By Kevin Gutknecht

Traffic congestion on state roadways in the Twin Cities metropolitan area has decreased for the third straight year, according to the Metropolitan Freeway System 2006 Congestion Report released recently.

The total number of congested miles was 267 miles in 2006, down from 277 miles in 2005 and 280 miles in 2004. The peak of Twin Cities traffic congestion was 293 miles in 2003.  

Mn/DOT attributes the reduction to the completion of a number of major construction projects in late 2005 and 2006. These capacity-adding projects include:

• New auxiliary lane on Interstate 394 westbound between Louisiana Avenue and the exit to Hwy 169 (November 2005)—This improvement reduced congestion from three hours daily to one hour a day.
• New lane in each direction on I-94 over McKnight Road (December 2005)—Congestion was eliminated on the eastbound side east of Hwy 61.
• New lane in each direction on I-494 between Hwy 5 and Carlson Parkway (August   2006)—Southbound congestion was eliminated, as was northbound congestion at Hwy 7.
• New lane northbound and a collector/distributor lane southbound on Hwy 100 between Hwy 7 and I-394 (October 2006)—This reduced congestion from six hours daily to one hour a day.
• Opening of the first of two bridges on the Wakota project carrying I-494 traffic over the Mississippi River (October 2006)—The opening added a lane in each direction, eliminating congestion in both directions.

“These projects have added significant capacity in the metro area,” said Lt. Gov./ Commissioner Carol Molnau. “Reduced congestion saves time and money for motorists, and is good for the environment because of reduced auto exhaust emissions.”

Mn/DOT said that other Twin Cities capacity-adding road construction projects, either in progress or set to begin soon, will aid in congestion reduction several years from now. Officials anticipate that there could be a rise in congestion rates in the intervening years.

Mn/DOT said it is identifying a number of small- to mid-level projects that could help mitigate congestion in the next few years.

The Metropolitan Freeway System 2006 Congestion Report can be found at www.dot.state.mn.us/trafficeng/otepubl/CongestionReport-2006.pdf.

By Donna Lindberg

The sound of the towboat M/V Itasca’s horn March 28 signaled the start of barge traffic in and out of the St. Paul harbor.

Lt. Gov./Commissioner Carol Molnau, Dick Lambert, director of Mn/DOT's Waterways Section, and other officials were on hand to mark the occasion.

“Minnesota’s waterways are an important part of a coordinated, interdependent transportation system,” said Molnau. “River shipping is an inexpensive, high-capacity option for shipping Minnesota commodities to other states and countries and for importing the products we need to sustain our economy."   

Molnau said Minnesota, and other states, are looking more and more at waterways as a relief valve for highway and rail freight congestion. However, waterway shippers depend on trains and trucks to get products to market, 25 percent of which are agricultural products.

Twin Cities river ports handled almost 13 million tons of freight last year during the 250-day season from March 22 through Nov. 27. In spite of the increased use of corn for ethanol in Minnesota , grain exports by river in 2006 increased from five million to 5.7 million tons. Overall river tonnage also increased over 2005 from 12.3 million to 12.9 million tons. Average tonnage in past years has been about 16 million tons. Reduced tonnage may be due to high river freight rates because of demand for shipping and a shortage of barges.

Lambert said maintenance work is always being done on the 70-year-old Upper Mississippi River system in order to handle current and future demands.

“The St. Paul District Corps of Engineers does a great job of maintaining 13 locks in its system from the Upper St. Anthony Locks in Minneapolis to Lock 10 in Guttenberg, Iowa,” Lambert said. “Lock and Dam #2 at Hastings was dewatered this winter for repair of the massive 65-ton, 50-feet-high and 60-feet-wide lock gates.”

Work to remove the deck and beams from the old eastbound Interstate 494 Wakota Bridge was done over the winter. Although the navigation channel under the bridge is now clear, work will continue this summer to remove the old bridge piers.

Minnesota has five ports on the Mississippi and Minnesota rivers—Minneapolis, St. Paul, Savage, Red Wing and Winona. For more information on waterway navigation, visit Mn/DOT’s Web site at: http://www.dot.state.mn.us/ofrw/waterways.html.

By Donna Lindberg

Lt. Gov./Commissioner Carol Molnau visited District 8 in Marshall on March 23 to thank employees for the job they do every day to make roads safe for Minnesota motorists.

“I know your jobs are not always easy, but I want to tell you that you do an outstanding job of dealing with the demands of the public,” Molnau said during a breakfast meeting.

“The state of Minnesota is known for its quality of work,” she said. “And it’s all because of people like you.”

