After a four-month national search for a new Missouri Department of Transportation director, a home-grown talent will lead the agency. The state Highways and Transportation Commission has unanimously chosen interim director Ed Hassinger to serve as the head of MoDOT.
He has been with the state agency for about forty years.
“We’re building on a foundation here,” Hassinger said at a news conference today. “Those that have come before us and commissions previous and leaders in the department that have built the foundation, we are standing on the foundation that they have built. We’re going to take that to the next level and deliver.”
Hassinger replaces Patrick McKenna, who left MoDOT earlier this fall.
“I led our Hannibal district. I’ve led our St. Louis district. I’ve been the chief engineer for a decade and deputy director for the last five. I tell people early in my career, I got to build a lot of great things. Now my job is to build the teams that build those great things,” he said.
Hassinger has a variety of priorities, such as further investment in MoDOT employees, worker and driver safety, as well as improving roadside scenery.
“I call it the windshield issues – the things that people see when they drive down the road that we’re not quite getting to. We’ve had a loss of over 2 million labor hours of work over the last decade. We need to restore that. The citizens expect that we’re going to do those things,” he said.
To address the outdoor aesthetics, MoDOT plans to ask the state for approval to spend available road fund dollars for additional workers.
According to commission Chairman Dustin Boatwright, 12 people applied for the director job. Six candidates were interviewed.
The search will soon begin to fill Hassinger’s previous job as deputy MoDOT director.
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