Training

ADOT partners with Tucson-area tribe on Construction Academy

ADOT partners with Tucson-area tribe on Construction Academy

ADOT partners with Tucson-area tribe on Construction Academy

September 14, 2017

TUCSON – Twenty-seven members of the Pascua Yaqui Tribe earned their certification to work as flaggers on tribal construction projects through a free Construction Academy sponsored by the Arizona Department of Transportation.

After completing a series of weekend courses, participants in the Pascua Yaqui Reservation Tribal Employment Rights Organization Construction Academy are now qualified to work on road projects on the reservation, located in the southwest Tucson area.

Fifteen participants will serve as flaggers for six months on road projects administered by the Tribal Employment Rights Organization, while the remaining 12 will work as general laborers. After six months, participants will switch roles.

“The Pascua Yaqui Tribe is expanding its horizons by offering increased opportunity for learning, particularly with our youth,” Tribal Chairman Robert Valencia said. “We are very interested in developing additional programs similar to the Construction Academy in the very near future and have very high expectations that the outcomes of this Academy will be successful.”

ADOT offers the Construction Academy Pre-Apprenticeship Training Program through its On-The-Job-Training Supportive Services Program, part of the agency’s Business Engagement and Compliance Office. All Construction Academy programs are designed to remove barriers to construction careers for women and minority individuals and to help participants move on to construction apprenticeships and eventually reach journeyman status, with ADOT continuing to provide support and guidance.

“Construction Academy programs benefit the transportation industry while they connect people with careers,” ADOT Director John Halikowski said. “Our partnership with the Pascua Yaqui Tribe is one way we are providing this opportunity to more and more people around Arizona.”

Flagger certification is just one of the training opportunities available to women, minorities and members of economically disadvantaged groups, including those who are out of work, through these ADOT programs. Individuals also can receive training that will help them become concrete finishers, block masons, highway surveyors, heavy equipment operators and commercial drivers.

ADOT’s On-The-Job Training Supportive Services Program will receive $112,000 in funding from the Federal Highway Administration to continue offering workforce-development initiatives in the coming federal fiscal year, which begins in October.

In addition to training provided directly by ADOT, Construction Academy programs sponsored by ADOT also are offered through Gila Community College, Gateway Community College and, starting this fall, Pima Community College and Pima County Joint Technical Education School District.

ADOT covers training costs and fees for participants and provides support including transportation and child care assistance, job-readiness training and safety gear such as hard hats and protective eyewear.

For more information or to apply for a Construction Academy, please visit azdot.gov/BECO, call 602.712.7761 or pick up materials at the ADOT Business Engagement and Compliance Office, 1801 W. Jefferson St., Suite 101, in Phoenix.

ADOT’s commercial truck safety course a hit in Mexico

ADOT’s commercial truck safety course a hit in Mexico

ADOT’s commercial truck safety course a hit in Mexico

September 12, 2017

PHOENIX – An Arizona Department of Transportation safety training program for commercial vehicle drivers using international ports of entry is proving so popular with trucking companies and government officials in Mexico that ADOT has doubled the number of training sessions planned for this fall.

“Trade with Mexico is one way our highways are Key Commerce Corridors that drive Arizona’s economy,” ADOT Director John Halikowski said. “With the support of officials in Sonora, Mexico, we are expanding a program that’s boosting international commerce while ensuring that commercial vehicles are safe.

Tim Lane, director of ADOT’s Enforcement and Compliance Division, which conducts truck safety inspections at commercial ports of entry, said 46 commercial vehicle drivers attended the International Border Inspection Qualification program in the Sonoran capital of Hermosillo on Aug. 22 and 23.

Representatives from the Sonora governor’s office attended the event in Hermosillo, including Natalia Rivera Grijalva, chief of staff for Governor Claudia Artemiza Pavlovich Arellano, and Secretary Ricardo Martínez Terrazas for the Department of Infrastructure and Urban Development of Sonora. The event was covered by local newspapers, television and radio.

The program teaches commercial vehicle drivers what to expect during safety inspections when they enter Arizona through ports at San Luis, Nogales and Douglas. Including sessions in San Luis Río Colorado, Mexico, and Douglas, 89 drivers have completed training and testing in the program’s first six weeks.

Commercial vehicle drivers who pass examinations at the end of the program are able to communicate with ADOT safety inspectors using WhatsApp, a popular smartphone messaging app. Qualified drivers can send photos of potential safety issues to inspectors, who tell them whether the photos show violations and, if so, how to correct them. Commercial vehicle drivers who have participated in IBIQ training can use WhatsApp at the border ports of entry in Nogales, San Luis and Douglas.

The International Border Inspection Qualification program is part of ADOT’s Border Liaison Unit launched last fall to train commercial vehicle drivers and mechanics on safety inspections at the border. The goal is for trucking companies to make any needed repairs before they approach the border, saving the companies time and money and allowing ADOT inspectors to focus on trucks that are more likely to have safety concerns.

