2008 Award Committee Selections

The NEITE Awards Committee selected the following recipients for the 2008 NEITE awards:

• Senator Steven Baddour: Transportation Leadership Award
• Rod Emery, P.E., P.T.O.E: Transportation Engineer of the Year Award
• Bill McNamara, P.E., P.T.O.E: Distinguished Service Award 
• John Mirabito, Jr., P.E., P.T.O.E: Distinguished Service Award
• Jon Slason, E.I.T: Young Professional Group Award




The awards were presented on December 5, 2008 by the NEITE president, Jeffrey Dirk. 

Transportation Leadership Award

Senator Steven A. Baddour was first elected to the Massachusetts Senate in January of 2002 after winning a decisive victory in a hotly contested special election.  Since then, he has worked to generate reform, protect vital services, and safeguard the interests of his constituents in the First Essex District.

Steve’s work as a legislator is part of a longstanding commitment to advocacy and community service.  As an Assistant Attorney General, he established a reputation for fighting to protect working people that he continues to foster as a Senator.  On his first day at the State House, Steve broke ranks with legislative leadership to oppose a redistricting plan that would have split the Merrimack Valley and weakened its representation.  Since then, he has been an independent leader with a record of supporting education reform and funding, protecting essential services for our most vulnerable citizens, reforming state government, and spending our tax dollars wisely. 

During 2004, amidst one of the state’s most exciting and tumultuous years, Senator Baddour remained a consistent voice for working families and taxpayers.  In addition to being named a Guardian of Small Business by the National Federation of Independent Businesses, Steve was awarded Legislator of the Year by the Massachusetts Municipal Association for his role in securing funding for cities and towns to repair and build roads.  As Chairman of the Joint Committee on Transportation, Steve also routinely convened hearings to ensure that the taxpayers are protected during the remainder of Big Dig construction.  As a result of his questioning, the project is more accountable to the public and cost recovery efforts are back on track.

Senator Baddour has always used his leadership role to safeguard the interests of taxpayers, including initiating one of the most comprehensive acts of reform in over a decade through a proposal to restructure the state’s transportation hierarchy that will save millions.  His plan will help make the repair and construction of our roads, rail systems, and other modes of travel more efficient by drastically increasing coordination among agencies. 

In 2008, Senator Baddour stood along with Senate President Therese Murray, Speaker Sal DiMasi and Governor Deval Patrick to announce major transportation reforms to be included in the Transportation Bond Bill focusing on cost-containment recommendations for project management and construction processes.  The reforms address the use of police details and MBTA pensions and health benefits. They also establish a wide array of transparency measures to improve project management and construction processes and are a crucial first-step in handling the $20 billion transportation funding gap and changing how the Commonwealth’s transportation agencies do business. 

Understanding that years of neglect and inadequate investment in the state's capital assets and infrastructure have resulted in a backlog that has far exceeded available resources, Senator Baddour has also lead the effort to pass legislation to accelerate the repair and replacement of the state’s most structurally deficient bridges. The $3 billion bond bill establishes an eight-year plan to fix 250 to 300 Massachusetts bridges identified as being in urgent need of repair.  The bill also provides for the ongoing maintenance of bridges and will reduce the number of structurally deficient bridges by 15 percent over the next eight years. Additionally, by starting projects now rather than waiting, the Commonwealth will save approximately $1.5 billion in inflation and deferred maintenance costs while creating new jobs for the economy.

Senator Baddour’s passionate advocacy stems from longstanding personal ties to the community.  A life-long resident of Methuen, Steve attended Methuen public schools and received his B.A. from the University of Massachusetts and his J.D. from the Massachusetts School of Law.  He lives with his wife, Ann, and two young daughters, Isabella and Victoria, in Methuen.

It is our pleasure to present the 2008 Transportation leadership Award to Senator Steven A. Baddour.

TRANSPORTATION LEADERSHIP AWARD

2008

Presented To

Senator Steven A. Baddour
For
Leading the Massachusetts State Legislature toward
Comprehensive Transportation Reform:  
Measuring System Performance,
 Streamlining Project Construction, and
Ensuring Effective Infrastructure Maintenance. 

Transportation Engineer of the Year Award

The Transportation Engineer of the year awardee is a “not so recent” graduate of Northeastern University.  His career is distinguished by technical prowess and entrepreneurial success. His mentoring generosity is acclaimed by the many he has worked with.  He is ever-present for New England Section, he has presented many technical sessions at annual meetings, he has traveled to all of the chapter meetings and presented there as well.  He has been an active participant on the technical committee on their various projects that have contributed significantly to the technical knowledge, understanding and proficiency of all members of the section, his accessibility seems unlimited.  His innovations advanced the inventory of traffic signals utilizing a laptop before anyone used them. His endorsement of roundabouts preceded almost everyone’s.

His career started with Edwards and Kelcey working in New Jersey near his hometown conducting  traffic studies, origin-destination surveys, and  preparing intersection project reports on the TOPICS program.  He worked with leaders in the filed of traffic engineering with people such as Walter Kraft.    He migrated to Boston and continued to work with Edwards and Kelcey and people like Walter Freeman.

He started a traffic engineering firm, Highway Traffic and Signal Design (HTSD) which was vey successful in completing projects for public and private concerns. He personally hand- picked his staff to help build one of the most we respected traffic engineering firms in the northeast.   Those project successes were largely due to the well earned confidence that the clients and permitting authorities had in HTSD.  The success of the firm can also be measured in the continued success of those who worked at HTSD.

