Transportation engineers form chapter, share information

by Vera-Jane Goodin

SBJ Contributing Writer

sbj@sbj.net

With the deteriorating condition of Missouri roads and bridges in the news, the importance of those who deal with the creation and upkeep of the transportation system is emphasized. In the Springfield area, the Ozarks Chapter of the Institute of Transportation Engineers brings together many of those professionals.

OCITE organized in December 2002 and became an official chapter of the Institute of Transportation Engineers, an international organization, in February 2003. There are 60 members, including traffic and transportation engineers, safety specialists, designers, planners, university students and those interested in transportation engineering.

"Missouri is in the top 10 states in road miles within the United States, but in the bottom 10 in the number of dollars available to spend per road mile," said OCITE Chapter President Jason Haynes. "What happens is we're trying to maintain the system we have rather than building new roads. Maintenance is the big issue right now."

Federal funding is another issue.

Because of such funding cuts and potential funding cuts, Haynes believes operations is becoming another issue.

"With the decrease in funding we're having to take what we've got and do a better job with (the roads)," Haynes said. That means finding creative solutions such as changing lane markings and signs, and working with signal timing, he added.

Alternative or multimodal transportation is another creative solution. Haynes noted transportation isn't just highways; it includes other modes like public transportation, bicycling and walking.

Increased demand

Because of the additional demand on the existing transportation system, there is a need for more people to maintain the system, Haynes said.

Cooperation and cost sharing are also important. State, county and city officials are working together now more than in the past, Haynes said.

"We have county and state routes within Springfield. The city is growing out into the county," Haynes said.

Communication, education

Because OCITE is open to transportation professionals and technicians, it brings together many different areas of knowledge to better enable members to do their jobs in this changing world.

Melanie Jelineck, project engineer with the city of Springfield, joined OCITE because she found it "a good opportunity for people from all aspects of transportation engineering to get together and share ideas and discuss issues common to all of us."

Communicating between various professionals is important. Vice President Matt Seiler, who works with the Missouri Department of Transportation, sees OCITE as a way for members to learn from other professionals and to not repeat the mistakes someone else has made.

Education is an important goal of the chapter both in issues and in encouraging students to enter the transportation field, Seiler said.

Last year OCITE held a technical seminar on fundamentals of traffic engineering, and wants to hold another seminar this year.

Seiler hopes the chapter will continue to grow membership "Unless people wanted to travel quite a way to attend conferences at a district level, there wasn't something that brought local engineers together on a regular basis to share ideas and to see how things were going in southwest Missouri.," Seiler said.