Job Alert: Transportation Engineering Administrator – Connecticut, Department of Transportation @ Newington, CT

February 3, 2014 at 5:15 pm

Transportation Engineering Administrator

Bureau of Engineering and Construction

PLEASE FOLLOW THE SPECIFIC APPLICATION FILING INSTRUCTIONS AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS PAGE!

Open To:                     The Public (see Eligibility Requirement section below)

Location:                           Newington

Job Posting No:              77536

Hours:                                40 hours per week

Salary:                                Pay Grade MP 73  ($115,352 – $157,284 annually)

Closing Date:                   Tuesday, March 11, 2014, 4:00 p.m.

There is a position opportunity for a Transportation Engineering Administrator in the Bureau of Engineering and Construction, Office of Engineering, in the Newington Administration Building.

Position Description:

This position is responsible for administering the programs and duties of all transportation related engineering operations on a statewide basis.  Duties include administering a staff of 450 and the operations of the office; coordinating, planning, and managing office activities; formulating program goals and objectives; developing or assisting in development of related policy; interpreting and administering pertinent laws; evaluating staff; preparing or assisting in preparation of office budget; maintaining contact with individuals both within and outside of the office who might impact on program activities; directing and coordinating design activities including design work accomplished under contract by outside sources; hydraulics and drainage analysis, geometric and special studies, design of bridges, transportation buildings and other structures and related facilities and specialized engineering activities including roadside development, utility relocation and property map preparation; directing bridge safety program; reviewing and recommending new or revised legislation; directing preparation of engineering reports; acting as engineering consultant to Transportation Chief Engineer and other departmental officials; performing related duties as required.

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS REQUIRED

KNOWLEDGE, SKILL AND ABILITY:

Considerable knowledge of and ability to apply management principles and techniques; considerable knowledge of relevant state and federal laws, statutes and regulations; considerable knowledge of principles and practices of civil engineering including bridge design, construction and maintenance; considerable knowledge of design concepts and practices; considerable knowledge of bridge safety and inspection programs; considerable interpersonal skills; considerable oral and written communication skills.

EXPERIENCE AND TRAINING: 

General Experience: 

Eleven (11) years of professional experience in the planning and execution of complex transportation engineering projects.

Special Experience: 

Two (2) years of General Experience must have been in a managerial capacity in the field of transportation engineering with responsibility for policy formulation and complex project management for major bridge or highway design or highway construction projects.

NOTES:  1. Managerial capacity is defined as full time managerial responsibility for major programs. Position will have supervisory responsibilities but the emphasis should be managerial activities: planning, organizing, directing and controlling resources of a major subdivision of an agency or organization.  2. For State employees, the Special Experience is interpreted at or above the level of Transportation Assistant District Engineer.

SPECIAL REQUIREMENT:  Incumbents must possess Professional Engineer (PE) licensure from the Department of Consumer Protection State Board of Examiners for Professional Engineers and Land Surveyors consistent with C.G.S.§20-302. 

Eligibility Requirement:  Candidates must meet the requirements listed above.

Application Instructions:  Submit a cover letter which details your interest and suitability for the position, resume, application (State of Connecticut Application for Examination or Employment Form CT-HR-12) and copies of last two performance evaluations (State employees only) to:

 

Ms. Cynthia Young
Department of Transportation
Bureau of Engineering and Construction, Room 3137
2800 Berlin Turnpike
Newington, CT  06131-7546

Applications forms are available at: http://das.ct.gov/HR/Forms/CT-HR-12_Application.pdf.

The filling of this position will be in accordance with reemployment, SEBAC, transfer, promotion and merit employment rules.  Interviews may be limited to candidates whose qualifications most closely meet the requirements of this position.

AN AFFIRMATIVE ACTION/EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER
The State of Connecticut is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer and strongly encourages the applications of women, minorities, and persons with disabilities.

