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Around the Old Dominion

Road Engineers: Virginia needs your help

by Virginia Business Staff
October 2003

Virginia is looking for a few good engineers — 50 of them, in fact, to fill a knowledge gap in the state’s transportation department. Virginia Department of Transportation Commissioner Philip Shucet, stung by mistakes at an Interstate 64 project in Hampton that will take $2.7 million to fix, says the new hires will work on design and construction around the state. “We must put the right people with the right skills in the right place to make this work,” Shucet said when announcing the hiring plan.

The openings are being advertised in major daily newspapers, mostly in Virginia, and in trade publications. They pay up to $93,599 a year and up to $121,679 for those assigned to Northern Virginia. This spring VDOT said that nearly two-thirds of the people in the department holding jobs that required a professional engineer’s license didn’t have one.

Along with giving the department’s nine district offices more help, Shucet is giving them the power to make the key decisions on construction projects.

Virginia Business - October 2003