Meet the NDDOT District 8 Engineer
"We have the population," he said. "The roads greatly support our local economy and jobs." Walton believes construction projects are challenging for all districts since the main concern is safety. Another concern is traffic delays during construction. This makes design a crucial part of the process. Design for major projects usually takes place at the NDDOT main office in Bismarck. According to Walton, District 8 is unique since it maintains the Department of Transportation Support Center at North Dakota State University which operates year-round with assistance from college students. "We try to develop and drive a lot of what happens in the Fargo-Wahpeton area right here," he said. During the I-29 construction this past summer, Walton received many comments about driving conditions. However, he believes a lot of negative feedback was alleviated due to information that was shared through a public relations campaign. "It's all about letting the public know what we have, so they can make better decisions," he said. "Of course, what we're always shooting for is safety." Live cameras were used on www.i29fargo.com to evaluate and understand what was happening to the traveling public to better suit their needs. In the future, the NDDOT is looking forward to Intelligent Transportation Systems. "We're not getting any more employees so we're trying to meet expectations through technology and better equipment," Walton said. With ITS technology, District 8 could be better outfitted with coordinated signal timing, traffic sensors, effective communications and dynamic message signs (electronic message boards). Pavement surface and environmental sensors have been installed in three locations in District 8 and have been extremely helpful already. "Those devices help us a lot more to get to trouble areas ahead of time," he said. "As quickly as weather changes, it helps us make decisions." Walton said the NDDOT works with ATAC to facilitate traffic flow. He thinks ATAC is a great resource for identifying and analyzing trouble spots, developing effective traffic signal plans across jurisdictional lines, and gathering traffic data to monitor flow during construction. Walton said it is helpful for the NDDOT to have a source for seasonal and daily tracking. ATAC has supported the NDDOT through several completed studies over the past two years. Walton's experiences in the field lead him to his job at the NDDOT. He graduated from North Dakota State University in 1981 with a degree in civil engineering. He then went to work in oil fields in the southern part of the U.S. Soon after, he went back for five months of military education as a member of the Army Reserve and then moved back to Fargo-Moorhead. He earned a master's degree in business administration from Minnesota State University Moorhead in 1994. While in graduate school, he was activated for Desert Storm with a unit in Bismarck. This was where he developed a relationship with people at the NDDOT and lead to a job in 1991 in program and project development. He wrote environmental documents for rural road construction projects for three years and accepted a position as urban engineer for the NDDOT. He then served as assistant planning and programming engineer where he worked to schedule projects in North Dakota based on funding constraints. In April 1999, he became the District 8 engineer. Walton believes the best part of working for the NDDOT is that his job is never boring. "We've always met the challenge in this district and that's so satisfying," he said. Did You Know...North Dakota has more miles of road per capita than any state in the nation. North Dakota has the second smallest department of transportation, in terms of employees, in the nation. NDDOT maintains more lane-miles of roads per maintenance employee than any other state in the nation. In North Dakota there are more vehicles registered than there are residents of the state. (Information available at: www.state.nd.us/dot/) |
In this issue...
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Of the many challenges a district engineer faces, keeping travelers happy tops the list for Bob Walton. District 8, which encompasses Fargo and the surrounding communities, is heavily populated and has experienced the most growth among North Dakota areas, according to the last census. Due to the large amount of traffic and business commuters, the city requires better maintained roads and Walton believes this is top priority.