Source: via YPTransportation.org

“Roads Kill” – Washington Post Infograph shows the public health crisis on roads across the globe

February 1, 2014 at 7:43 pm

How bad is the road safety problem across the planet? Pretty bad.  The global road death toll has already reached 1.24 million per year and is on course to triple to 3.6 million per year by 2030. In “Roads Kill,” The Washington Post joins with the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting to bring stories from around the world about this neglected but easily curable public health crisis.

[pageview url="http://roadskillmap.com/#58.53959476664049,89.296875,2" height="500px" border="yes"]

Chickens on a Chinese Highway – Thousands of chickens escape after truck overturns on a motorway in China

January 31, 2014 at 5:00 pm

via ITN on YouTube

Police in China have tried to catch thousands of chickens after they escaped from an overturned truck on a highway. More than 3,000 of the birds got loose following the accident in south-west Guizhou Province, when the vehicle swerved after a sharp turn. Police managed to recapture around 900 of the animals from the road and nearby bushes and helped put them back into their cages.

Job Alert: Supervisory Administrative Program Coordinator, GS-0340-14 – USDOT’s FHWA @ Lakewood, CO

January 9, 2014 at 7:18 pm

Applications Date: 11:59PM @ January 16, 2014

The employee serves under the Director of Program Administration for the Central Federal Lands Highway Division (CFLHD). Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), in Lakewood, Colorado. The CFLHD is responsible for the program administration of the Federal Lands Highway Program (FLHP) and the design and construction of transportation system projects on Federally-owned lands in 14 States covering the central, western, and southwestern United States. Possessing the same level of authority as other CFLHD Branch Chiefs, the employee has the authority and responsibility for the management of day-to-day activities to ensure that a broad range of financial management and administrative services are provided throughout the Division. In this capacity, the employee maintains constant awareness of the status and effectiveness of associated programs, processes, procedures, and practices, and is thereby required to formulate, determine or influence Division level policies.

The ideal candidate for this position would be an experienced career professional who is collaborative, mission focused, has an excellent skill set in working with employees, and has experience in delivery of the Federal Highway Programs and demonstrated experience with assuring the accuracy and integrity of financial analysis, reporting, disclosure, internal controls and management information systems. The candidate would also have experience providing day to day leadership for up to 20 employees with financial and other administrative duties and successfully managing a $150 to $ 200 million annual program of obligations. The ideal candidate will possess experience in managing financial goals and objectives and ensuring financing of programs are carried out as planned. The candidate will also have demonstrated ability in overseeing and managing program funding obligations, Overhead budget expenditures and forecasting reporting to management.

As a Supervisory Administrative Program Coordinator, you will:

  • Develop, promote, and provide direction on policy and guidance for the sound financial management of funding used in delivering the Federal Lands Highway Program. In this capacity. the employee represents CFLHD, FLH, and FHWA in making commitments on the development and adoption of improved accounting practices. procedures, financial management reporting systems. and other financial management matters, as well as coordinating key financial management and administrative policy issues.
  • Serve as a member of the Division Leadership Team for national and Division-level strategic planning and direction for Division-wide goals and needs in alignment with those for Federal Lands Highways (FLHP), FHWA, and USDOT.
  • Serve as the Division’s lead advisor in developing and implementing sound processes, principles and practices related to CFLHD-wide budget development, execution, management, monitoring/tracking, and reconciliation for General Operating Expense (GOE).
  • Lead the development, implementation, and maintenance of financial and accounting systems for service areas (e.g., equipment depot, materials test laboratories, and reimbursable projects) to reflect cost of operations and equitable distribution of cost to clients and partnering agencies.
  • Be responsible for ensuring that technical reports, memorandums. and responses to financial requests and inquiries are prepared in a timely manner.
  • Be responsible for regularly consulting with the Division Engineer, Directors and other key staff with respect to administrative management issues arising in the Division’s overall responsibilities within assigned program areas. These issues are often complex, requiring sound decisions and solutions that conform to all applicable legal, regulatory and policy requirements, including Department of Homeland Security (DHS) regulations, policies, and guidelines.

