Technology and Innovation
Researchers predict that driving faces near-extinction by 2040 because of this technology. As a result, transportation fatalities may drop 90 percent while speed limits will likely increase on most major roadways.
What are autonomous vehicles
In 1987, MnDOT replaced this bridge by floating its center span down the Mississippi River on a barge to allow it to be put in place from the water. Hint: This bridge carries Hwy 60 into Wisconsin.
What is the Wabasha Bridge
Districts are responsible for updating this four-year plan every year, listing the schedule and funding of transportation projects by state fiscal year.
What is the STIP (Statewide Transportation Improvement Program)
MnPASS is the name of Minnesota’s system of priced high occupancy toll lanes that have been operating in the Twin Cities area since 2005 to reduce congestion and raise revenue. These three categories constitute 71% of the total vehicles but nearly 90% of the people using these lanes during peak-travel times, and these three groups can use MnPASS lanes for free at all times.
Who are carpoolers, motorcyclists and bus riders
This program was launched at MnDOT in 1994 to widen the pool of employee applicants from minority and disadvantaged communities, enabling college students to work at MnDOT while pursuing their education.
What is Seeds
In 2015 MnDOT began using this technology for bridge inspection, an innovation closely watched by other states.
What is the unmanned aerial vehicle or drone
In 1999 MnDOT provided funds to dredge this city’s harbor to allow passenger ships to dock, sparking the return of foreign and domestic ships to Minnesota.
What is Duluth
Metro District has the responsibility to inspect and maintain about 30% of MnDOT’s 4,838 bridges, the highest number among all districts. This district has responsibility for the next highest percentage, 18%, of state-owned bridges.
What is District 6
During the 2017 legislative session, the Minnesota Legislature authorized MnDOT an additional $940 million over the next four years from this source to fund transportation needs not eligible for trunk highway funds.
What are bonds (Trunk Highway Bonds, Chapter 3 bonds)
This federal program requires MnDOT to set goals for contractors to employ minorities, women and disadvantaged persons as entry-level trainees in the construction trades. The purpose of the program is to provide equal opportunity for training and promotion of traditionally underrepresented persons and to grow a competent workforce in highway heavy construction.
What is the On-the-Job Training program, OJT
For more than two decades MnDOT’s MnROAD program has been doing groundbreaking road research on a section of this major Minnesota highway in order to test cutting edge cold weather pavement technologies. The research conducted on this test track has made Minnesota roads last longer, perform better and cost less. Other states are joining the effort. (Looking for the highway number)
What is I94
40% of Minnesota’s gross state product is generated by industries that are directly dependent on this type of transportation, including for the movement of commodities such as grain, coal, machinery and gravel. Use of this type of transportation is expected to grow 80% by 2040.
What is freight
This office is responsible in each district to provide technical assistance in highway and bridge design construction and maintenance to local levels of government, coordinate federally-funded projects, and distribute funds for highways to counties, cities and townships based on a formula determined by the MN Legislature.
What is State Aid (SALT)
The majority of state funding for highways in Minnesota is provided by funding from three highway users taxes, as required by Article XIV of the Minnesota Constitution. In FY 2017, 62% of Minnesota’s transportation funding came from these three sources of constitutionally-dedicated funds.
What are gas taxes, motor vehicle registration fees/license tabs, motor vehicle sales tax
While MnDOT has nearly 5,000 employees, women constitute this percentage of MnDOT’s workforce.
What is 22%
This technology is being installed at seven rest areas on high freight corridors in Minnesota to help truck drivers find available parking spaces.
What is an in-pavement sensor or puck
This type of surveying is done on large land areas to correct for the curvature of the earth’s surface.
What is geodetic surveying
Among this district’s responsibilities are 20 public airports, 8 transit systems, 367 miles of rail line, 4000 highway lanes and one Northstar commuter rail line. This district supports the largest population base outside the MPS/St. Paul metro area and is known as the “prairie to pine” district.
What is District 3
This federal legislation was signed by President Obama in December 2015, providing five years federal transportation funding through 2020, of which Minnesota will receive $4 billion, funded by the federal motor fuels tax.
What is the FAST Act (Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act)
In 2017 the state rolled out this program to boost the number of people with a disability working in state government.
What is Connect 700
District 6 Maintenance employees used heat from this source for its innovation called the “hot patch heater” that was inserted into a maintenance truck bed. Its purpose is to heat asphalt patching mix to a workable temperature year-round, eliminating the need to reheat leftover mix and chip out hardened mix in the truck bed. It is also a green solution because it eliminates the need to use fuel to reheat the asphalt mix. (Looking for source of heat was used by District 6 employees for their invention)
What is the truck engine
In 1976, Governor Wendell Anderson signed a proclamation establishing MnDOT to assume the activities of these two departments.
What are departments of Aeronautics and Highways
Toward Zero Deaths’ (TZD) mission is to move Minnesota toward zero deaths on our roads using these four strategies that all begin with the letter E.
What are education, enforcement, engineering and emergency services
Even with funds from highway user taxes, bonds and transfers from the state general fund, as well as authorized federal transportation aid, Minnesota still faces a projected transportation infrastructure funding shortfall of this amount over the next decade.
What is 16 billion dollars
During the last construction season, OCR reported women performed 16.7% of the total workforce hours by the prime contractor and subs on a highway project in Lake County in northeastern Minnesota, the highest women workforce participation on any MnDOT project in the state. In 2017, this state agency established a goal that women should constitute 9% of workforce on projects in northeast Minnesota and 20% of workforce for projects in Hennepin and Ramsey Counties.
What is the Minnesota Dept of Human Rights