| Better Bridges
Training offers one answer in Texas
A shortage of inspectors? While
some complain about it, TxDOT does something about it. They train their
own, and have been for years.
by Kerry L.
Clines, Research Editor
The Texas Department of Transportation has never been
one to sit on its heels when a problem needs solving. When faced with
needing more inspectors for construction, the department decided that no
one could train someone better than the inspectors already on the job.
The training consists of three main parts:
1. Classroom instruction. Most classes are taught at
TEEX, the Texas Engineering Extension Service, a part of the Texas A&M
University System, while some are held at the TxDOT district offices. The
department usually hires retired engineers as their instructors. The
classes offered deal with all aspects of road construction from concrete
mixing and paving to barricades and traffic control.
2. The Texas Standard Specification Book. This book
contains all the specifications for any kind of road construction
performed in Texas, and is considered the most important manual for the
job.
3. On-the-job training. The project managers on the
different construction sites around Texas handle this hands-on part of the
training.
In the field
If you drive by the road construction project at
Interstate-30 and Beltline Road in Dallas, you may see one of these
inspector trainees. Sarah Hicks hired on as an Engineering Aide III with
TxDOT in March 2000. She came from the right background for the job; her
whole family works for the department. Her father is a construction
project manager, her mother is a contract administrator, and her brother
is a pavement evaluation technician. You might say, it just came naturally
that she should go to work in the road building industry.
Hicks has received one promotion since she began, to
Engineering Technician I, and is already considered a construction
inspector. Right now, she works on just a few particular items on the
project. As her knowledge grows and she gains more experience, she’ll be
put in charge of more inspections, until she eventually has her own
projects. It will be at least five years before that happens, though.
“There’s still a lot out there that I need to learn,”
says Hicks, “and I’m going to take it step by step. This is the first
step.”
The training program
The Project Manager for the I-30/Beltline Road
construction project, and the inspector who is training Hicks, is Renee
Walker, Engineering Technician V, who has been with TxDOT for 12 years.
Walker’s background is much the same as Hicks’. Her father worked for
and retired from the department. She started as an aide and received the
same kind of on-the-job training that she is providing now for Hicks. But,
things were a little different then.
“There’s not as many people on a project as there
used to be when I first hired on,” says Walker. “We have approximately
a $25-million project here and there’s five people on it. Back when I
first started, if we had a $25-million project, there were probably 10 to
12 people inspecting. It made it a whole lot easier to train somebody. You
could stay with that person all day and kind of spoon-feed them.
Unfortunately, with the way things are today, you just can’t do that.
They’ve got to read it for themselves and try to understand it and you’re
there to encourage them. You try to stay with them a couple of days on
something, but you just can’t stay with them 24/7. So a lot of it is
learning through experience.
“Fifty years ago it took a lot more people to do a job
than it does now...” says Walker. “Technology is changing so quickly.
When my dad first started with the highway department 50 years ago, they
still had mules pulling plows. The difference is, we have a lot of big
equipment out here, we have a lot of new technology, and all the surveying
has changed with the satellite systems. In the next five years, I see a
lot more changes taking place.”
Walker has trained many other inspectors. Most of them
were hired as aides, like Hicks. Some were engineer training positions,
for people who have their four-year engineering degree but haven’t
become certified yet. They are sent out on a project so they can get a
year or so of construction experience in the field.
When asked how long her training will last, Hicks says,
“As long as I’m with the state and until I retire, I’ll learn
something new every day. Every situation’s different and every job’s
different. It’s an ongoing training process.”
“No one person has all the answers or has total
knowledge of all these different items,” says Walker. “I’m still
learning and I’ve been around this stuff all my life.”
Reprinted from Better Roads Magazine
November 2001 |