Click here to learn more and to apply

Video: New York City’s inspiring metamorphosis shows streets and spaces designed for people (not cars) make for a vibrant community

January 1, 2014 at 3:15 pm

Check out this awesome video from Streetfilms.. This compilation of changes in New York City’s transportation infrastructure documented over a period of time clearly shows that streets and public spaces designed for people, and not for cars, inspire folks to come out and enjoy the facilities, there by making the community as a whole more vibrant and lively..

I can only imagine the economic vitality this has added to the businesses in the neighborhoods as more people stepped away from their cars and instead walked/biked to the businesses. Thanks to the bold vision (and the subsequent execution) set forth by the outgoing City Transportation Commission, Janette Sadik-Khan and her boss, Mayor Bloomberg, the city has now become a model to emulate when it comes to implementing sustainable transportation solutions.

Photo: Beast of an intersection in Tel Aviv shows what global cities struggle with

December 28, 2013 at 7:58 pm

 

Image Courtesy: Victor Bezrukov @ http://www.victorbezrukov.com/

A beautiful capture of a busy intersection in TelAviv, Israel by photographer Victor Bezrukov that came to light when it got shared via National Geographic.  His commentary “one of the most loaded but the most beautiful junctions in TelAviv. Taken from the balcony located on the floor 45 of Electra building.”  A friend on Facebook had this much to say when he shared this: “Trying to solve traffic jams by widening roads is like trying to fight obesity adding holes to the belt”. There is so much truth to that profound statement.  Good thing is that in the middle of this monstrous interchange you can spot a dedicated transit infrastructure (my tired eyes tell me that it is a transit rail line; or a BRT?). And the next question that popped up in my mind is how many more cars would be there in that intersection if that transit infrastructure doesn’t exist?  Let’s not forget that this is just one intersection in one metropolitan city and there are many such cities with many mega intersections and now you can imagine the challenges we face from a mobility and environmental perspective.

Did You Know Eating/Drinking (Even Water) While Driving is Illegal in Cypress? Infograph: 50 Insane Driving Laws From Around the World

December 16, 2013 at 6:04 pm

Image via Barrington Freight

Also, who knew that one can be fined for driving a dirty car in Russia?  Oh well, there are so many such crazy driving laws around the world and Barrington Freight got 50 of them in one awesome infograph.. Check it out

Image Courtesy: Barrington Freight via Huffington Post

Job Alert: Transportation Specialist (GS-2101-14) – USDOT Federal Highway Administration @ Washington, DC

December 4, 2013 at 6:10 pm

Closing Date: Friday, December 20, 2013

This position is located in the Office of Transportation Operations in the Office of Operations. You will serve as a national expert in Traffic Incident Management (TIM); including the leadership, institutional development and sustainability, professional capacity building, and public awareness and education.  The position entails developing, executing and promoting TIM program efforts in collaboration with Transportation and Public Safety senior leaders, mid-level officials and practitioners. The position requires knowledge of current national TIM state-of-the-art and state-of-the-practice guidance and good practices. You may conduct tasks associated with one or both categories based on the program’s needs and your strengths. You may also (1) manage executive-level interactions among governmental, private sector and association partners and serve as public safety liaison OR (2) provide technical services on a gamut of traffic incident management issues. The ideal candidate will demonstrate strengths in both of these categories.

The ideal candidate for this position is a mid-career or senior professional with experience interacting and providing technical services on traffic incident management issues with governmental, private sector and association partners and serving as public safety liaison.

Duties: 

  • Identifies, plans and implements broad new national TIM collaboration strategies with public safety  based on the wide dissemination of the FHWA-produced TIM Program policies, strategies, guidance and products to State, Tribal, regional and local customers, but also association, private sector, senior leadership partners in transportation, law enforcement, fire, towing and other public safety responders.
  • Identifies research and development needs and gaps presented by contacts with State, Tribal, regional and local TIM managers and practitioners and integrate these into the TI&EM roadmap and/or annual work plans and budget requests.
  • Serves as the Government’s Contracting Officer’s Representative or Task Monitor, as appropriate, if trained and accredited for TIM-specific contract work.
  • Analyzes and converts conclusions of data and special studies, surveys, and research specific to the TIM program standards, policies, and guides for enhancing the proliferation of the TIM products into reports, budget recommendations, articles, and presentations.
  • Uses written and oral tools and skills to promote the adoption of the TIM program products and to influence decision makers to accept good TIM practices or recommended tools and resources needed to secure management support to enhance and improve local TIM programs.
  • Creates effective relationships with senior-level transportation, public safety and towing stakeholders involved in the national TIM program development and implementation using existing national expertise and contacts in the TIM field.