The commissioner responded to questions from the group about retirement benefits, the Pawlenty-Molnau transportation investment plan, the gas tax, outsourcing and loss of internal expertise.

“Marshall employees asked some good, solid questions and the lieutenant governor had some good, solid answers,” said Dave Trooien, District 8 transportation engineer.

Molnau also met with local law enforcement, city, county and business representatives to discuss building a Toward Zero Deaths coalition to find more ways to reduce area roadway fatalities.

“Toward Zero Deaths really says it all and I think everyone here today feels as I do,” Molnau said. “One death on our roadways is one too many.”  

Bernie Arseneau, Traffic, Safety and Operations office director, and Katherine Burke Moore, Department of Public Safety, also attended the meeting. They talked about opportunities to expand the Toward Zero Deaths initiative and develop a model for the area.

“Although we saw the fewest number of fatalities on Minnesota roadways last year since 1946, the future goal of the Toward Zero Deaths program is to reduce the number of deaths to zero,” said Arseneau.  

Later, Molnau met with the chambers of commerce in Marshall and Montevideo. She answered questions about road safety and funding issues such as bonding, county state aid funds and user’s fees versus a gas tax.

By Craig Wilkins

Bev Farraher was appointed to serve as the Metro District’s maintenance engineer.

Her appointment began March 13.

Farraher served as acting maintenance engineer before her appointment. She succeeds Sue Mulvihill who is now the district’s program delivery director.     

Farraher previously served as a district maintenance operations engineer.

A St. Paul native, Farraher joined Mn/DOT’s graduate rotation program in 1988. After her rotation assignments, she served in several posts at Metro in traffic engineering, signal design and maintenance operations before accepting her current appointment.

She holds a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from the University of Minnesota.

Farraher also earned a certificate in Norwegian government and political science from the Farmers’ Association Folk High School in Mysen, Norway. She also worked as a construction inspector for housing developments in Oslo during a subsequent stay in Norway.

Farraher said she became interested in maintenance during her graduate engineer training and her positive experiences working with right of way agents, traffic engineering and staff from the Electrical Services and Maintenance Research sections and other employees working in the field.

Her plans include continuing the search for improved materials and methods by using maintenance research, process improvement and valuing ideas from employees and fellow managers.

Farraher said she is also stressing a management style for maintenance supervisors based on their actively resolving conflicts while treating all employees involved with respect and fairness.

Training for supervisors is now under way. The training, she said, is an additional component of the respectful workplace training completed by Metro District employees in 2006.

“Supervision requires a unique set of skills,” Farraher said. “The more effectively we supervise, the more efficient our operations are.”

By Craig Wilkins

A statewide, all-employee survey will begin the week of April 2 to determine how managers and employees view safety and accident prevention-related activities and to chart the course for future safety initiatives.  

The survey will include a Web-based questionnaire sent to all employees and interviews with 20 to 30 employees in the Central Office and three districts, said Deb Ledvina, director of the Risk Management Section in the Office of Human Resources and Administration.

The online survey will include a series of questions and allow respondents to make comments and suggestions about safety-related issues.

“We encourage all employees to participate in the survey so that we have a more representative sample and to increase the involvement and awareness of safety concerns by all Mn/DOT employees,” Ledvina said.

Employee responses will be kept confidential, she said.

Results from the survey will be used by managers and district safety administrators to develop a vision and goals for the safety program and establish consistent, departmentwide policies, strategies, training and performance measures.

Survey findings will be completed in June.

Techniques for interpreting data from the survey will include “gap analysis,” a measure of the difference between current and optimal safety policies and practices.

“Mn/DOT employees have a right to a safe workplace no matter what their job class or where they work,” Ledvina said.

“We’re confident that the survey will enable us to outline issues, identify strengths and areas that need improvement and develop recommendations,” she said. “Our final report will capture those findings, which will be ranked by impact and difficulty of implementation.”

Have some news you want to share about a retirement party or club activity? Need to get rid of your old refrigerator and make room for a new one? Lost a pair of sunglasses?

These and other items are now posted on Mn/DOT’s electronic Employee Bulletin Board. Employees who wish to post an item on the board may submit the information through Mn/DOT’s iHUB site at http://ihub/bulletin_board/index.html. However, to view the items posted on the board, employees must use GroupWise and proxy into “EmployeeBulletinBoard.”

Bulletin board information is categorized under two sections—Employee Information and Classifieds. Employee information includes:

• Funeral notices
• Health
• Hiwayan Club
• Lost and found
• Retirements

The classified section includes:

• Electronics
• Furniture
• Housing
• Pets
• Vehicles

For background information about the bulletin board, see Mn/DOT Newsline, Jan. 31, 2007.