Since the days of HTSD, he returned to Edwards and Kelcey and has remained there since its merger with Jacobs where he is the Director of Transportation Engineering. Currently, he is directing the multi-million dollar transportation infrastructure project for Harvard University.

He is one of the first recipients of the PTOE and a recognized traffic expert throughout the country.  He is also well known for his unselfishness and willingness to help mentor younger staff.   He’s one of the few people in our industry who everybody know by his first name; Rod.  It’s my honor to recognize Mr. Rodney Emery as the 2008 Transportation Engineer of the Year recipient for the NE Chapter.

TRANSPORTATION ENGINEER OF THE YEAR AWARD

2008

Presented To

Rodney C. Emery, PE, PTOE
 For
A Distinguished Career of
Transportation Engineering Achievement
as a Respected Colleague
and Generous Mentor

Distinguished Service Co - Awards

The 2008 New England Section ITE co-recipient of the Distinguished Service Award is an individual who is well known to everyone at this Annual Meeting He began his professional career in the traffic sector at the City of Providence Traffic Division in 1964.

In the summer of 1966, with two years of distinguished municipal service under his belt, he moved to the newly organized firm of Traffic Engineering & Sales. His career started to take off, in part due to his internal drive and his outgoing personality. He joined ITE in the mid 1970’s, and immediately became an active participant in the New England Section.

After 25 years of service to TESI, he believed there was another way in which he could leave a lasting mark on our profession. In 1991, he started his own firm here in Rhode Island with the catchy and original name, Ocean State Signal Company.

This Distinguished Service Award recipient has been the NEITE Annual Meeting Chairman for more than 30 years, and has faithfully served this Section as Chairman of the Industrial Support Committee and coordinator of the Section’s Chronicle mailing list for more than 20 years.

Congratulations to our co-recipient of the 2008 Distinguished Service Award, Mr. William P. McNamara.

DISTINGUISHED SERVICE AWARD

2008

Presented To

William P. McNamara.
For
 Many Years of Outstanding
Service to the Transportation and
 Traffic Engineering Profession
 And Continued Contribution
 To the New England Section

The other 2008 Distinguished Service Award is for a graduate of Clarkson University with a BSME in 1987.   His professional career began with the Massachusetts Highway Department’s Traffic Engineering Department in Boston. In 1992, he joined  Fay, Spofford & Thorndike where he worked until 2007, when he joined his current employer, BETA Group, Inc. as a Senior Project Engineer. He is a registered Professional Engineer in Massachusetts and Rhode Island and a PTOE.

Some highlights of his work include:

• MassHighway Statewide On-Call contracts to improve traffic signals and signing;
• Design of traffic signals for surface streets above the Central Artery/Tunnel, North Street to Congress Street, Boston, MA;
• Terminal Area Roadways, Logan International Airport, East Boston, MA;

• Arterial Traffic Signal Systems in Providence, RI.

This ITE Member serves on the Traffic Engineering and Traffic Safety Councils. At the Northeastern District level he was the Chair of the Finance Committee for the 2007 District Annual Meeting and is Chairing the Advance Planning Committee for the 2010 Annual Meeting. At the New England Section level, John’s has held many positions, including:

• Chair, Continuing Education Committee;
• Chair, Young Professionals Group;
• Member, Technical Committee;
• Director; Secretary; Vice President; President; and
• Immediate Past President.

As a member of the Massachusetts Chapter, he served as President. He has served ITE on so many levels and served the Section in so many ways.  His concept of a New England Section Strategic Plan illustrates his efforts as he identified its benefits, got the involvement of the Board and others to look critically at the Section and  then develop a plan for the future.

 We are grateful and we honor John Mirabito with the Distinguished Service Award.

DISTINGUISHED SERVICE AWARD

2008

Presented To

John R. Mirabito, Jr., PE, PTOE
For
Outstanding Service to the
  Transportation and Traffic Engineering Profession
 And Contributions To
The New England Section
 Conceiving the NEITE Strategic Plan

Young Professional Group Award

Jon Slason graduated from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 2004 with bachelor of science degrees in Civil Engineering and Economics.

He joined Resource Systems Group in 2004 and has been involved in land use planning, transportation system operational analysis, traffic engineering, roadway and intersection design, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), and economic analysis.

Mr. Slason has obtained the Engineer-in-Training certification and more recent projects focused on projects combining transportation, land use, and economic development. Representative projects include:

·         A series of  Innovative Finance “White Papers”  for the Chittenden County MPO in Burlington Vermont which explored  innovative or alternative funding mechanisms, project delivery, intergovernmental arrangements, and design standards that can reduce the time and cost of implementing transportation infrastructure projects.

·         Transportation Impact Fee Update for the Town of Williston Vermont - The study demonstrated the ‘rational nexus’ between proposed development and the transportation infrastructure necessary to accommodate the additional vehicles demanded by the development.

·         US Route 2 Corridor Study through Williston, South Burlington and Burlington Vermont

Jon has been a member of ITE and has been active in the Vermont Chapter. In 2007 assumed the role of President of the Chapter. He has been instrumental in maintaining the Chapter activities and in particular the recently instituted tradition of the January joint Section / Chapter meeting in Vermont. Jon has also done well to attract others as Vermont Chapter officers.

YOUNG PROFESSIONALS GROUP AWARD

2008

Presented To

Jonathan L. Slason, EIT
For
Contributions to the New England Section of ITE
As Vermont Chapter President and
         Demonstrated Professional Achievement    
   As an Emerging Transportation Professional