PLEASE NOTE: At the interview stage, you will be required to provide writing examples that you have developed or produced such as reports, correspondence, studies, publications, speeches, etc.  You should provide examples that were developed for the highest level of audience; such as senior level officials inside your agency, senior level officials external to your agency and/or Congress.

Click here to learn more and to apply.

That’s a lot of space! Making the case for sustainable public transportation with a brilliant GIF

November 19, 2013 at 5:00 pm

We all know our “developed” societies have way too many cars and often choke up our streets and take up valuable space, resulting in terrible congestion and chronic bottle necks.. If a lot of people chose to leave behind their cars and instead opt for public transportation, it will be a perfect anti-dote for the chronic congestion that plagues our streets. So, how do you tell this story effectively? Here is one way to do it.. I call this the mother of all sustainable transportation images (courtesy of The Atlantic)

Let me tell ya.. The amount of road space saved when a few dozen people switch from driving cars to riding the public transport is ENORMOUS.

Job Alert: Senior Design Engineer – USDOT Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) @Lakewood, CO

October 25, 2013 at 5:09 pm

SALARY RANGE: $61,612.00 to $96,001.00 / Per Year

OPEN PERIOD: Friday, October 25, 2013 to Monday, November 04, 2013

SERIES & GRADE: GS-0810-11/12

POSITION INFORMATION: Full Time – Permanent

PROMOTION POTENTIAL: 12

DUTY LOCATIONS: FEW vacancies – Lakewood, CO, US

This position is located in the Federal Highway Administration’s (FHWA) Federal Lands Division Office and supports the Division as a senior designer with responsibility for the development of plans, specifications and estimates (PS&E) packages for the most complex, advanced projects relative to the design of highways and bridges. The projects occur primarily on Federal Lands managed by other Federal agencies, such as the National Park Service and U.S. Forest Service and include a multi-state area. The Senior Designer mentors, trains, and assists in distribution of project work tasks to other designers on the team and assists in quality control on design work products. As assigned, may be a Contracting Officer’s Representative (COR) responsible for managing Architect-Engineer (A/E) Consultant task orders or reimbursable agreements.

The ideal candidate for this position is a mid-career engineer with experience working both independently and with multi-discipline teams as a lead/senior designer in developing, monitoring, and adhering to the design, budget, and schedule for assigned roadway construction projects, providing technical assistance from initial scoping through construction support, and addressing design engineering issues with a wide range of external contacts.

Serving as a senior Design Engineer, you will:

  • Develop the design and monitors the budget and schedule for assigned projects from initial scoping through construction support.
  • Generate and evaluate geometric design alternatives and develops sound design concepts. Assess the impact of standard exceptions/compromises to established engineering principles and practices and conceptualizes acceptable design exceptions and mitigation strategies.
  • Develop plans, specifications, and estimates (PS&E) packages that clearly define the work, are biddable, and emphasize context sensitivity, safety, and constructability. Coordinate with cross functional team members and incorporate functional discipline and partner’s recommendations into the PS&E.
  • Use appropriate technologies and improve the quality of highway design work through the use of new technologies and process improvements.
  • Participate in discussions of project highway design matters with a wide range of external contacts, including technical representatives of client agencies.
  • Prepare written field review and meeting reports and other technical reports as required.
  • Provide timely comments and recommendations on PS&E reviews, reviews of manuals, standard plans, standard special contract requirements, and proposed policies and procedures.

 Click here to learn more and to apply