On Friday, March 13, Mn/DOT announced the contractors who submitted the apparent lowest bids to build 11 road and bridge projects in Greater Minnesota with funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Bids for these projects total approximately $40 million.

The 11 projects are part of 60 state highway projects in Greater Minnesota totaling $180 million that Gov. Tim Pawlenty and Commissioner Tom Sorel announced in February.

“Mn/DOT is working to ensure that Minnesota’s share of the federal stimulus funds is used efficiently and effectively,” said Sorel. “It is expected that these first 11 projects will create more than 1,000 jobs in Minnesota and improve the Greater Minnesota transportation system.”

The 11 projects include seven concrete and bituminous resurfacing projects, such as a $5 million project on Highway 75 in Ortonville and a $16 million project on Interstate 90 from Alden to Albert Lea. Safety projects include a $1.4 million project to install cable median barriers along I-94 east of Sauk Centre.

Mn/DOT awards contracts within 30 days of the bid opening. The March 13 project bid letting results are available on Mn/DOT's Web site at http://www.dot.state.mn.us/bidlet/bidResult/bidresult2009.html.

Mn/DOT alerted motorists in northwestern Minnesota on March 18 to be aware of potential hazardous road conditions created by weather changes and spring thaw, according to Karen Bedeau, District 2 public affairs coordinator.

The governor’s office also issued a news release March 18 describing statewide preparation for possible flooding in the Red River Valley. Among the actions the state has taken was the partial activation of the State Emergency Operations Center.

According to the National Weather Service, the chances of major flooding along the Red River are high, particularly for the areas of Breckenridge/Wahpeton, Fargo/Moorhead, Grand Forks/East Grand Forks and Oslo.

A number of factors contribute to the flood potential, including the wettest six-month period on record for the Fargo and Grand Forks area, fall precipitation that increased soil moisture prior to freezing, and winter stream flows up to 300 percent above normal indicating limited storage in the system.

Mn/DOT maintenance crews are thawing frozen culverts and storm drains to reduce the effect of minor local flooding. In addition, truck stations are stocking barricades and warning signs to notify drivers in areas where water seeps over the road, including:

• Hwy 2 in Crookston  
• Hwy 9 north of Ada
• Hwy 11 at Swift and in Baudette
• Hwy 59 north of Lancaster
• Hwy 87 east of Park Rapids
• Hwy 92 north of Zerkel

These highways are currently open, but rapidly changing conditions could call for closures, Bedeau said.

Motorists should call 511 or log on to www.511mn.org for road condition information when traveling in any area of the state where potential flooding conditions exist.

By Lucy Kender, Human Resources

Collaboration, creativity and community connections played critical roles in the recent mass hiring of transportation associates at Metro District. Offices working together, a new selection method and the formation of a community consortium were ideas used in the hiring process of the newest 65 transportation associates who will be on board by the end of April.

Usually, Metro District advertises for both transportation associate and transportation generalist positions together. This is the first time the mass hiring was limited to just associates.

“By hiring at the TA level, it opened the door to nearly anyone and everyone,” said Mary Stohr, Metro District Human Resources director. “To apply for a TA position, applicants need no experience and only a commercial driver’s license permit, as opposed to the year of experience and actual license required to apply for TG positions.”

Intense diversity-focused recruiting efforts

That also opened the door for Mn/DOT’s recruiters to pull out all the stops and conduct an intense diversity-focused recruitment effort.

“We have struggled in the past getting a pool of diverse candidates in the transportation specialist series classification. Hiring at the TA level only was a positive signal that we were willing to open up this opportunity for a broader group of potential candidates,” said Emma Corrie, recruitment programs supervisor.

The recruitment effort included such techniques as offering math tutoring classes and mock interviews at community centers; a joint effort of the Civil Rights, Human Resources and Affirmative Action offices offering a commercial driver's license course, and forming a community partnership–Mn/DOT’s Community Advisors on Recruitment and Retention Solutions.

“The short-term goal of MnCARRS was to recruit and hire a qualified diverse group of candidates for this round and then, hopefully, long-term as well to build recruitment partnerships with Minnesota’s diverse communities,” said Corrie.

The partnership includes some 18 minority or women’s organizations whose members sponsored 11 community information meetings to discuss these job openings.

