JL
Living in Louisiana for the past four years as a Colorado native, I recognized the critical role transportation plays in our daily lives and the importance of providing the public with sufficient roads and infrastructure. We walk every day, ride our bikes, or use a car to get to work. Some days we take the train or the bus; but every day, we move from one place to the next. Without adequate roads, bike paths, and sidewalks, the things we do every day seem to get difficult. With all this in mind, I found my calling in life while attending Louisiana State University to assist the public with dilemmas regarding safety and infrastructure. But little did I know this was only just the beginning.
As I graduated from my undergraduate degree and advanced into my MSc in Urban Development and Management, I longed for a way to bridge the gap between the skillset I developed in Louisiana and my future endeavors in transportation. The Colorado Department of Transportation was just that.
While I had done work with the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development (LADOTD) during my undergrad, my depth of experience was minimal. CDOT allowed me to recognize the various moving parts of a State DOT and put me in a position where I was able to apply real-world perspective to my graduate degree. The knowledge I have gained by working in Engineering Applications, the Office of Process Improvement, and the Division of Transit and Rail has reignited my passion to truly make a difference in the transportation field.
Engineering Applications
When I initially got hired on at CDOT, I had the pleasure of working in the Engineering Applications Department in the Division of Project Support. Engineering Applications, a part of the Technology Peak at CDOT, focuses on AASHTOWare training and support, and implementing new technology at project sites and throughout CDOT.
The Engineering Applications team worked with Project Engineers (PEs), Regional Engineers (REs), and CDOT Consultants to identify new technologies, hardware and software, designed for the construction and transportation industries by launching a pilot program throughout the agency called eConstruction. eConstruction was the largest initiative I got to be a part of while at CDOT. Throughout my time, I not only organized demonstrations for software we already planned on piloting, but I also identified vendors of other software with similar capabilities to those we were already piloting. I was given the opportunity to visit multiple project sites across CDOT’s five regions to meet with pilot project users to find what was and what wasn’t working in the field, and also assisted various CDOT employees with learning how to utilize the software by providing one-on-one demonstrations. I assisted our team with leading Weekly Touchbase Calls where pilot project users would discuss any questions, concerns or issues they had with the pilot project, conducted a Return on Investment (ROI) Analysis study to determine the effectiveness of implementing various software in the field, and with the help of Marketing Consultant, Jen Van Rensburg, made the eConstruction pilot project become a finalist for the Colorado Technology Association’s Annual APEX Award for the Project of the Year. Most of my presentation to the Executive Management team at CDOT focused on eConstruction and my efforts with the project.
Smart Forms
For a successful pilot and eventual adoption of eConstruction processes at CDOT, the Engineering Applications team recognized the importance of also implementing digital CDOT forms that could be used in the field by PEs and REs to ultimately help them save time running back and forth from the project site to their office to enter in weekly and daily reports required for their projects. While CDOT’s Northwest Region employee, Sarah Tunget, had already created SharePoint Smart Forms in-house, the team sought a platform that could sync with our legacy software and also provide a data-housing system for the information documented in CDOT’s various forms. I assisted Sarah in finding various software programs that fit our specs and capability requirements and set up demonstrations that fit CDOT’s needs. Throughout all meetings, I made sure that each demonstration was thoroughly documented to assist the Smart Forms team with making adequate decisions for the agency.
Graphics and Videos
Unlike many departments in CDOT, Engineering Applications continuously produces publications regarding updates on projects for the department. I had the pleasure of working closely with Jen Van Rensburg to create various graphics for the Engineering Applications Fiscal Year 2017 Profile & Report, an eConstruction Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) Webinar highlighting CDOT’s eConstruction efforts, and graphics for an ITS World Congress presentation when the team was selected to present at the 2017 Congress in Montreal. I also created video scripts to assist the eConstruction team receive grant funding from CDOT’s Executive Management Team (EMT) and produced a year in review video of the Engineering Applications team.
The Situational Awareness project provides visibility to a situation on the roadway by presenting all available content and resources in a single view, enabling personnel to monitor and manage situations that occur on a day to day basis. This is accomplished by controlling the variables to ensure a successful outcome. Incident commanders, business managers, and other personnel can monitor current roadway situations from anywhere through a web based solution affording them access to relevant, real-time data and dynamic and static asset information. During my initial weeks at CDOT, I worked to implement situational awareness programs that other state DOTs found to be successful, and researched our current programs by commuting back and forth between our Corporate Circle CDOT office in Golden, Colorado and the CDOT HQ to communicate information to various stakeholder groups.
