Contractors recall how Don Hillis, assistant chief engineer for the Missouri Dept. of Transportation, often would point to a big sign he had installed in a meeting room. The inscription: "Be bold."
"He would point to his sign and inform all contract teams to push the MoDOT project team, indicating, 'If your proposal ideas don't make us uncomfortable, we won't learn anything,' " says Harry Koenigs, area manager for KCU, a joint venture of Kiewit Infrastructure Group, Traylor Bros. and United Contractors, including HNTB and the LPA Group as designers. KCU completed a $487-million design-build project that included 544 bridges, out of a total of 802 that were replaced or repaired in less than four years as part of MoDOT's Safe and Sound program.