2019 Spotlight Award
Bonner County Road and Bridge: Locally Funded Improvements
Problem Statement: As with all road jurisdictions in Idaho, there is a shortage of funding to improve roads and always a high volume of demands for improvements from vocal residents who believe that their road deserves special consideration and priority for improvements. These vocal residents sometimes band together into groups and petition their elected officials for consideration. In order to establish a methodology for dealing with these issues, Bonner County has begun a Locally Funded Improvement program (LFI) and adopted those guidelines and procedures as part of the Bonner County Roads Standards Manual (BCRSM). (more…)
2019 Agency Winner
Jefferson County Road and Bridge: Mobile Repeater
Problem: The handheld 2-way radios used by Jefferson County employees during flagging operations were chronically unreliable due to their inherent inability to reach County radio repeaters. If a project was more than 2 miles away from a fixed repeater, the 2-way radios were extremely sporadic in their effectiveness. This made the flagging operations more dangerous for the flaggers and the paving and chipping crews for projects on Jefferson County roads.
2019 Individual Winner
Melvin Lanier and Andy Andrews – Custer County Road and Bridge: Fabric Roller
Problem: Rolling Geo-tech fabric by hand was time-consuming and difficult to keep in place.
Solution: Built an attachment for the front of the chip spreader to roll out while placing a thin layer of gravel to keep it in place. Saved on time and manpower.
Labor, Equipment, Materials: Built in half a day with recycled metal from old stacking conveyor and square tubing.
Summary of Expenses: 5 hours of labor and the cost of tubing totaled roughly $200
Fabricated by Andy Andrews
Designed by Andy Andrews and Melvin Lanier
Savings/Benefit: Able to do in 6 hours what would have taken several days.
Problem: Almon Street in Moscow was at one time paved with Portland Cement Concrete (PCC) pavement. Through many years of roadway maintenance and utility repair, this road segment has received multiple hot mix asphalt (HMA) overlays and the underlying PCC pavement has been sawcut and patched with HMA pavement in various locations. This has created a random patchwork of HMA and PCC pavement sections throughout the roadway alignment. The City sought to evaluate various pavement rehabilitation or reconstruction alternatives, and needed information about the extents of HMA thickness atop PCC pavement from which to base design and construction cost estimates. (more…)
2019 Agency Winner
City of Sandpoint: Design for Change School Gates
Problem: As part of a Design for Change class project, second graders identified safety concerns at Washington Elementary including cars parked in crosswalks, students and parents not using crosswalks and not listening to crossing guards, snow blocking ramps and crosswalks, faded paint, cars parked illegally and vehicles speeding. They wrote a letter addressing their concerns to the City and presented to the City Council. (more…)