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These should be in every
building available for use by
March 1st. Please begin as
soon as you can with the
opportunity to enhance
safety in our Region. Once
the cards are received by
the safety committee, they
will be analyzed for oppor-
tunities to make our work
place safer. This commit-
tee will also provide you
with safety messages, re-
sults from observation
cards and statistics of our
workplace related to our
behaviors. Safety Committee
members include: Dan
Hinckley, Dave Black, Nick
Peterson, Erick Cox, Brent
Beach, Laurie Huntsman,
Robert Dowell, Rod Asay,
Matt McDonald and Gary
Orton.
ZE-ROads
We’re all familiar with the
term ZERO Fatalities. As
UDOT does all it can to
reduce fatalities on our
highways, we should also
consider our vision of Keep-
ing Utah Moving. A critical
goal to make that happen is
zero injuries not only on
the roads but in our offices,
shops, vehicles, heavy
equipment and work are-
as. Each of us can contrib-
ute to a culture that can
help Keep Utah Moving by
Recognizing and Observing
behaviors that can lead to
injury. Think of half of ZE-
RO as dependent on
me. Recognizing and Ob-
serving unsafe behaviors can
help us Achieve Depart-
ment Safety. As we seek
to implement our
R.O.A.D.S. behavioral
based safety training
throughout the state, re-
member how much we
depend upon and care for
each other and how many
people are depending on
us to Keep Utah Moving
and to see us return home
safely each day.
Each building in the Region
will be receiving observa-
tion card stations where
the cards will be available
and returned after com-
pleted. Remember that it
isn’t an “observation”
without a “conversation”
Rick Torgerson
Director What Does ROADS Mean to You?
Region Four Newsletter
February 2015 Region Four
EMPLOYEE APPRECIATION AWARD Would you like to recognize an employee for going above and beyond? Submit them for an Appreciation Award and they will be recognized with a cool UDOT shirt! To submit someone, fill out the Google Drive Form. Re-gion Leadership will select winners. The form can also be found on the Region website/Forms.
Strategic Goals:
Zero crashes, injuries and fatalities
Preserve Infrastructure
Optimize Mobility
Mission:
Innovating transportation solutions that strengthen Utah’s economy and enhance quality of life.
UDOT Vision:
Keeping Utah Moving
P A G E 2
2014 Construction Projects
SR-18 Redhills Parkway Interchange Cedar South Interchange DDI
US-89 Manti to Keller Lane
SR-128 Guardrail Safety
P A G E 3 R E G I O N F O U R
Christmas Day Casualty A Region Four employee was transported to the Beaver Valley Hospital following injuries he sustained when the 60,000-pound snowplow he was operating slid sideways and tipped over near south-bound I-15 Manderfield Exit.
The fully loaded truck was pushing snow to the side of the road while exiting the interstate when the tires were caught in the soft dirt to the side of the paved road and flipped over on its side, breaking the windows and injuring the driver.
The driver was treated for some lacerations and chest injuries. The truck itself was totaled. It was an old-er model that would cost an estimated $160,000 to $180,000 to replace, which is actually much cheaper than the newer models purchased in more recent years. Insurance is expected to cover the cost.
Fire in the Hole
In November
2014, there was
another rock slide on I-70. Most of the rocks were
too large for the crew to move. Von Bowerman and
Justin Woodard assisted the Salina Shed with the blast
to remove the rocks.
In September 2014, The employees of the R4 East District Blasting Crew and the Blanding Crew came together
quickly under the direction of Area Engineer Jim Chandler to clear a massive rock slide on SR-95 at Comb Ridge.
A Silver Barrel was awarded to those involved from the Blanding, Monticello, Moab and Thompson Crews.
P A G E 4
Letter to the Editor
R E G I O N F O U R N E W S L E T T E R
Von Bowerman
and Steve
Taylor from
the Thompson
Shed received
a Silver Barrel
for this post in
the Moab
Times
March 2 Cedar City Heritage Center/DCFS
March 3 St George Workforce Services
March 4 St George Dixie State University
March 5 St George Human Services
March 16 Price USU Eastern (Price Campus
March 17 Price Workforce Services
Register for your free myHealtyUtah account at
www.healthyutah.org/myhu/
Upcoming Healthy Utah Testing Sessions
Help from the mainte-nance guys….
