Retirements: Warren Roberts

On Feb. 29,  Construction and Materials team celebrated the retirement of Warren Roberts. 

Warren has been with MoDOT for 29 years and his last role was as Assistant Construction and Materials Engineer. 



In addition to his role in CM, he also worked on the kcICON project. 

Jarraff Stretches Aerial Brush Trimming to New Lengths

MoDOT maintenance crews are trying out a new piece of equipment this winter in Cass County that can trim tree branches and brush up to 80 feet in the air – and do it safely at unheard of speed. 

The Jarraff is a self-propelled tractor with an extendable fiberglass boom that has a spinning 24-inch saw blade on the end that can twist 45 degrees. The operator sits in heated cabs that can rotate 360 degrees. The equipment itself is articulated on large, all-terrain tires that can maneuver across most of the roughest ground along a highway.

It’s just the thing when the tree branches are growing out over the roadway and creating a canopy that can rain down debris in stormy weather or grow low enough to damage trucks and other equipment with high loads traveling down shaded highways. 

MoDOT Maintenance Superintendent Travis Jones describes the equipment and explains the advantages.

“We just started using it Feb. 6,” he said. “We’ve cut everything (hanging over or near Route 7) from Pleasant Hill to Harrisonville. We can’t keep up with the Jarraff with our brush chippers; we have to shove it off the road and come back when we’re done.”

“It lets you get all the way to the right of way line and the Jarraff doesn’t even leave the roadway,” Jones said. Although they can accomplish so much from the roadway, the equipment can leave the hard surface, go down into the ditches and brush and get to areas that a bucket truck never could.  

Not many workers look forward to going through all that, being raised 75 feet in the air in a bucket and starting up and swinging a heavy chainsaw, sometimes quite close to powerlines.

The Jarraff’s fiberglass boom insulates the operators in case they mistakenly brush a power line. Ribs on the boom prevent the brush from sliding down the boom toward the operator. A lowboy trailer brings the Jarraff to the job site, but after that it can travel at 9 mph and continually cut brush overhead and alongside the roadway. Although most branches high over the roadway are far smaller, the equipment can cut up to 18 inches of wood.

The Kansas City District is the second to use the equipment, after the Southwest District earlier this year. It shows its value in both speed and safety. 

Once his crews finish up Route 7 to Blue Springs, it will go to Marshall crew and back to work.  

Tandem Dump Truck Fleet Changing to Improve Durability

We’ve all come to expect MoDOT’s heavy equipment to sport the same shade of yellow, but that is changing. More and more beds on MoDOT’s tandem dump trucks will be a shiny metallic, not yellow. 
 

“We bought 18 dump trucks with stainless steel beds this year and we’re looking at another 15 next year, starting in July (the beginning of the next fiscal year),” said Joey Hinton, Kansas City District General Services Manager.

The new stainless steel beds will steadily replace the plate steel beds that the Kansas City District’s 204-truck fleet has been using for decades.

 

While the stainless steel beds cost about $1,800 more than the steel beds, they will last far longer because salt and other road chemicals don’t corrode stainless beds. Those same chemicals will quickly rust out a standard 10-gauge steel bed .

 
The first three stainless beds have been delivered to the Kansas City District, and represent a first for MoDOT statewide.  While they cost more up front, the beds last longer and can be transferred from one truck to another as aging units cycle out and are replaced.

MoDOT’s truck mechanics and maintenance workers have made the old plain steel beds last 10 to 12 years, but only by cutting out rusted steel and welding in patches.

 
The rebuild costs run about $5,000 to $8,000 per truck, which far outstrip the additional cost of a stainless steel bed that will last far longer without a rebuild.
 
“We usually rebuild the (corroded) steel beds two times,” Hinton said. “We replace the side rails, the floors, then sandblast and send them out for painting.” That’s why some trucks look shiny and new, and some people seem to think MoDOT has an entire fleet of new trucks when only a few are new and the rest are aging units with fresh paint.

 MoDOT mostly uses Navistar trucks with steel beds, and the trucks last up to 12 years or 150,000 to 200,000 miles. MoDOT rebuilds engines on these units, too, and that investment may come as early as 100,000 miles or sooner.  

Now the department is expanding its fleet to include other manufacturers: Western Star (Daimler) and Mack trucks, which have different engines than the Navistar units.  It will give MoDOT a better comparison of efficiency and durability to help the department determine value when replacing tandem trucks.

MoDOT KC District Takes Part in College Career Fairs

Members of MoDOT’s KC District Office recently hit the road looking for the best and brightest in engineering students, with the hopes of them someday joining the MoDOT team.

Stops included Iowa State, Kansas State, the University of Kansas and the University of Missouri-Kansas City. The recent visits to these institutions of higher learning gave MoDOT representatives a chance to look for future interns and for full-time Civil Engineering hires as well as possible candidates for the entire state.

Visiting these college campuses also gave current MoDOT employees a chance to rekindle old memories of their schools days.  Construction Inspector Josh Motti returned to his alma mater, KU where he got his first taste of engineering.