Articles
Unlike many departments at CDOT, the Engineering Applications Department was coincidentally all female. As I learned more and more about the STEM field while actually being in the industry as an employee for the first time, I recognized that this was a rare occurrence and it got the wheels in my head turning. How could I make a difference for not just women within my agency, but also minorities within CDOT? Eventually I came to terms with an idea of creating an article about combatting internal biases within the workplace in regards to minorities, but focused on the female demographic as it continues to increase in population in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields. The article was published in the CDOT Hub, and was well-received across the agency.
Office of Process Improvement
To improve daily operations by delivering exceptional services to the state of Colorado, CDOT utilizes continuous improvement tools and practices the principles of Lean through the direction of its Office of Process Improvement (OPI). The OPI runs on the mantra of "Everyone, Every Day, Improving Every Process and Every Product, To Benefit Every Customer." Progress and improvement never stop, and as a human being and employee at CDOT, I strived to embody OPI’s values and goals. Even when things started to slow down as the season progressed, I was inspired to keep learning and growing and took on additional projects within Engineering Applications, the Office of Process Improvement, and the Division of Transit and Rail.
Graphics and Articles
While working in the OPI, I also created graphics for their Change Agent Network Kickoff Presentations, and assisted in writing an article on the Lean processes that were applied during the construction of the new CDOT HQ in the Sun Valley area of Denver.
Division of Transit and Rail
Public transportation is a vital need for many Colorado residents and visitors, and the future of the state’s infrastructure and connectivity initiatives. Transit services connect residents, employees, and visitors to major activity centers such as jobs, schools, shopping, medical care, and recreation. These transit services are important contributing factors to the economic, social, and environmental health of the state and also provide many benefits. CDOT’s Division of Transit & Rail assists with the planning, development, operation, and integration of transit and rail system throughout the state and coordinates with other transit and rail providers to plan, promote, and implement investments in transit and rail services.
In the Division of Transit and Rail, I assisted their grant team with compiling source documents required for their Federal Transit Administration (FTA) State Management Plan review process that takes place annually. I introduced their department to a cohesive Project Management system, Trello, to create an open forum for team members to view project progress in order for the FTA to conduct a successful State Management Plan review. While I was unable to assist them to my full capabilities due to time constraints as I left for my graduate studies, I created a package that their team could continue to utilize as they continue through the review process.
Participation in Employee Engagement Activities
CDOT believes in growing and developing their team so everyone loves to come to work and others want to work for the best DOT in the country. In my opinion, CDOT lived up to my expectations by providing me with incredible engagement opportunities throughout the agency. However, two of my personal favorite employee engagement opportunities were participating in Bike to Work Day 2017 and being able to become a Certified Bicycle Friendly Driver.
Bike to Work Day 2017
As a firm believer in utilizing multimodal transit to access our places of work, participating in Bike to Work Day 2017 was a given for me, but it was also refreshing to have a state DOT be so supportive of the initiative. Everyone in the CDOT Multimodal Planning Branch came together with other local entities to create a successful event not only within our agency, but for the state of Colorado. It was so incredible to see so many employees participate in Bike to Work Day not only at HQ, but across all the regional offices where commutes are far longer.
Becoming a Certified Bicycle Friendly Driver
To increase my knowledge on Bike/Ped. Issues, when the Bicycle and Pedestrian Planning Section of CDOT’s Multimodal Planning Branch partnered with the City of Fort Collins to teach 1 ½ hour interactive classes to CDOT employees to educate us on the best and safest ways to share the road with people on bicycles, I signed up immediately. While I knew a lot of tidbits of information in regards to being a better driver to accommodate cyclists on the road, this class increased my knowledge exponentially. The class was very informative and I walked away ready to apply the skills I learned not only on the job at CDOT when I drove state fleet vehicles, but during my personal life as well.
Working in a new and different field than what you are used to is never easy-but the support I received from the people I worked with daily at CDOT made me want to come into work and challenge myself to be the best employee I could possibly be.
With that said, I would like to formally thank my supervisors, Gary Vansuch, the Director of Process Improvement, for connecting me with so many different opportunities throughout my time at the agency, and Lekshmy Sankar, Engineering Applications Department Manager, for always challenging me, looping me in on projects most entry-level positions would not be able to tackle, and for being a great mentor and friend. Both Lekshmy and Gary are true testaments of people that go above and beyond at CDOT. Because they believed in me, I was granted the opportunity of a lifetime to learn so much in a four month period, and for that I am eternally grateful.