The program is working: ADOT inspectors have conducted fewer border inspections over the past year but have found more violations, increasing safety on Arizona roads. Those improvements have led to more trucks crossing in Arizona instead of elsewhere, boosting the state’s economy.

The International Border Inspection Qualification program stems from ADOT’s use of the Arizona Management System championed by Governor Doug Ducey. This approach to continuous improvement empowers employees at state agencies to come up with innovative ways to better serve customers.

The program initially scheduled four training sessions this fall but has added four more at the request of Mexican trucking officials, including one held last week in Douglas, Arizona. The remaining schedule:

Sept. 19-20 in Nogales, Sonora
Oct. 3-4 in Douglas, Arizona (to be conducted in English)
Oct. 11-12 in San Luis Río Colorado, Sonora
Oct. 24-25 in Culiacán, Sinaloa
A yet-to-be-determined November date in Hermosillo, Sonora

ADOT-sponsored Construction Academy provides gateway to careers

ADOT-sponsored Construction Academy provides gateway to careers

ADOT-sponsored Construction Academy provides gateway to careers

July 27, 2017

PHOENIX – Thirty-one individuals seeking a hand up obtained entry-level positions as flaggers on construction projects, paying $13 to $19 per hour, thanks to free training provided by the Arizona Department of Transportation.

Those who took part in the flagger-certification program held this summer are the latest cohort in the Construction Academy Pre-Apprenticeship Training Program offered by ADOT’s On-The-Job-Training Supportive Services Program, part of the agency’s Business Engagement and Compliance Office.

Many of the recent trainees starting off as flaggers will move on to construction apprenticeships and later reach journeyman status as ADOT provides continuing support and guidance.

Flagger certification is just one of the training opportunities available to women, minorities and members of economically disadvantaged groups, including those who are out of work, through ADOT programs funded by the Federal Highway Administration. Individuals also can receive training that will help them become concrete finishers, block masons, highway surveyors, heavy equipment operators and commercial drivers.

ADOT’s goal in sponsoring this training: removing barriers to beginning construction careers.

ADOT-sponsored Construction Academies also are offered through Gila Community College, Gateway Community College and, starting this fall, Pima Community College and Pima County Joint Technology Education School District.

This past spring, for example, all 18 Construction Academy participants at Gila Community College landed jobs. They completed a 16-week program that included highway flagger certification, training in carpentry and job-seeking strategies, and Occupational Safety and Health Administration instruction on job-related safety and health hazards.

Participants in Pima Community College’s first Construction Academy will receive 10 weeks of similar training, while 30 students in the Pima County JTED Construction Academy’s construction and heavy equipment program will receive training that includes flagger certification.

Meanwhile, a Commercial Driver License Construction Academy that ADOT offers in Phoenix and Tucson helps participants obtain Class A commercial driver licenses to land trucking jobs in the construction industry. The ADOT Business and Compliance Office Construction Project Management Academy, launching this fall, will provide training for participants in the On-The-Job-Training Supportive Services Program as well as to Disadvantaged Business Enterprises.

National Summer Transportation Institute expanding in Arizona

National Summer Transportation Institute expanding in Arizona

National Summer Transportation Institute expanding in Arizona

June 16, 2017

PHOENIX – A summer program that introduces Arizona high school students to careers in transportation-related disciplines is expanding to include Gila Community College and Pima Community College in addition to instruction long offered by Arizona State University.

The National Summer Transportation Institute, funded by the Federal Highway Administration and offered at no cost to students, provides hand-on experiences such as learning how bridges are built, how to use geospatial software and how to manage traffic through technology. The Arizona Department of Transportation manages the program in Arizona.

As it has been for more than a decade, the program is being offered this summer at Arizona State University, with four week-long camps at the Polytechnic campus.

This year, ADOT’s On-The-Job-Training Supportive Services Program, part of the agency’s Business Engagement and Compliance Office, has also arranged for the National Summer Transportation Institute to be offered at camps that lasted two weeks each at Gila Community College campuses in Globe and Payson. It also has an agreement pending with Pima Community College to offer a two-week camp in Tucson later this summer.

Whether it’s designing and building the Loop 202 South Mountain Freeway or using Intelligent Transportation Systems to move traffic more efficiently, engineering is critical to transportation. While some participants may eventually work in the field, the institute’s goal is exposing students to transportation-related career options, including engineering, as an essential part of STEM education.

To learn more about ADOT’s Business and Compliance Office, please visit azdot.gov/BECO.

First responders benefit from training opportunities along South Mountain Freeway path

First responders benefit from training opportunities along South Mountain Freeway path

First responders benefit from training opportunities along South Mountain Freeway path

August 12, 2016

By Dustin Krugel / ADOT Communications

The Arizona Department of Transportation interacts every day with agencies including the Arizona Department of Public Safety, National Weather Service and local law enforcement and fire departments, whether it’s responding to a crash incident, dealing with weather across the state or providing traffic control for a brush fire.

One of the more unique partnerships, as we shared this week, has involved collaborating with first responders to provide training opportunities on state-owned properties that will eventually be cleared to make room for the Loop 202 South Mountain Freeway.

