Federal Highway Administration Resource Center

Employee Highlight: Douglas Townes, Construction and Contract Administration Engineer

Construction and Project Management Engineers are the stewards of highway projects and production. In the ever-changing environment of this profession, it becomes necessary for all personnel to keep up to date on the latest training and technologies.

Fortunately, if you are an engineer seeking to expand your knowledge of current construction/maintenance technologies, there are resources to assist you. Douglas Townes, Construction and Contract Administration Engineer with the FHWA Resource Center, works alongside several team members to offer a new approach to answer your needs. Douglas joined the FHWA Resource Center in September 2004 with more than 17 years of State and Federal experience in Construction. During the course of his career, he served as an area construction engineer, then as the State Construction Training Manager, implementing innovative quality and training to key
construction and materials personnel.

Douglas’ most recent work with division offices focuses on two specific areas. Your office can call Douglas and/or the Construction and Project Management Technical Service Team to support your initiatives and requirements to gain knowledge and qualification in key areas:

• Training: The Office of Infrastructure and the National Highway Institute have formed a Construction Stewardship Team with a main goal to offer a workshop that focuses on construction program management and oversight. Douglas is an instructor on the team, where the course provides in-depth training to new engineers and serves as a refresher course for veter an staff. The team plans to rotate the course across field offices in all 52 divisions during FY2005-06 to provide the training. Information on this course is
available. If your division office has not already, make plans to participate in this course by contacting the Construction Stewardship Team today.

• TCCC: The TCCC, or Transportation Curriculum Coordination Council, was founded in 2000 as a partnership between FHWA Division Offices, State DOTs, the NHI, AASHTO, and regional certification groups to create a highly trained workforce and generate awareness of technical courses being developed or already available within the construction/maintenance area. Douglas is among the founders of the Council, and serves on several of the Council’s subcommittees to gain State/private partnership support and ensure success of the program.

For more information, contact:

Douglas Townes
Construction and Contract Administration Engineer
Construction and Project Management Technical Service Team, FHWA Resource Center, (404) 562-3920
douglas.townes@fhwa.dot.gov

Rob Elliott
Construction and Project Management Team Leader
FHWA Resource Center, (404) 562-3941
rob.elliott@fhwa.dot.gov