, he was assigned as the Public Information and Education Officer for Troop G.

Kinder usually conducts between 70 and 80 safety programs a year for schools, businesses and civic organizations. He has been a member of the Missouri Coalition for Roadway Safety since its inception in 2004.

MSHP Sgt. Jeff Kinder, Southeast Coalition for Roadway Safety executive board member.

Kinder has served on the Southeast Coalition for Roadway Safety’s Executive Board for the past eight years. His retirement begins in April. We thank him for his dedicated service to the communities in Missouri and to the Southeast Coalition for Roadway Safety.

Nestled in the Missouri State Library’s digital resource, Social Explorer, is data from sources like the Census, American Community Survey, crime data, COVID-19 data and much more! With these resources, you can easily design your own maps and tables to create a vibrant visual representation of the statistical information you need.

This session will explore the resource, highlighting its abilities and showing how you can use the maps and tables to better present your data!

The webinar takes place April 21 from 10 -11 a.m. You can register here.

The mission of Connections is to be a source of MoDOT news

and feature articles that connect employees statewide.

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Editor: Bethany Belt

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