Since summer 2015, personnel from more than a dozen agencies have benefited from training at properties that ADOT has acquired along the 22-mile-long freeway corridor since receiving federal approval to move forward with the project.

“ADOT historically been able to work with local agencies in law enforcement, fire, first responders, in providing buildings that we've acquired so they can be utilized for training,” said Raul Torres, ADOT right of way manager, who along with participating first responders is shown in the video above.

This type of training isn't a first for ADOT. We offered similar opportunities prior construction on State Route 51 (Piestewa Freeway) and the Loop 202 Red Mountain Freeway.

Along the South Mountain Freeway's future path, the Phoenix Fire Department has trained probationary firefighters on cutting through roofs to provide ventilation during fires.

“To have an opportunity to train in a live-training scenario when there’s not an actually emergency going on, it’s a great thing for us and especially for our probationary officers,” said Capt. Ardell Diaz with the Phoenix Fire Department.

One of the probationary firefighters featured in the video is Luke Siekmann, who we are happy to report is now a full-time firefighter with Phoenix. Siekmann said the training was invaluable.

“The more you do something, the more (training) you have, the more experience you’ll have,” he said. “So the more training Phoenix Fire does, the safer the city will be.”

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Heavy-equipment operators get new kind of training

Heavy-equipment operators get new kind of training

Heavy-equipment operators get new kind of training

July 8, 2015

For most of us, learning to drive involved figuring out the rules of the road, mastering some street skills and becoming familiar with our vehicles…

It probably didn’t include lessons in blade angle, joystick control, tire tilt or moldboard pitch. But that’s the sort of stuff that ADOT heavy-equipment operators have to understand to skillfully do their job.

Education is important when it comes to operating heavy equipment, which is why ADOT has partnered with Empire Cat to get some really comprehensive instruction to improve the way our heavy-equipment operators are trained.

“Empire Cat is a worldwide company,” says State Maintenance Engineer Lonnie Hendrix. “They’ve been doing this for many years, and so, why wouldn’t we want to go to the people that do it full time.”

The instruction includes classroom time, simulator experience and hands-on equipment operation. The ADOT employees who are completing this training are actually trainers themselves, who will in turn teach this material to other ADOT heavy-equipment operators.

Besides the obvious benefits of improved training, it also helps the department to save money.

“This is definitely helping us save dollars, save equipment costs,” says ADOT Heavy Equipment Program Manager Jim Wade. “We’re learning how to save wear on tires. We’re not putting so much fuel through the equipment because now we’re operating it more efficiently.”

In the future, this training partnership is expected to cover other types of equipment, but for now it’s focused on the operation of motor graders, which you can see in action in the video above. ADOT uses this high-tech piece of equipment in a number of ways – everything from building ditches and clearing washouts to repairing dirt roads and interstate highways.

To learn more about ADOT heavy-equipment training, revisit our previous blog posts that show how operators are educated on snowplows and other heavy equipment like loaders, skid steers and dump trucks.

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ADOT Operator Academy provides authentic training for new technicians

ADOT Operator Academy provides authentic training for new technicians

ADOT Operator Academy provides authentic training for new technicians

November 3, 2011

When a new highway operation technician is hired by ADOT, they’ve got one year to complete some basic training …

Part of that includes learning how to use four pieces of heavy equipment, including:

Loaders (a heavy-duty piece of machinery that can move a lot of dirt)
Graders (a vehicle that uses a large “blade” to create flat surfaces)
Skid Steers (like a smaller, speedier version of a loader)
Dump truck (used to haul large amounts of material)

In the past, training has happened in a maintenance yard. Trainees would learn by moving piles of dirt from one side of the lot to another.

The newly hired techs were definitely learning how to use the equipment, but the situation was far removed from the “real-world” conditions they’d actually experience on the job.

So, when the opportunity came about to train the new techs at a Boy Scout camp in Northern Arizona (with real roads in need of repair), it seemed like a perfect partnership!

“Our roads were so bad, people were damaging their vehicles going up and down the roads to get to the camp sites,” says Camp Geronimo Ranger Ted Julius in the video above.

Twenty new techs attended training at Camp Geronimo for the first time last month. Not only did they learn how to use the equipment, but they also were able to improve the camp’s roads by hauling dirt, grading roads, cutting ditches and putting in culverts for drainage.

ADOT Phoenix Maintenance District Engineer Tim Wolfe estimates that ADOT saved $10,000-20,000 in training expenses.

But, the benefit wasn’t just financial …

“Because of this training, our new hires are much more confident and better trained,” said Wolfe, adding this training academy worked so well, another is tentatively planned for next spring.

Wolfe says the main focus of the training is on safety. Learning in a controlled environment means the techs will be more familiar with the equipment before working on the side of the state’s highways.

“These guys are coming away more comfortable with the equipment and that means they’ll produce better roads,” he said. “This is a benefit to ADOT, a benefit to the scouts, and a benefit to the tax payers of Arizona.”

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