May-June 2007, Vol. 73, No. 3

News Briefs

A Spin Past the Central Office

Competitors in the U.S. Open Cycling
Championships in Richmond April 7
exit Governor’s Street onto East Broad
Street just west of VDOT’s three
Central Office buildings.

VDOT Continues Successful Trend Toward Goals

VDOT continues progress toward exceeding all construction and maintenance deadlines and budget targets through the third quarter of fiscal year 2007 ending March 31. “Once again, this report shows that our unrelenting effort to deliver projects on time and on budget is changing our business,” said Commissioner David S. Ekern.

At the end of the quarter, 89 percent of construction contracts were completed on time, surpassing the 70 percent goal for FY 2007. In addition, 93 percent of those contracts were completed within budget, compared with a goal of 80 percent.

Meanwhile, 78 percent of maintenance contracts were finished on time while the goal is 75 percent. Also 95 percent were completed within budget. The goal is 90 percent.

The commissioner commented, “As we move forward into the next fiscal year, we will keep our focus on schedules and budgets while adding additional performance measures to drive improvements in customer satisfaction, financial accountability, safety and VDOT management.”

Route 1 Project Earns National Award

A partnership involving two state DOTs, a bridge company, consultants, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and several contractors has earned VDOT national recognition.

The National Partnership for Highway Quality (NPHQ) has named the Woodrow Wilson Bridge-Route 1 interchange advanced bridge project a 2006 Silver Winner in the Partnering Category in its annual “Making a Difference” awards. Project manager Ronaldo T. Nicholson commented, “This successful contract is a tangible demonstration of the collegial spirit that symbolizes the entire Wilson Bridge Project. It is an honor for our effort to be recognized by the roads and bridges industry.”

The award was given to VDOT for management of the project, which involved building a total of nine bridges over environmentally sensitive Cameron Run and Hunting Creek. They will line up with the soon-to-be-widened I-95/I-495 Capital Beltway. The interchange was an integral part of the overall $2.5 billion Woodrow Wilson Bridge Project, one of the largest construction projects in the U.S.

In addition to VDOT, the Maryland State Highway Administration, FHWA, R.R. Dawson Bridge Company and Potomac Crossing Consultants are named on the award in partnership with steel, concrete and other subcontractors. The NPHQ is a partnership of federal, state and roadway industry leaders that advocates customer-centered practices to produce better, safer, more user-friendly roads and bridges.

VDOT Rest Area is Environmentally Friendly

New Kent West Safety Rest Area

VDOT’s replacement safety rest area for motorists on I-64 west in New Kent County features more than 9,000 square feet of traveler amenities. They include additional restroom facilities, new landscaping, vending, handicapped accessibility and traveler information kiosks to better serve travelers. The travelers’ oasis was built to improve customers’ experiences, but it was also designed with sustainable or “green” building standards.

The New Kent County facility was built to meet the U. S. Green Building Council’s (USGBC) Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED®) standards and to potentially obtain the LEED Gold certification—which would make it the first commonwealth-owned building to achieve this certification.

VDOT created the new environmentally friendly facility using practices that include:

Saving $1.5 million and reducing construction debris by reusing all of the paved parking surfaces
Installing a system to collect more than 250,000 gallons of rainwater from the roof annually, which will be used for flushing the restroom facilities
Installing a 32-well geothermal system that uses the constant temperature 400 feet below the surface of the earth to reduce the need for supplemental heating and air conditioning

The New Kent facility was closed in September 2006 as part of a $20 million safety rest area improvement program to reconstruct three of the most heavily used facilities and upgrade others. It reopened ahead of schedule. The new I-81 south welcome center near Winchester and the I-95 south Welcome center in Fredericksburg are under construction.

VDOTers Receive Governor’s Award

VDOT employees received two of seven Governor’s Awards presented by Gov. Tim Kaine recently.

Langston T. Williams, assistant district equipment manager in Staunton District, received the award for workplace safety. Williams helped develop a national alert campaign designed to increase awareness about possible fires with a particular model tractor.

In addition, a team of 25 employees in the Central Office and Richmond District received the award for teamwork for their efforts on the Judith Stewart Dresser Memorial Bridge Project over the Chickahominy River. The project included a 2,500-foot-long, fixed-span structure to rise 52 feet above the river with one-half mile of approaches. Projects of this magnitude typically take three or more years to develop, but this team completed development in 18 months.

For more on this effort, which also received a Commissioner's Award of Excellence, see the May 2007 special edition of the Bulletin.

Changes on VirginiaDOT.org

You’ll notice some changes on VirginiaDOT.org, the agency’s external Web site.

To comply with new design mandates from the Virginia Information Technology Agency, the top of the site has been altered. This has been done in response to initiatives from Secretary of Technology Aneesh Chopra.

The first initiative is to provide a common “look and feel” to all state agency Web sites. As a result, new versions of the black bars at the top and bottom of the site's banner have been deployed.

Probably the greatest change is the addition of a second search box to the banner. This is in response to another initiative to allow Web users to search all state agency Web sites at once, regardless of the site they’re currently using.

There is now a box in the upper right corner of the site that says “Search Virginia.gov.” This will use Google to search the sites of all state agencies.

The search box you are accustomed to using is below that in the second black bar. It says “Search VirginiaDOT.org.” That box uses Google to search only the VDOT external site.

The black bars are being added to other sites that VDOT maintains, including the site for the Commonwealth Transportation Board.

Page last modified: Jan. 16, 2008