Yes, that is what I need-ed when I was just pass-ing through your neck of the desert a couple of weeks ago. I was traveling alone for the first time through southern Utah in what we call “no-man’s-land.” When a man is just what I needed when my check engine light went on! At first I thought, “What is the point of stopping? There is absolutely noth-ing I can do about it any-way.” Then another deeper voice inside of me said “pull over now!” I was lucky to have at least an exit available. It was exit 204. I believe it was the Cisco exit. No services!
I was praying that I had stopped in an over-abundance of caution. I got out, checked the tires, 1-2-3-4, check! Looking good! Al-most there — I decided to check the oil too. That would be the worst thing to need out here, at the 204. I pulled out the dip, or is it the stick? Either way, I cleaned it and reinserted it, and checked it again. It was dry. Absolutely no oil in my car! I immediately texted my hus-band back in Denver, because I was sure he could help me somehow. I was only 250 miles away. I’m sure he could slip away from work for me, right? OK, plan B had to be formed immediately. Off in the distance, practically at the horizon, I saw a little white truck with yellow lights on top. This was going to have to be the next best thing
to having my husband race out to save the day. I got back in my car and flashed my brights at him, praying again (did I men-tion I pray a lot) that he would save me! He slowly made his way up to me. He checked the dipstick again, just in case some oil had magically been hiding in there. Another prayer. This nice stranger was able to procure some oil from another road maintenance man and get me back on my way in around 30 minutes. I was saved! By angels on the road maintenance crew working near the exit of 204. In the middle of “no-man’s-land” I found real men! Thank you guys! —Donna Allred Aurora, Colorado
R E G I O N F O U R P A G E 5
Date: Thu, Sep 25, 2014 at 8:41 PM
Subject: Wildlife underpasses
Hi my name is Garrett Fresh. I am 14 years old and I love hunting. I
have a deer and cow elk tag this year. I am very excited for hunting. I
watched KSL's report about the deer underpasses. I just wanted to say
thank you so much for doing that, it will really help me and Utah.
Thank You 11/24/2014 Dear UDOT employees, Two weeks ago I took my family on a trip to Southern California to enjoy some time at Dis-neyland and to hit a few beaches. I just wanted to tell you how enjoyable our drive through Utah was. The roads were smooth, well-maintained, well-marked and just overall really enjoyable to travel along as we made our way to California. The same couldn’t necessarily be said for the other state highways. Thank you for all you do in keeping our roadways safe, smooth and clean. I know it takes a lot of work and a lot of hours to maintain so many road-ways and highways. And I know you usually just hear from people complaining—but not today! Todd Hollingshead Orem
Sunday, March 9th, 2014
Hello,
Just wanted to give a big "thank you" to one of your rest area
employees. On February 4th around 8am, I was at the Parago-
nah rest area on southbound I-15, taking a nap in my car. The
man snowblowing the sidewalks waited until I was awake be-
fore running the machine in front of the car. I could see
where he had started down the sidewalk, then turned around
and worked on a different area because he must have saw me
snoozing. When I awoke and began to stir, he started back
and finished the sidewalk.
Thanks!
Jared from Wyoming
I received a call on 1/13/15 from a
truck driver that wanted our Snow
Plow Drivers to know how much he
appreciated their good work. He said
that Utah has the best roads when it
comes to winter driving. Our people
have the roads cleared of snow better
than anywhere he has been. He asked
that I get the word out to them that
he really appreciated all that you do to
keep drivers safe.
Keep up the Good Work!
