PennDOT Honors Employees for Innovation and Dedication

Harrisburg, PA – The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) today recognized PennDOT employees with Innovation Awards for their efforts to improve work practices and create efficiencies. 1 team member from PennDOT District 8, which represents Adams, Cumberland, Dauphin, Franklin, Lancaster, Lebanon, Perry, and York counties was among the honorees. 

“PennDOT employees have demonstrated a tireless dedication to the Department’s mission and goals,” said PennDOT Secretary Mike Carroll. “I’m proud to see so many examples of that dedication and recognize those employees for their creativity in solving problems and improving processes.”

The annual Innovation Awards Ceremony recognizes some of the best and most innovative ideas cultivated and implemented by PennDOT employees across the Department. Employees who assessed and improved processes, systems, and tools they were using to meet the need of Pennsylvania drivers are considered for the award. Each employee receives a custom award that represents PennDOT’s appreciation for their dedication and commitment to efficient and effective operations at all levels of the organization.

Carroll and other department executives honored PennDOT District 8 winner Paula Beatty. Beatty was recognized for her efforts to improve the PA VideoLog workflow. VideoLogging is a term PennDOT uses to describe its automated collection of pavement conditions and roadway imagery. The VideoLog data is collected on all state-owned bituminous and jointed concrete pavements by a vehicle called a VideoLog Van. The PA VideoLog system is where this data is stored. Following the identification of a workflow issue when entering data in different fields, additional functionality was added to the PA VideoLog system to allow users to tab between fields rather than manually moving their mouse to click into each field before entering data, making it a more productive and user-friendly system.

“Like many at the Department, Paula always looks for ways to be more efficient,” said Acting District Executive for PennDOT District 8 Kevin Keefe. We are honored to recognize Paula for her efforts to improve workflow.”

Additionally, the following winners from PennDOT’s central office were honored at today’s ceremony:

Terrence G. Pearsall Jr., Facilities Management Division Chief, Bureau of Office Services: Building Deficiency Identification Numbering.

Deficiencies for Department-owned buildings, along withcosts to correct them, are placed in a database called WebiFM. The logged deficiencies listed individually for each building, though detailed, had no way of tracking with a specific identifier. While completing a facility condition assessment of Department-owned buildings, a numerical identifier was added in WebiFM to better serve PennDOT's building inventory and validate when deficiencies are addressed. Use of the numerical identifier has improved the tracking process for construction/renovation projects. Upon project close out, the project manager is able to input the deficiency identifier in WebiFM and mark it complete, making the process significantly faster and less cumbersome for the project manager. This also benefits the Department’s inventory valuation and shows positive trending of improvements to facilities. Due to the positive results seen from adding this feature, it's now being added to other agencies using WebiFM, including the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission.

Julia Pryor, Driver License Field Training Manager, Driver and Vehicle Services Bureau of Support Services: Bureau of Driver Licensing (BDL) Support Guide.

The BDL Support Guide is an innovative, invaluable and readily-available tool for Driver License Center employees statewide. Piloted at the Summerdale Driver License Center before being deployed statewide, the BDL Support Guide provides employees with the most accurate and up-to-date information regarding policies, procedures or other processing guidelines right at their fingertips. This enables front-line Driver License Center employees and field support staff to quickly reference the guide and find the necessary information to assist customers efficiently, which allows for quicker response times and an enhanced customer experience. The BDL Support Guide was added as a functional icon on the desktops of computers at the Driver License Centers as well as field support computers.

Phillip Hendrickson, Survey Technician, Bureau of Construction and Materials: Trimble X7 Terrestrial Scanner.

This LiDAR solution is a lightweight, three-dimensional, high-speed laser scanning system with advanced technologies to simplify the acquisition of dense survey data sets. This instrument has advanced features like automatic registration, real-time inspection of results and repeatability of station set up in various field problems. It supports volumetric, monitoring, as-built, archeological and evidential surveys. This innovative tool increases crew safety byallowing them to easily set up and move around a project site and capture data from a safe distance, upwards of 75 feet away from potential hazards. Project efficiency is increased because field crews are able to capture more data in lesstime, resulting in reduced costs for travel and fewer overnight expenditures. Users can be confident that they are leaving the field with all data captured accurately and precisely for processing in the office. This has resulted in a yearly cost savings of approximately $45,000.

Ian Detamore, Program Manager, Bureau of Public Transportation: Maximizing Power BI’s Use for Transit Oversight.

Using expertise of Microsoft’s Power BI, several applications were developed to support the Bureau of Public Transportation’s (BPT) transit oversight efforts, including an Admin Portal to centralize key data of the 50 transit agencies across Pennsylvania, a dotGrants Comparison Tool to allow program managers responsible for transit agency oversight to easily compare the information reported for the current period against the same information reported in previous periods, and a Ticket Analysis Tool for auditing of Service Level Agreements conformance. These tools have resulted in several efficiencies for transit agencies as well as BPT staff, including streamlined processes, greater accuracy and improved response times.

Mike Ballinger, Program Analyst 3, Bureau of Planning and Research; John Moloney, Transportation Planning Specialist 2, Bureau of Planning and Research; Joe Piper, Transportation Planning Manager, Bureau of Planning and Research: Highway Performance Monitoring System (HPMS) Mobile Application.

The application allows Metropolitan Planning Organizations, PennDOT Districts and PennDOT’s Bureau of Planning and Research (BPR) HPMS staff the ability to electronically collect and review annual HPMS samples using a laptop or mobile device. An HPMS sample is a stratified random sample of physical roadway sections. The data reviewed through these samples relates to physical characteristics and operating conditions on the roadway sections and are submitted as part of the federally mandated annual HPMS submittal. HPMS Mobile provides an automated data collection process, where users are able to update data item values and submit the changes to the Central Office HPMS Coordinators while in the field as well as add detailed notes, display locations and take photos of features and inconsistencies within the HPMS sample. This allows for more accurate data and substantial time savings during the HPMS sample review season. Ultimately, this results in cost savings as less time is spent on the road and out of the office verifying samples. Additional time savings occur when the data is reviewed. Prior to HPMS Mobile, data updates were manually entered into the Roadway Management System (RMS). HPMS Mobile allows for a push button update to RMS.

The barriers were installed using multiple redundancies to provide strength and crash-worthy stability, including interlocking keyways and gravity moment arms built into their “L” shape design to provide extra stability in the event of being struck by vehicles including large trucks. Traditional modified stone was used for the last 4-feet of fill as part of the Gravix barrier installation and as a base for the bituminous pavement. Paving commenced on June 21, and despite some weather complications, was completed on June 22. Surface traffic control devices and barriers were also installed in accordance with the traffic control plan to provide the needed lane shifts/drops and signage for the reopening of the highway, which occurred on June 23.

This impressive timeline was only possible due to the collaboration and focus of all involved in the response to this unprecedented event. Not only did the contractor work 24 hours a day, but there were hundreds of professionals working 16-hour days, answering a multitude of calls, emails and text messages, innovating, coordinating and working together as a team. The spirit, intensity and dedication of all involved from the laborers, to the engineers, to law enforcement and even the local businesses, whose patience and understanding were incredible, made this possible. Local, state and federal government employees at all levels worked together seamlessly and efficiently in partnering with private industry to produce an unprecedented success to reopen the vital economic lifeline infrastructure that is I-95 in only 12 days.