MoDOT director resigns to join KC firm

Missouri Department of Transportation Director Pete Rahn announced his resignation Wednesday, and his plan is to take a senior vice president position with a Kansas City engineering firm.

Rahn will step down April 23 from the position he has served in since September 2004 to join Kansas City-based HNTB Corp. He will lead the company's national transportation practice, according to a MoDOT news release.

In more than five years at the helm of the state transportation department, Rahn has led the statewide campaign to repair the state's aging bridges and overseen numerous major road construction projects, including the rebuilding of Highway 64/40 through St. Louis and the Better Roads, Brighter Future program that has improved hundreds of miles of state highways.

"(Rahn's) innovative and highly effective leadership was exactly what was needed to handle the challenges MoDOT faced when he became director," said Rudy Farber, director of the Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission, in the release. "As a result, Missouri's transportation system is now in much better shape and MoDOT has re-established a positive reputation with the public."

The commission will name an interim director soon and plans to undertake a national search for Rahn's replacement, the release said.

"Over the past six years, he has led the way on many important transportation projects and issues," Gov. Jay Nixon said in a separate news release. "I look forward to the Highways and Transportation Commission’s nationwide search, so we can find a new director who will effectively and efficiently meet Missouri’s growing transportation needs.”