Wendy Nez
March 14, 2014
My name is Joe Kolasky and I reside in Washington, Utah. I would like to take this opportunity to thank UDOT and
District Engr. Jim McConnell for all the effort that he put forth getting the guard rail and restraining cable installed along
the South side of I-15 between Green Springs Dr. and the end of the North bound onramp at St. George Blvd. As a
resident I spent countless time stopped at the signal on Red Cliffs Dr. and Mall Dr.. I could see these semi-trucks 30
above me and 50 foot away traveling at 75 miles per hour, and the only protection I had was a chain link fence. I knew
this was a safety issue that needed to be addressed. I contacted the District Engr. and conveyed my concerns to
him. And after about 2 years I was informed that some funding had been found and that UDOT agreed that it was a
safety issue and installed guard rail & restraining cables, job well done, again I thank UDOT for making the citizens in
Washington and St. George a little safer.
Joe Kolasky
P A G E 6
Annual Conference CANstruction
R E G I O N F O U R N E W S L E T T E R
Nevada Flooding Impacts R4 on US 93 in Nevada and SR-56 in Utah. Traffic was routed to SR-56 at exit 59 in Cedar City. During this operation, all traf-fic that was backed up on I-15 in both areas was routed through these areas with the intersection of SR-56 and I-15 and the intersection of SR-18 and SR-56 being heavily impacted. Much manpower and equipment was neces-sary to manage these inter-sections, provide positive driver feedback and direc-tions, and to accommodate the heavy traffic. Once the traffic was rerout-ed onto I-15, it became ob-vious that a 22 mile section of SR-56 was severely damaged and would not hold up through the winter snow plow opera-
On September 6th, an excep-tionally large thunder storm washed out a portion on I-15 near Glendale Nevada, ne-cessitating the closure of I-15 through this area for a period of 10 days. With this closure, travel to and from Las Vegas to Salt Lake City along I-15 was im-possible without rerouting to local road networks in Utah and Nevada. Immediately after the event, UDOT crews in the St. George area assist-ed Arizona in clean-up opera-tions in the Virgin River Gorge to facilitate travel through that area to Mesquite on the South. It became necessary to route traffic on local roadways to facilitate travel and freight movement. A detour was put into place which routed traffic
tions. Crews from Cedar, Cedar Mountain, Long Val-ley, Kanab, Purgatory and Beryl Junction worked swiftly to repair the road-way for the winter season. This immense undertaking, fast response, and safety oriented management pro-vided a viable route for I-15 traffic through these areas.
The Region’s submission won awards for “Best Use of Labels”
and “Peoples Choice”
The Region 4 “Zero Fatalites: Don’t Drive Sauced!” structure
was created by contrasting two different brands of tomato
sauce in order to delineate each letter in “zero.” The structure
is composed of over 7,000 cans. The simple but stable struc-
ture is double sided to reinforce UDOT’s Zero Fatality goal.
Remember don’t drive “sauced,” distracted, drowsy, aggres-
sive, or without proper restraints!
Thanks to our sponsors Lochner, Jones & Demille, Redmond
Minerals, Sunrise, Fresh Market and Civil Science.
R4 Team:
Laurie Huntsman, Captain
Brandon Weight
Bryan Blood
Cameron Gay
Clayton Wilson
Cody Marchant
Sam Grimshaw
Devin Monroe
John Fraidenburg
Jeff Bunker
May Anderson
Rhett Arnell
P A G E 7 R E G I O N F O U R
Who Retired in 2014
Ed Pectol
Cedar City Supervisor Kathy Ryan
Green River Supervisor
Not Pictured:
Norma Daniels - Accounting Tech III, 25 Years
Jay Ekker – Thompson Lead, 23 Yrs
David Johnson – Colton Supervisor, 30 Yrs
David Theobold - Purgatory Lead, 23 Yrs
Dell Tait – Long Valley Trans Tech II, 31 Years
Kerry Savage—Transportation PM, 28 Years
Terry Wiseman—Milford Supervisor, 40 Years
Layne Slack
Area Supervisor
42 yrs
30 yrs
30 yrs
Grant Bagley
Cedar City Lead
20 yrs
Gary Lamoreaux
Cedar Paint
40 yrs
Teri Peterson
Safety Loss Coordinator
35 yrs
George Leighton
Safety Loss Coordinator
32 yrs Lewis Rasmussen
Mt Pleasant Lead
24 yrs
Dave Babcock
Fleet Manager
39 yrs
Delta High School Helps Spread the Word
P A G E 8
R E G I O N F O U R N E W S L E T T E R
9th graders from all over central Utah participated in the Career Fair held at the Sevier
Valley Center in April. The Richfield Maintenance Station displayed a snowplow and
loader outside while the Preconstruction group got technological inside with 3D model-
ing and traffic simulation to better understand project proposals and make better deci-
sions to meet project goals; 3D surfaces, survey & GIS and how we can overlay project
data into maps to help us see our project impacts; and Paleontology and modern day
artifact displays and showed a video about how to make stone tools.
