Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) Secretary, Timothy W. Martin, announced the reorganization of the Department’s Division of Highways senior management structure.

The reorganization, which took effect Nov. 15, 2004, will retain the current IDOT structure of nine districts, but will now include five regions that will allow the department to maximize technical and personnel strengths and to better manage the reduced staffing that has occurred over the past 10 years.

“These revisions will put a greater emphasis than ever before on work out in the field, away from the central office,” Martin said. “The district offices will be entirely responsible for project scopes, schedule and budgets, as well as day to day maintenance, snow removal and answering questions from the people they serve in their districts.”

The Central Office will focus on providing assistance in technical areas, auditing of processes at the regional and district levels, ensuring quality in all areas of the division, and performing safety audits and improving IDOT’s focus on safety throughout the department.

“It’s important to realize that the department is entering a new era based on a smaller agency,” Martin said. “This new organization will continue to be accountable to the communities we serve on the district level and we will be more responsive to safety, economic impacts and an improved level of service with more flexibility.”

In order to strengthen the organization, changes are being made to the upper management structure within the Division of Highways.

The nine districts will remain with separate budgets, with some of the district boundaries being redrawn. Each district will have a district chief engineer, an operations/maintenance manager and an administrative manager. These positions will report to a deputy director/regional engineer, who in turn reports to the Director of Highways/chief Engineer Victor A. Modeer.

In addition, Eric Harm will remain as deputy director/assistant chief engineer and Priscilla Tobias will serve as the state safety engineer. The new regional boundaries are organized along demographic lines that predominantly follow the east to west interstate routes.

Region One — Region One Engineer Diane O’Keefe. Encompasses the former District 1. This region includes Chicago and the collar counties.

Region Two — Region Two Engineer Gregory Mounts. Encompasses Districts 2 and 3. This region includes Rockford, the Quad Cities, the La Salle-Peru-Ottawa areas and the Kankakee metropolitan area.

Region Three — Region Three Engineer Joseph Crowe. Encompasses Districts 4 and 5. This region includes Galesburg, Peoria, Bloomington, Champaign-Urbana and Danville.

Region Four — Region Four Engineer Christine Reed. Encompasses Districts 6 and 7. This includes Quincy, Jacksonville, Springfield, Decatur, Mattoon-Charleston area and Effingham. Also included is the I-70 corridor from Vandalia to the Indiana state line.

Region Five — Region Five Engineer, Mary Lamie. Encompasses Districts 8 and 9. This includes the Metro East St Louis region, Mt Vernon, Marion and Carbondale. Region Five includes the entire I-64 corridor.

For more information, visit www.dot.il.gov.

Today's top stories

Buffalo Looks to Improve, Protect Ralph Wilson Park

VIDEO: New App Increases Speed, Accuracy of Checking Grade Stakes

Make Eliminating Jobsite Distractions Company Safety Goal

Reconstruction of Frank J. Wood Bridge in Maine Under Way

Webuild Ready to Rebuild Collapsed Baltimore Bridge

VIDEO: Komatsu Holds Demo Days at Cartersville Customer Center

Allen Engineering Hosts 60th Anniversary Celebration

New TEC Equipment Rental Location in Columbia, S.C., Joins Takeuchi Dealer Network