By Chris Krueger

Minnesotans are seeing and hearing about the value of telework as a result of a campaign that launched
June 1 online and on radio and outdoor billboards.

The campaign, sponsored by the University of Minnesota in partnership with Mn/DOT, is aimed at promoting telework to both employers and employees. Telework, often called telecommuting, enables employees to work from home or a remote location and connect to the office, co-workers and clients through the Internet and other technology. Mn/DOT has a telecommuting policy. Interested employees should talk to their supervisor for more information.

“Increased telework can ease congestion on our roadways, save money for businesses and motorists and positively impact the environment,” said Nick Thompson, Office of Policy, Safety and Strategic Initiatives director. “If 2,700 Minnesotans teleworked just one day per week, more than 1,000 rush hour trips on Twin Cities’ highways each day would be eliminated.”

“Businesses can realize significant benefits by implementing telework programs,” said Teresa Wernecke, executive director, Downtown Minneapolis Transportation Management Organization. “These include increased employee productivity, enhanced recruitment and retention, reduced costs and improved business flexibility.

The campaign, called eWorkPlace, directs businesses and individuals to log on to www.eworkplace-mn.com for free training, tools and tips. For a limited time, employers can register to learn about participating in a pilot program. Qualifying employers for the pilot programs will also be eligible for free or discounted personalized professional consulting to launch or expand telework at their workplace.

The effort’s primary purpose is to reduce congestion on roadways in and around the Twin Cities by encouraging employers to offer workers the option of teleworking. The program goal is to recruit and retain at least 2,700 participants between June 2009 and June 2010.

eWorkPlace is funded by a state appropriation to Mn/DOT and is one of a series of projects in the Urban Partnership Agreement, the goal of which is to reduce congestion on I-35W, Highway 77/Cedar Avenue and in downtown Minneapolis using transit, road pricing, technology and telecommuting. The collaborative effort also includes the U.S Department of Transportation, the Metropolitan Council/Metro Transit, the city of Minneapolis, University of Minnesota, Minnesota Valley Transit Authority, and Anoka, Dakota, Hennepin and Ramsey counties and Transportation Management Organizations.

By Nick Carpenter

Twice a year, Jeff Reuss hooks up one of the Benson truck station’s road graders to the back of a 135 horse-power tractor and trawls over area highway shoulders with the goal of reclaiming material displaced by weather and wheels.

In years past, shoulder reclamation was a slow-moving process that required a lot of patience and time. That was until District 4, with help from the Maintenance Operations Research board, purchased a brand new Road Groom shoulder grader.

“The Road Groom was designed for the purpose of saving money and time from a budget that is shrinking every year,” said Reuss, Benson maintenance. “It is not only making the grading process run faster, it is creating more time for our crew to work on other projects.”

At operating speeds near 13 mph, the Road Groom covers more than two times the amount of lane miles that a standard grader can, which is only operable at 6 mph. 

The faster speeds allowed the Morris subarea to finish their shoulder reclamation projects two weeks ahead of schedule.

“In an eight-hour period, I covered 45 lane miles with the Road Groom,” Reuss said. “Our standard graders can only do 20 lane miles in eight hours.”

How it works
 
At 8.5 feet wide, Road Groom is equipped with five separate blades that serve equally important functions.

A single front-cutting blade chops down high spots on the shoulder and loosens the roadbed while reclaiming rock and gravel that has been pushed below the surface.

The side-wing blade then pulls gravel from the edge of the shoulder toward the road surface.

Finally, the three back-catch area blades distribute the collected materials across the shoulder and fill in the shoulder’s low spots.

In addition, the Road Groom has twin four-foot magnets mounted on the front that pick up metal objects from the shoulder. 

The Benson maintenance crew completed its spring shoulder reclamation routes by the end of April. Reuss and his colleagues plan on reclaiming the shoulders again this fall.

Despite rainy conditions, more than 100 people gathered outside the newly restored City House along the banks of the Mississippi River near downtown St. Paul to join in the celebration.

The MRT is envisioned as a 3,000-mile system of bicycle-friendly roads and multi-use pathways that winds through 10 different states from Lake Itasca State Park in Minnesota to the Gulf of Mexico.

Located between Dayton and Hastings, the first official Minnesota section of the trail provides bicylclists with the opportunity to share the road with motorists and enjoy off-street trails.

“MRT adds value to a cornucopia of existing roads and trails by knitting them together through a rich variety of Mississippi landscapes,” Zoff said. “The Twin Cities segment is unique in that it offers all types of bicyclists opportunities for river exploration.”

By Diane Beck, District 4 public affairs coordinator

Approximately 40 people participated in the Spring Grad Engineer and Land Surveyor meeting held May 20-21 in Willmar.

Dave Trooien, District 8 engineer, welcomed participants to the two-day meeting, which included presentations on GIS applications, training information and resources, Mn/DOT’s Strategic Vision, safety initiatives and workforce planning. 

District 8 staff conducted a maintenance ROADEO to give trainees hands-on experience in driving a snowplow (including a mail box run), backhoes and loaders.  Other events included air patching, coring and boring, salt solutions and operating the sign truck.

Dave Larson and Dave Malchow, Office of Materials and Research, showcased the new geoprobe subsurface exploration vehicle, and Andy Kubista, Mn/DOT simulator trainer, was on site offering trainees “windshield time” in the simulator.

Since 2007, the Graduate Engineer Development Committee plans the spring and fall meetings in Greater Minnesota districts and any other developmental activities intended for graduate engineers and land surveyors. The committee also prepares a handbook that includes photos and bios of the graduate engineers and land surveyors as well group photos taken at the host districts. David Sheen, graduate engineer 2 in Metro District and a member of GEDC, served as the event photographer.