It’s been two years since he left KU, but his return to recruit future team

members was very gratifying. “The career fair was, without a doubt, a learning experience and it was really awesome to see my professors and classmates,” Motti said. “I had an excellent time and I am definitely grateful for having the opportunity to take part in this,” Motti added.

Motti also said that he would love to represent MoDOT at future KU Career Fairs for many years to come.

Not everyone can say they had a great experience like Motti did. Resident Engineer Brian Burger is a MU grad, so being on KU’s campus was a little bit out of his comfort zone.

Aside from Burger’s discomfort, the search for top talent was of course the goal of the college visits. A special thanks goes to Melissa Mahoney, Steve Collyott, Brian Burger, Perry Allen, Josh Motti, Kati Horner, Lindsay Harris, Dennis Crego and Holli Berry for making the trek in hopes of finding the future MoDOT team member.

MoDOT Goes Red

Some of the men & women @modot_kc showing their support #WearRedDay #GoRedDay for the American Heart Association.

MoDOT Health and Safety Team Looks for Clues to Get You Home Safely

Scott Melton’s team knows the work they do probably won’t make for a good prime-time network television series. That’s fine by him, for he knows they can be successful delivering something more than merely an hour’s entertainment.

If, after pouring over all the factors that may be involved in a safety incident they can find clues that can prevent a repeat, then they win, and so do hundreds of MoDOT employees and the public.

“We are looking for trends going back five years,” said Melton, the Kansas City District’s Safety and Health manager. Department members look at all the factors that are involved in an injury or property damage incident,

everything from time of day, day of the week, how much or little experience a worker has doing the task involved in the incident, the training, oversight, complacency and how long they’ve been employed – pretty much every factor they can put into evaluating the incident and weighing it against changes that could prevent the next incident.

“It helps guide us to identify where and how to do classroom training,” Melton said. “The overall goal is that we all go home safe. The last thing we want to do is make that phone call . . .”

Setting up a matrix of as many factors as possible to identify problems can often predict where they are more frequent or likely to recur. They try to be as meticulous and thorough as a detective, and the method is proven to deliver results.

“You’ve heard that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, but you have to closely identify what is occurring,” Melton said. Timely, thorough and accurate reporting of an incident is critical. “Today’s incident may be tomorrow’s serious or fatal accident.”

Over this past year, Melton’s team has noticed higher numbers of incidents in Jackson and Clay Counties, where population density is higher, more MoDOT workers are active and there may be many who lack the years of experience.

“Some of it can be attributed to the 100-plus seasonal and temporary workers we’ve brought in,” Melton said. But stopping there could not give them the fullest picture of what is happening, what the risks may be. “We are looking to identify everything we can about incidents to be proactive and almost predictive.”

The type of accident, or the location, or time of day, week or season could be a telling clue. One incident raises awareness; two incidents show an emerging trend; a third incident identifies the trend and leads safety officers in a direction that they hope will prevent a fourth incident.

“There’s truly a science to safety,” Melton said. “We try to bring in the engineering element to engineer out risk.” That can happen by changing the time of day a task is performed, or the location, or whether more than one person is involved. That’s why spotters are used to prevent incidents involving backing up of equipment.

Reducing injuries or property damage also pays dividends financially, since MoDOT is self-insured and liability and medical costs come off the top, directly out of the department’s budget.

Urging employees to be safe is only part of the battle, Melton said. “We do much of our work out in the middle of the roadway. Passing motorists are doing everything behind the wheel except driving their cars. I need them to concentrate on just driving their cars.” And he wants MoDOT employees to constantly be aware of the dangers inattentive drivers will always pose. 

PPE isn’t a superman’s suit, Melton reminds. “It provides a layer of safety, but doesn’t make you immune to danger. Always be aware of your situation.”

High Friction Surface Treatment Grant

MoDOT’s Kansas City District will test a surface treatment at southbound I-29 exit ramp to southbound I-635 to determine whether the high-friction application improves safety and vehicle control.

The project is among nine throughout the state funded through a nearly $1 million federal grant.

MoDOT District Traffic Engineer Laurel McKean said the project is expected to be awarded this summer. It will be evaluated for duration, durability and effectiveness in reducing crashes. She said the new surface treatment allows for better moisture drainage as well as increased friction. Wet roadways, particularly on curves, can lead to loss of control and vehicles leaving the highway, which is often a factor in serious injury or fatality accidents.

Two-thirds of run-off-the-road crashes occur on curves. If the high-friction treatment shows to be effective in helping motorists maintain control, it can add another crucial tool to MoDOT’s efforts in crash reduction.

In addition to curves, some roadway surfaces can become prematurely polished, reducing pavement friction and allowing vehicles to skid or hydroplane during braking. The high-friction treatment could improve those areas, such as steep grades or at approaches to intersections.

The treatment includes placing a thin layer of specially engineered, durable, high friction aggregates on top of the pavement. MoDOT tested the treatment on Route 54 in Jefferson City two years ago with positive results. The Federal Highway Administration’s Accelerating Innovation Deployment grant will allow MoDOT to conduct more extensive testing in a variety of situations in nine more locations, with one project in each of the department’s seven districts.