Montoursville, PA – At a ceremony yesterday, Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) Secretary Mike Carroll recognized 30 PennDOT employees for their outstanding performance with the Star of Excellence Award, PennDOT’s highest recognition. Two employees from PennDOT’s District 3, which represents Bradford, Columbia, Lycoming, Montour, Northumberland, Snyder, Sullivan, Tioga, and Union counties were among the honorees.
“Every day, I am reminded of our employees’ dedication, their excellent customer service, and in many cases, their sacrifices,” said Carroll. “The accomplishments of our Stars of Excellence exemplify PennDOT’s mission to provide the very best transportation services to Pennsylvanians every day.
Local winners Chase Day and John Steininger were honored yesterday afternoon at an awards luncheon at the National Civil War Museum in Harrisburg.
“I congratulate John and Chase on their well-deserved Star of Excellence Award,” said Eric High, District Executive. “Their dedication to maintaining our current transportation infrastructure while planning complex maintenance operations is commendable, yet it’s their commitment to their coworkers and their expertise as supervisors that made them ideal recipients of this honor.”
Chase Day, Transportation Equipment Operator B in Montour County, is responsible for the daily maintenance of our infrastructure network to ensure a safe and passible roadway system for the traveling public.
Maintenance of our infrastructure is vast and includes repair, replacement, upgrades, snow removal, sign placement, landscaping, debris removal, preventative maintenance, traffic control, paving, bridge replacements, and emergency callouts.
Since starting his career with PennDOT, Chase has worked to improve his skillset, becoming certified to operate 14 types of equipment and completed several training courses to advance his knowledge in maintenance management. This training allowed Chase to supervise several crews in the successful completion of multiple maintenance activities such as pipe replacements.
Chase’s dedication to quality of service continues year around. Over the past several winter seasons, Montour County had several operator vacancies. Chase assisted the county by covering multiple snow routes spanning both shifts to ensure safe and passible roads for the traveling public. In addition, as one of the senior and knowledgeable operators in the county, he has mentored several less experienced employees to help them improve their skills.
In 2024, Chase was the primary excavator operator on a 550-foot retention wall project that Montour County Department Force completed in Mahoning Township. This was a challenging project, as the retaining wall varied in height from 5 to 14 feet and was located between a mountain and railroad tracks, added a degree of difficulty that required exceptional skill and concentration to complete. In addition to the challenging geometry, crews encountered rock that was much harder to dig than anticipated.
As result, additional excavation was needed to construct a level surface to begin placement of the blocks for the wall. Chase completed the excavation and the setting of the nearly 1,200 blocks, which were 2-foot by 1-foot by 6-foot in size, with no accidents or issues.
Over the past seven years with the department, Chase has proven to be a reliable employee, who completes quality work, responds to overtime, does not need supervision, and is an overall outstanding employee.
John Steininger, Assistant Highway Maintenance Manager (AHMM), began his career with the department in 1990 as a temporary Engineering Technician. He was hired in 1992 as a Civil Engineering Trainee and was quickly promoted to a Civil Engineer Supervisor in 1993, a position he held for seven years. In 2000, John was reassigned to Snyder County as the Roadway Program Coordinator and was ultimately promoted to his current position.
As an AHMM for Snyder / Union counties, John is responsible for maintaining state-owned roadways and bridges. This includes planning work, managing and scheduling crews, coordinating with vendors, managing day-to-day operations, and responding to emergencies.
John is a very involved and active AHMM who promotes efficiency and quality on a daily basis. His extensive knowledge of Snyder and Union counties have guided the organization to maintain cyclical efficiency when planning surface treatments, while completing the project on time and within budget.
A dedicated employee, always willing to assist others, John has mentored two newly hired AHMMs making sure county operations successfully continued after two long-time managers retired. His extensive construction and maintenance knowledge have been critical during county roadway reviews while mentoring Civil Engineer trainees through their summer and winter rotations. John has an open-door policy with his employees, always willing to listen and provide guidance when asked.
On August 9, 2024, the remnants of Hurricane Debby produced flash flooding that closed 85 roads in Columbia, Lycoming, Northumberland, Snyder, Sullivan, Tioga, and Union counties. To ensure the safety of our transportation network the district requested volunteers to assess the infrastructure of all roads and bridges that were impacted. Without hesitation, John volunteered to assist with the assessments.
Within 10 days of the flooding 900 bridge inspections were completed. Geotechnical crews reviewed embankments and slopes, and damage assessment crews performed roadway inspections throughout impacted counties. Over 120 state-owned roads/bridges were impacted in Lycoming, Sullivan, and Tioga counties totaling over $29 million in damages.
John is an outstanding employee, who always stepped up, made the extra effort, listened to employees, and ensured projects were planned and executed on time and within budget that makes this organization a great place to work.
Congratulations Chase and John on your Star of Excellence Award.
The Star of Excellence Awards are presented annually to employees who represent the department’s values of service, performance and integrity. The recipients represent a variety of organizational positions, spanning from highway maintenance and driver and vehicle services workers, to traffic control specialists, engineers and more.
For more information, visit www.penndot.pa.gov/District3.
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MEDIA CONTACT: Maggie Baker and Kim Smith at ra-pdd03crc@pa.gov
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