“From the 11 community meetings 285 people signed up to be on an e-mail list for these and other opportunities,” according to Corrie.

She used this list to update applicants on all phases of the hiring process and intends to keep them on the list and communicate frequently as new openings occur.

Internally, Mn/DOT also held two mini-job fairs to which employees were encouraged to bring their interested family and friends to learn about these positions. More than 200 folks attended these sessions, as well.

Record-breaking number of applications

The result?

“We received 1,227 applications–the largest amount ever,” said Stohr. “That means 1,227 personal reviews of the applications. More than 400 were eliminated at the first review, but that left about 800 for whom we had to schedule further testing and exams, and conduct driver's license checks. My staff was extremely busy with this and extremely dedicated to see it through.”  

Ultimately 481 interviews were conducted.

“Because we really wanted to focus on diversity and not eliminate any candidates, Maintenance decided to give all qualified applicants the opportunity to interview,” she said.

Interviewing 481 applicants sounds like a monumental task, but thanks to some personal experience of Eric Davis, Mn/DOT’s Human Resources director, the idea for group interviews ensued.

“In Eric’s previous position with the Stillwater schools, he was hired through a group interview and suggested we try it,” said Stohr.

Group interviews add an element of evaluating interpersonal skills while also assessing individual competency.

“We lost 10 percent of the work force from our last mass hiring due to lack of interpersonal skills,” Stohr said.

Three panels interviewing four to six people at a time conducted the interviews over a two-week time span.

Final results successful

Finally, after all the recruiting, the checking, the reviewing and the interviewing, job offers were made to 65 applicants, 11 of whom were diverse candidates.

“I am pleased that offers went to 22 percent of the diverse candidates interviewed,” said Stohr. “We moved forward with diversity in this round of hiring and I hope we can keep that momentum for the future.”

Corrie agrees and is committed to continuing the recruitment efforts and establishing ongoing communications with diverse candidates and community groups.

“This effort produced good results. They are good, but could be much better,” she said. “Hopefully, we will continue to use even more innovative ideas in both the recruitment and selection processes.

“Just the fact that we got a good pool of qualified diverse candidates informed and interested about state jobs is a great return on our investment. We can now build pathways into various jobs at Mn/DOT,” she added.

By Lisa Yang

Mn/DOT awarded a $20.6 million contract Feb. 25 to Dunlar Construction of Roseville, Minn., for the construction of a new building in District 7/Mankato.  

Construction of the single-level, 170,000-square foot building will begin by May 1 and will take about 17 months to construct. When completed, the building will accommodate 170 people from Mn/DOT and the Department of Public Safety.  

The new building’s site is located on the upper east side of Mankato not far from the existing facility.

“This building will have 198 geothermal wells for heating and cooling. It is going to be a very energy-efficient facility and will exceed current building energy standards,” said Mike Kelley, District 7 physical plant supervisor.

“This particular job was done in two phases. Some site and utility work started last fall, and the remainder of phase one site work will be complete by mid-June,” said Kelley.

The front section of the building is ready to start construction as soon as the contracts have been signed and approved.

The city of Mankato will be acquiring the existing Mn/DOT Mankato Headquarters facility to combine some community services in one location.

Groundbreaking for the new building will begin later this year.

By Chris Krueger

When Patti Loken began her career almost 22 years ago as an engineer at Mn/DOT, she expected to apply science and math to develop solutions to technical challenges.  

Today, it is obvious that she must also use communication skills, organizational leadership and her knowledge of government and finance to develop working relationships with Minnesota’s city and county engineers to ensure the state maintains a safe, effective and coordinated highway network.

Loken, Mn/DOT’s State Aid Programs engineer, recently worked in partnership with local government leaders to select construction projects funded by America’s Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the economic stimulus package recently passed by Congress.

When did you join Mn/DOT?

I graduated from School of Mines and Technology in Rapid City, S.D., in 1980 with a B.S. in engineering. I started at Mn/DOT rotating through the traffic, design, construction and bridge areas as a graduate engineer. I remained in the Bridge Office for five years as a graduate engineer and was promoted to senior engineer when I passed the professional engineer test in the fall of 1991.  

What is your current role?

