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NPHQ > Awards & Success
Stories > 2006 Make a Difference Award Winners > Montana
Montana Highway Teams
Win National Quality Award
MDT Sets Standard for Emergency Road Repairs
New Orleans, LA/November 14, 2006 – The National Partnership for Highway Quality (NPHQ) has awarded one of its National 2006 “Making a Difference” awards to Montana highway teams whose quality innovations promote roads that are completed more quickly, ride better, last longer, reduce congestion, and improve safety. Entries are judged by a panel of transportation industry leaders who serve on the NPHQ Steering Committee.
The Montana Department of Transportation (MDT) earned a Bronze Award in NPHQ’s Partnering category for restoring, in record time, the Beartooth Highway; a scenic route that begins at the northeast entrance of Yellowstone Park and links the tourism communities of Cooke City and Red Lodge Montana.
The Beartooth Highway is one of the Nation’s highest elevation highways and, due to excessive snow and extreme weather conditions, it is closed from mid-October through the end of May. When MDT was doing its annual snow clearing in May, 2005, highway crews discovered mudslides in 13 locations along a nine-mile stretch. To their disbelief, in some areas the highway was completely undermined with guardrail and asphalt suspended on the side of the mountain.
Due to a short construction season and a negative impact on tourism, quick turnaround time was needed. For MDT, this was one of the largest emergency repair projects it had ever faced. A team was rapidly assembled to come up with a plan to not only repair the road, but to employ the necessary safeguards to ensure that this didn’t happen again.
Within 15 days after the mudslides, a request for a proposal was issued and one proposal received from the team of Kiewitt Western, JTL Group and HKM Engineering. The proposal was reviewed and the notice to proceed was issued within two days.
With the sense of urgency to restore the highway, partnering was taken to a new level. One of the biggest success factors was having some of the resource agencies and the Custer National Forest involved during the design process. This allowed proactive measures to be taken to obtain the necessary permits and approvals. All of the players involved understood and respected the time sensitive nature of the project.
MDT and the contractors, along with the extensive cooperation of the resource agencies, were able to complete the $16 million plus project in less than five months. Using a traditional contracting process without this level of partnering, a similar project would have taken three years to complete. The team of agencies took risks and set a new standard for emergency quality road repair.
“Partnering is about communication and cooperation,” said NPHQ’s Executive Director Bob Templeton, “and because of this, Montana, its contractors and other State agencies were able to complete a difficult project in record time, while remaining sensitive to the environment.”
About NPHQ
The Making a Difference Award program is sponsored by the National Partnership for Highway Quality, which combines public and private highway expertise to deliver quality highways for the safety and mobility of the traveling public. NPHQ members include:
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