Thanks to:
Pam Higgins
Cameron Gay
Riley Lindsay
Brady Roberts
Kade Murdock
Lance Mooney
Mark Laws
The Governing Youth Council at Delta High School was awarded the first place prize of $1,000 for their participation in the Zero Fatalities Program through the UDOT. Each month GYC student members plan and carry out an activity, highlighting the im-portance of wearing seat belts and driving safely. This year's activities included an assembly featuring Amberlee Snyder, who talked on wearing seat belts and overcoming obstacles; safe winter driving tips, passing out "Don't Drive Stupid" prod-ucts at the Junior Prom, and a variety of others. Also, Shaylee LeFevre put on a "Run to Remember" in memory of her broth-er Michael, as part of her Sterling Scholar projects. We want to thank all of the Delta High students who helped
or participated in these activities, as their involvement helped us win the $1,000. The money will go to help with future Zero Fatali-ties Campaigns to help remind our students to drive safely.
Troy Torgersen took this bison on November 17th
during a once-in-a-lifetime Hunters Choice Hunt on the
Henry Mountain Range.
It has come to our attention that the Region would like
to see more hunting pictures in the future. Send your
trophy pictures to Jami Gentry [email protected] and they
may be featured in the next newsletter.
HUNTIN’ PIX Hunting Party: Lyndon Friant, Bret Sorenson, Lief Condie,
Daniel Torgersen and Troy Torgersen.
2015 Construction Projects Pin Project Status RT Begin End
11454 SR-7; Warner Valley to Washington Dam Road Under Construction 7 7 10
9991 US-89; Manti Under Construction 89 256 259
9993 US-6; Soldier Summit to White River Under Construction 6 211 215
10784 I-15; Pine Creek Climbing Lanes & ITS/ATMS Awarded 15 121 129
10786 US-6; Passing Lanes MP 273 to MP 290 Awarded 6 256 300
10787 I-15; Beaver Ridge Climbing Lanes Project Advertised 15 100 105
11514 SR-9; Arch Bridge to 500 N. in Laverkin Awarded 9 10 13
11522 I-70; MP 141.1 to MP 147 Awarded 70 141 147
11524 US-89; Jct. SR-12 to Panguitch Awarded 89 124 131
12437 SR-116; Y Connect to Mt. Pleasant Awarded 116 2 7
12187 SR-14; MP 13-17, Guardrail & Barrier Improvements Awarded 14 13 17
12188 US-163; MP 0.00-41.41, Install Guardrail Awarded 163 0 42
12463 SR-10; Castle Dale to Jct. SR-29 Awarded 10 38 41
12466 SR-56; Iron Mountain to Iron Springs Road Awarded 56 45 56
12483 I-15; Fillmore to South Holden Advertised 15 168 173
12484 US-163; AZ State Line to MP 11.015 Awarded 163 0 11
12486 SR-25; Fish Lake Road Advertised 25 0 10
12504 SR-24; Loa to Lyman Advertised 24 51 56
12845 US-50; Jct. SR-125 to Jct. SR-100 Awarded 50 93 108
12855 US-191; Blanding Cemetery to Devil's Canyon Awarded 191 52 60
R E G I O N F O U R P A G E 9
For more information on upcoming projects go to UDOT PROJECTS and search for projects in your area.
More 2014 Projects
I-15 Leeds 20 to 24
I-70 Yellowcat to West Cisco
SR-17 Shoulder Widening
I-15 North Beaver to Manderfield
MP 0—140 Barrier Guardrail
US-89 Kanab to Kanab Creek
Southern Parkway 4A
SR-6 Skyview to Tucker