A Conversation With ... C. Jay Wynn

I opened in April 2005. There are seven employees, including myself. Two of us are engineeers. We work for municipalities and developers. I’m on call for the city of Nixa, the city of Ozark. I have a contract with them, and they call me when they need traffic services. I’m doing work for the city of Springfield as well as the Missouri Department of Transportation. I also work for Jim Shirato down at Indian Ridge, and other developers and other engineers. I assist (clients) with getting access to a (Missouri Department of Transportation) road or a city road, or to do the traffic impact assessment for that development – how many cars it is generating, and where they are going, and what kind of roadway infrastructure is needed to suppoort the development. This area’s growing so fast, and it’s becoming more imperative that developers and municipalities ... have a better understanding of traffic mitigation and congestion, because it affects their business.

What led you to this point in your career?

I got out of school at the University of Kentucky in 1987. I worked for the city of Lexington, Ky., as a traffic engineer, and then I worked for the city of Springfield as a traffic engineer. I left there and went into consultancy, working for a local firm, Mathews & Associates, for five years. I couldn’t have worked for a better place.

I started my company for a couple of reasons. I felt that there was no other engineering firm that was providing just traffic engineering services. I could help the other engineering firms ... solve their traffic-signal or geometric problems, or whatever problems that we may have. The other reason was that I was getting to be 40, and I figured if I didn’t do it now, I’d never do it.

Why did you leave Kentucky for Springfield?

I was working five days a week as a traffic engineer for the city of Lexington, and Saturdays and Sundays as a surveyor. The story goes that my wife, Mary Beth, actually filled out the application for the city of Springfield (because) she never saw me. She’s the one who filled out the application and sent my information in, and when they called me, I was really interested in having an opportunity to build a signal system, which they were going to build.

Why did you decide to focus your work on traffic engineering?

I think it came down to one of my professors. Also, when I got out of school, I was working for a land surveyor, and the city had an opening. When you get out of school, you’re looking for almost any job. I think the job chose me, the profession chose me, because that was the only job opening at the time. I was married, we had a kid on the way, and I was only making $7 an hour working for the land surveyor, and the city of Lexington paid around $18.

Where would you say are some of Springfield’s worst traffic spots?

All the major corridors are experiencing congestion. I think almost every arterial street that we have within this city, at certain points of the day, is strained from not having enough capacity.

You know, I think we’re always going to be playing catch-up. You’re never going to build yourself out of the problem, because of growth. I think the thing that I’ve enjoyed the most is being able to assist in planning for where some of the future roadways are going. I’m working on the Ozarks Transportation Organization North-South Corridor Study, looking at four north-south corridors. I worked on the comprehensive plan for all of Christian County, which planned where the roads may be for the next 20 years.

Tell us about your family.

I have family scattered throughout the country, but my mom and my brothers are still in Kentucky. I’m the youngest of nine in a family of coal miners in the Appalachian region. I worked underground one summer ... and realized I wasn’t going to do it for the rest of my life. They work so hard.

My wife works here with me, but she’s also a supervisor and a registered nurse for St. John’s. I’ve asked her to let that go and come here and help me. I need help with billing and organization. I can do what I’ve been trained to do, but it’s been a trying time to understand the business process. There’s so many things that she knows about, that she’s helped me with. We have three children: Aaron, 17; Chris, 15; and Andrea, 13. My dog is Riley. [[In-content Ad]]