从Idaho Transportal Dept的一组维护和扫雪机司机来到原子能机构，Brian Ness和其他高管的一组维护和扫雪机司机，并提出改变冬季调度。他们将在一周中的特定时间建立船员的数量，而不是建立一周两次与国家天气服务相应地协调两次。只有在路上需要更多的犁，只有在他们需要的时候，工人可能在整个星期内不同的时间休息。

“Before that change, we had about 28% of our roads clear of ice and snow during a storm. Now we are at about 86% to 97% because we have more people out there when we need them,” Ness says. “They could see the system that had been in place before was not very efficient, and they came up with a way to fix it.”

At the time, Ness had been ITD director for little more than a year. He came to the position in 2009 following a 30-year career with the DOT in his native Michigan. Now, Ness is one of the longest-serving state transportation directors in the country. His philosophy of empowering frontline employees and promoting solutions close to where work is being done has resonated in a state with vast amounts of open space and highway workers living in remote locations.

In addition to managing the roads in the Gem State, ITD oversees bicycle and pedestrian trails, the Dept. of Motor Vehicles, the Dept. of Aeronautics—with about 126 airfields and commercial airports—and bus and transit systems operated by municipalities.

“如果它在爱达荷州的交通工具，它在我们底下，”Ness说。

The department has approximately 1,600 employees and a current budget of $763 million, with $775 million funded for fiscal 2020-2021. The state is divided into six regions, each with a director appointed by the governor for a term of six years. The six directors and a chairman make up the board of directors, who oversee all operations.

Ness has led the streamlining of ITD, reducing administrative rules and getting the department to operate “more like a business,” he says. The director notes that the business law firm Stoel Rives LLP made an exception in its annual Innovation Awards several years ago when ITD was nominated as one of the innovative companies in the state.

“At first they told us we were nominated but couldn’t compete for the award because government regulates, and only companies innovate,” Ness says. “But after I told them some of the things we’d been doing and the innovations we’d made, they changed their minds. We were among the top three nominated for the award again last year.”

Dealing With Growth

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Idaho has been the first- or second-fastest growing state, starting in 2015, and among the top 10 fastest-growing states since 2010. Dealing with that growth has been the key driver of change in the department, Ness says.

“When I came on in 2009, the focus had been, and still was, on preserving our existing system and protecting the investments made in previous decades,” he says. “We’ve done a good job of that. The condition of our highways has gone from 80% in fair to good condition in 2009 to 91% today, but we haven’t really been addressing growth. In recent years, we’ve shifted funds to address safety and capacity. We also know that over half of our bridges will be over 50 years old very soon, and we need to deal with that.”

While growth has been most evident in Boise and the surrounding areas of Meridian, Nampa and Eagle, Ness says those pressures have been felt across the state. Last year, ITD launched its largest current project, a multi-phase widening and improvement of nearly 15 miles of Interstate 84 from Nampa west of Boise to Caldwell. The $105.8-million project will widen the highway from two to three lanes in each direction, replace an overpass and create a new single-point urban interchange (SPUI).

ITD built its first SPUI as part of an earlier congestion-relief project on I-84. Bryan Foote, manager of Idaho operations for Pleasant Grove, Utah-based Horrocks Engineers, says the department has shown a willingness to embrace new ideas. Foote says Horrocks is nearing completion of an environmental document and design for the next phase of the project, which will include the state’s first continuous-flow interchange.

“We proposed it as a possible solution for a particular part of the project and [ITD was] open to trying it,” Foote says. “ITD is great to work with. Their project managers are empowered to make decisions and keep the project moving.”

Mike Burke, CFO of Boise-based Concrete Placing Co., agrees. His firm has completed multiple paving and bridge projects for the agency over the years and is doing a significant portion of the work on the current I-84 project.

“(ITD)是简单,专业从事交易ing with contractors,” Burke says. “They are problem-solvers, and the management is very approachable. When we need something reviewed, it is usually easy to get a resident or staff engineer to work with, and they have the authority to make decisions.”

基于Coeur d'Alene的HMH工程管理会员和工程师Alex Hall表示，该公司已向ITD的众多项目工作。18luck官网“这真的像是一个伙伴关系。我们与每个人从维护到地区董事的维护，事情快速有效地完成，而无需经历大量的层。“

Hall says HMH recently worked with ITD to connect two parts of a local Boy Scout camp with a pedestrian underpass below a state highway. “For a small project that seemed simple, we had almost every possible issue come up from funding and cost escalation to environmental concerns, wildlife and cultural resources and endangered species. But everyone really pulled together and dealt with things efficiently, and we got it done,”

Traditional Delivery

According to Blake Rindlisbacher, ITD chief engineer, the entire I-84 widening and improvement project is estimated at around $300 million to $350 million, most of which will be coming from grant anticipation revenue vehicle, or GARVEE, bonds as well as federal grants.

与大多数道路建设一样，该项目正在使用传统的设计出价制造方法提供。“几年前我们做了一个大型设计建设项目，我们甚至做了一个厘米-GC，但我认为这可能已经完成了设计 - 出价，”Rindlisbacher说。

“我们与我们的AGC [相关的一般承包商]和我们的ACEC [美国工程公司委员会]章节相得益彰，他们回到美国的信息一直是他们对设计出价的过程感到满意，”他说。“我们知道我们不是池塘里最大的鱼。我们的大部分工作都是10美元，20美元和3000万美元的范围，而那些传统的过程则为自己提供良好。“

The design-build project completed in 2018 combined 17 bridge replacements in three districts into one package. Known as the 6-5-4 Project, for the districts where the projects were located, Rindlisbacher says the D-B method saved time as well as an estimated $4.7 million and won the AASHTO President’s Transportation Award in 2018.

Rindlisbacher says the agency also has had success with accelerated bridge construction in recent years. “We did our first ABC project up near Coeur d’Alene a few years ago and then again to replace and widen a bridge in Cloverdale near Boise. We learned a lot from those, and we are committed to doing more,” he says.

The Road Ahead

Rindlisbacher表示，ITD正在改变其资金和启动项目的方法。18luck官网

“What we want to do is have our program for that fiscal year advertised or under contract, so we are spending the money in the fiscal year it is available instead of stockpiling and spending it over time,” he says.

“由于这个新的重点，我们的施工支付真的很快。这些数字并不像我们邻国的一些州，而是对我们来说，这很重要，“Rindlisbacher说。“例如，在2016年，在这一变革之前，我们在施工支出中获得了2.8亿美元。2019年，我们支付了4.52亿美元。“

Ness says another goal is training a new crop of leaders from within the organization to handle the coming wave of retirements.