As State Aid Programs engineer, one of my current roles is to work with local levels of government, providing technical advice and support as they apply for state and federal funds available through America’s Recovery and Reinvestment Act. While the locals self-govern, the division of State Aid oversees the distribution of all state and federal funds and we ensure they follow state and local rules.

Describe the economic stimulus process.

About 30 percent of Minnesota’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Act highway funds were distributed to cities and counties. Our division was responsible for developing and managing the local program for these funds that would advance or fund projects statewide. There is so much more need than funding, which is what makes the job difficult when it comes to selecting projects.  

Our office solicited agencies to apply for funding, using an online application. Applications for bridge and advancing STIP projects were due on Feb. 2, 2009; a second solicitation for all projects was due on Feb. 9, 2009.  

Solicitations were open for eight days. We had a lot of inquiries by county and city engineering staff and elected officials before they proposed projects. When the applications came in, we sorted them in our office by district and the type of work and the list was sent to each Mn/DOT district state aid engineer to help prioritize.

We selected the projects based on the criteria from the FHWA, including project readiness, work type balance, statewide coverage and consistency and statewide plans and goals. We had to ask: Can they deliver projects in 90-180 days?

What was the greatest challenge?

The hardest part of the job is trying to balance priorities. Based on the application, information from our district engineers and the available dollars, we tried to distribute the money across the districts, giving each area balance for local and community needs.

What skill set helps you most in your position?

Attention to detail, multi-tasking and listening as part of communication, and the ability to stay calm when everyone around me is not. I appreciate the people I work with and value everyone’s role in making the program successful.

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By Lisa Yang

Five highway projects recently received awards from the Concrete Paving Association of Minnesota. The awards honor contractors and Mn/DOT for contributing to outstanding concrete construction projects around the state of Minnesota.

Mn/DOT also earned awards for six highway projects from the Minnesota Asphalt Pavement Association for excellent teamwork and dedication to improving Minnesota’s infrastructure in a safe, efficient and economical manner.

Awards from CPAM were given in six categories.

• District 4 earned recognition for a concrete overlay on Hwy 10 from Hawley to Boyer Lake.
• Hwy 7 and Hwy 15 in District 8 Hutchinson received an award in the municipal streets and intersections, four-lane or complex, urban paving category.
• Interstate 35 and I-535 in District 1/Duluth earned an award for concrete pavement restoration.
• I-90 in District 6 received an award in the rural divided highways category.
• Hwy 241 in District 3 received an award in the state roads category.
• Mn/DOT also received work zone safety awards for good communication with contractors and the public in efforts to keep work zones safe for workers and drivers.

These awards will be presented March 19 at the 2009 Annual Concrete Paving and Safety Awards Banquet in Rochester.

Awards from MAPA were given in five categories. Mn/DOT project winners are:

• Hwy 10 in Staples earned an award in the work zone safety static low-volume category which requires a project to have less than 10,000 average daily traffic and to include detours and bypasses.
• Hwy 10 in Todd County and Hwy 212 in Hennepin and Carver counties were tied in the new construction category.
• Hwy 24 in Wright County earned an award in the reconstruction category.
• I-94 in Stearns County earned an award in the resurface high volume traffic category, while Hwy 27 and Hwy 25 in Morrison County earned an award in the resurface low volume traffic category.

Mn/DOT also received awards for assistance in state aid and airport support.

• Hwy 149 in Dakota County earned an award in the federal aid secondary category.
• The Grand Rapids-Itasca County Airport in Itasca County earned an award in the key airport category, while the Glenwood Municipal Airport in Pope County was awarded in the intermediate airport category.

These awards were given Dec. 3, 2008 at the 55th Annual Asphalt Paving Awards Banquet in Brooklyn Park.

Newspaper subscriptions, meeting minutes and GroupWise were some of the topics of interest to employees who submitted questions to “What’s the Buzz,” Commissioner Tom Sorel’s virtual water cooler on iHUB.                      

The site serves as a forum for the commissioner and Deputy Commissioner Khani Sahebjam to respond to rumors and hear suggestions and employees’ general concerns. However, it is not intended for employees to express grievances about co-workers.

Sorel and Sahebjam will respond to as many comments as possible on the Web site. To see the most recent responses, go to What’s the Buzz? and click on “Read Comments and Questions.”