By Jeanne Aamodt

Editor’s note: This is one in a series of articles featuring Mn/DOT employees on the job. Do you or a co-worker have an interesting job to share with readers? Use the “Submissions” button on the left navigation bar, or click here to send us your ideas, and we’ll contact you for more information.

It’s been two-plus years on the job and not a day has been the same, says Brad Larsen, Mn/DOT's federal relations manager in the Office of Government Affairs. He was appointed to the position in December 2004, after having spent eight years in the Office of Investment Management.

In his current role, Larsen serves as the agency’s principal contact with the members of Minnesota’s congressional delegation and their staffs. His major responsibilities also include serving as liaison on transportation issues with Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s office in Washington, D.C.  

Larsen has both a law degree and a master’s degree in public administration.

What attracted you to the federal side of Government Affairs?

I knew what the job involved because of my history in Investment Management. I was drawn to the area of federal funding and national transportation policy. Al Schenkelberg, office director at the time and a real mentor, encouraged my interest. I was also familiar with federal government, having worked as a college student for U.S. Sen. Kent Conrad of North Dakota.

What do you mean when you say ‘no day is ever the same’?

Federal relations work is fast-moving and involves a lot of variety. I have to get smart quick on a lot of subjects. On any given day I am responding to inquiries, interpreting federal legislation, preparing the lieutenant governor, deputy commissioner and division directors for national hearings, coordinating Minnesota’s involvement with the American Association of State Transportation Officials or arranging meetings between Mn/DOT district engineers and our congressional delegation in Washington, D.C. These activities keep me busy enough that I am considering establishing a mobility position to help in the future.

What does it take to be successful?

Building relations and becoming a trusted source of information are the keys to the job, and good communication is the foundation for success.

What’s the biggest challenge you’ve faced so far?

Dealing with the political environment is a big challenge and timing can be everything. For example, I released Mn/DOT’s position on federal earmarks to the Minnesota congressional delegation just days before a meeting with U.S. Rep. James Oberstar, who has brought millions of earmark dollars to Minnesota. Let’s just say that our position doesn't exactly mirror his and the matter was fresh on his mind when we met.

What’s the future look like for federal funding for state and local roads?

The future is very unpredictable, and I don’t have a crystal ball to help me see past 2009, when the current federal funding bill expires.

The good news is that there are a lot of potential opportunities. For example, next month Mn/DOT and the Center for Transportation Studies are hosting a field hearing before the National Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue Study Commission. This commission was established under SAFETEA-LU (the federal transportation legislation passed in 2005) to develop congressional recommendations for a future national transportation policy.

Many hope this commission will play the same role as the Clay Commission played 50 years ago in the development of the interstate highway system. The next federal transportation reauthorization bill could be revolutionary in many different ways.

As a kid, did you ever imagine you’d become a policy wonk?

I don’t think I had a clue. I was originally drawn to the traditional sciences. I first majored in physics at Bemidji State University —it went real well the first year, until pre-law courses caught my attention. College really opened up my horizons. I changed course and political science became my major. I’m not sure why they call it a science, from what I’ve seen it’s more of an art.  

Previous on-the-job feature:

• “Snooping” for trouble (Nov. 29, 2006)

Qin Tang, Mn/DOT Library’s technical services librarian, is on the cover of and featured in the March 2007 edition of “Information Outlook,” the membership magazine of the Special Libraries Association.   

The profile, “A Roundabout Route to Minnesota,” traces Tang’s global journey from her home in Jiangsu province in eastern China, to Heidelberg, Germany, where she earned a master’s degree in German literature and linguistics and met her future husband, to St. Paul, where Mn/DOT hired her full time in May 2000 to work as a librarian. Along the way, Tang also earned a master’s degree in library science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

The article quotes a librarian from the University of California-Berkeley, who describes Tang as “one of the best transportation catalogers in the country.”

The article also quotes Jerry Baldwin, her supervisor, and describes the agency’s library, which has 18,000 cataloged books and reports, 30,000 microfiche reports, 400 periodical titles, 1,000 videotapes and 350 CDs and DVDs.

For more information:

• Information Outlook article featuring Tang
• Mn/DOT Library
• Open Houses are more than a place for free cookies (Opinion piece by Qin Tang in Mn/DOT Newsline, Aug. 9, 2006)

Employees may donate as many as 12 hours of vacation time per year to help their fellow employees who have used all of their leave time due to an illness or caring for a family member.

To donate, go to the Employee Self Service Web site at www.state.mn.us/employee, select Other Payroll, then Leave Donations.