The graduate engineer and land surveyor programs offer two-year rotations that allow participants to gain firsthand knowledge of the various transportation fields and to grow as an engineer or land surveyor, according to Jolene Forman, Mn/DOT’s Graduate Engineer/Land Surveyor Programs manager.

“All the graduate engineer and land surveyor trainees really enjoyed the hospitality Willmar showed all of us,” Jolene said. “They especially enjoyed the ROADEO and gained a new appreciation for all the work our maintenance folks do. I think it was a great experience for all of them.”

After successful completion of the rotation program, participants are given a permanent work assignment, which may be anywhere within Minnesota, based on Mn/DOT’s needs.

For more information on the graduate engineer and land surveyor programs, visit: http://www.dot.state.mn.us/hr/careers/graduate.html.

The May 2009 edition of New Library Materials is now available at http://www.dot.state.mn.us/library/newlibmat.html.

New Library Materials is a compilation of new book titles and other resources added to the library collection during the previous month. It is published electronically each month by the Mn/DOT Library. Selected new titles are on display in the library.

If you would like to be added to the library’s distribution list, call 651-366-3791 or e-mail library@dot.state.mn.us.

By Bob Filipczak

Ken Gilman’s career, in many ways, mirrors the relationship between state troopers and FIRST drivers (Highway Helpers) as they work together to keep the Twin Cities freeways clear.

“When it works together like it’s supposed to, it really is a nice even flow,” he said.

Gilman, now a transportation program specialist 2 at the Regional Transportation Management Center in Roseville, moved to Mn/DOT after 25 years with the Department of Public Safety dispatching state troopers. He and his colleagues at RTMC Traffic Operations dispatch FIRST trucks throughout the Twin Cities as they roam the freeway system seeking out stalled vehicles, crashes—you name it. RTMC uses nearly 500 traffic management cameras in order to locate and verify incidents that occur on the freeway.

The move was, physically, only about 100 feet across the floor at the RTMC, but working for Mn/DOT has been a great step for Gilman. The schedule, the organization and the work itself—managing traffic and providing real-time traveler information—have all combined to reduce his stress and allow him more time with his family, particularly on the weekends.

He is so enthusiastic about his new job that, after passing his 90-day probationary period, he fulfilled his promise to get the Mn/DOT logo tattooed to his arm.

“Ken really has been a breath of fresh air for the Operations Center,” said TK Kramascz, the former RTMC operations supervisor who hired Gilman. “His enthusiasm is contagious and his incident management knowledge is second to none.”

Because Gilman brings a wealth of public safety experience with him, he understands the implications of motorists who find themselves stuck on the freeways. By getting the FIRST trucks to these vehicles, it reduces the chances of larger incidents (secondary crashes, for example) and improves traffic flow, Gilman said.

“And besides, and it’s one less thing the troopers have to worry about,” he said.

What does an average day look like to you?

I get here about 4:30 a.m. You log onto all the systems, you put the monitors up, and you turn everything on. The first thing you do in the morning is check changeable message signs and make sure they are all posting appropriate messages. You deal with the morning rush hour, and send FIRST drivers out to requests and anything we hear about on the State Patrol radio. We also monitor maintenance and road construction details throughout the day. If there are lane closures and patching, we follow up with the appropriate signs for the public and make sure the information makes it to 511 and the RTMC Web site.

What’s a bad day look like to you?

A bad day can start with a quarter inch of snow. It doesn’t take much snow to put people off the road. It can be pretty hectic. In a normal day we may have 10 pending events in the system we are monitoring to see if they clear. I’ve seen as many as 290 pending events during a snow event day.

What’s a good day look like?

A good day is a day like today (June 2, 2009). Traffic is moving, everything is going good, we are keeping up with all the construction details, we are putting up the appropriate signs, it’s nice and sunny out, and it’s going to be 70 degrees out. You can’t beat that.

Watching monitors all day, do you go home and not want to look at the TV?

I don’t go home and watch TV at all. You’re looking at those monitors at all times. You put in eight hours and you don’t think you would be that tired because it’s not manual labor; it’s more of a mental thing because you’re watching the event and acting on its behalf from its inception to the end of it. That can sometimes take several hours, so you are going from camera to camera.

The first two weeks I worked here I knew something was going on because I walked out of here and I was just tired. And one of my kids said to me, “But Dad, you don’t do anything.” It’s true I’m not out lifting concrete in the heat or anything, but you’re constantly got stuff going through your head.

Do you meet with the FIRST drivers from time to time?

We meet with them at their semi-monthly meetings. Likewise, they are invited out here to the RTMC Ops Center. I’ve met most of them now. It’s a nice way to exchange information and tell them a little about me and where I came from. Most of them knew me anyway because I worked for so long for the State Patrol and they listened to me on that main channel.  

Do you ever do ride-alongs?

Not yet, but one of my goals is to get out there and ride along and learn some of the areas. The Twin Cities freeway system is so vast. There are places out in Maple Grove that I’ve never been to but I’m dispatching for.” Everything looks different in-person versus looking through a camera at 50 feet in the air.

Do you or a co-worker have an interesting job to share with readers? Click here to send us your ideas, and we’ll contact you for more information.
Recent employee profiles:

• Michael Ritchie provides technical, investigative expertise in handling hazardous materials incidents
• Pavement expert Mats Wendel shares ideas from overseas
• State Aid’s Patti Loken helps match local governments with economic stimulus funds