Appendix C: Scan Team Biographies and Contact Information

Biographies

Jeff G. Honefanger (AASHTO cochair) is the manager of the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) Special Hauling Permits Section. This position has statewide responsibility for issuing permits for every oversize and overweight permit vehicle traveling in Ohio. This section is also involved in all commercial vehicle activities in which ODOT has interest and involvement, including coordination with other State agencies, local governments, and Federal agencies. Before his current assignment, Honefanger was the deputy director of ODOT's Division of Rail Transportation. Honefanger has a business degree and paramedic science degree from Clark Technical College and attended Wittenberg University. On a national level, Honefanger serves as vice chair of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials' (AASHTO) Subcommittee on Highway Transport and is a member of AASHTO's Special Committee on International Activity Coordination, AASHTO's Special Task Force on Commercial Vehicle Highway/Rail Crossing Safety, the Multi-State Permit Group Board of Directors, and the Transportation Research Board's (TRB) Vehicle Size and Weight Committee. In Ohio, Honefanger is a member of the PrePass Steering Committee, Commercial Vehicle Information Systems and Networks (CVISN) Committee, and Governor's Motor Carrier Advisory Committee and instructs classes on oversize/overweight vehicles at the Ohio State Highway Patrol Academy and the Ohio Peace Officer Training Academy. Honefanger is a coauthor of Freight Transportation: The European Market.

Julie Strawhorn (FHWA cochair) is a transportation specialist for the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) at the Washington, DC, headquarters. Strawhorn works in the FHWA Office of Freight Management and Operations as the commercial motor vehicle size and weight expert. She is in charge of reviewing and approving State enforcement plans and certifications on size and weight and leads several project initiatives on weigh-in-motion, virtual weigh stations, and other technologies to improve and enhance size and weight enforcement. Before joining FHWA, Strawhorn worked as a program analyst for the Maritime and Land, Highway Cargo Security, Division at the Transportation Security Administration. She also worked as liaison on the International, Legal, and Regulatory Affairs; Vehicle; and Size and Weight Committees at the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance. Strawhorn also has direct enforcement experience as a former patrol officer in Montgomery County, MD. Strawhorn has a bachelor's degree in criminology and criminal justice from the University of Maryland. She represents the Federal government on many panels and conducts training and makes presentations on size and weight rules, regulations, and enforcement in the United States.

Richard (Ric) Athey is the assistant division director of the Enforcement Services Program for the Arizona Department of Transportation's Motor Vehicle Division. His is responsible for the operations of 22 ports of entry, size and weights, registration compliance activities, statewide enhanced vehicle inspection provisions, and six international ports between the United States and Mexico. Athey is a representative to the AASHTO Highway Transportation group and Western Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (WASHTO). He is the division liaison to FHWA, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, Federal Bureau of Investigation, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Arizona Auto Theft Task Force, Governor's Office of Highway Safety, and the law enforcement community. Athey is chair of the Overdimensional Committee. He has a bachelor's degree in business from Western International University. He is a retired commander with 29 years in law enforcement and a graduate of the Federal Bureau of Investigation Academy.

Dr. Jodi L. Carson (report facilitator) is an associate research engineer for the Texas Transportation Institute at the Texas A& M University System. She has more than 15 years' experience investigating various aspects of commercial vehicle size and weight enforcement, including:

1. The nature and effects of administrative and operational disparities between States and across international borders
2. The performance of size and weight enforcement technologies (i.e., weigh-in-motion) compared to each other and to national WIM system standards (ASTM E1318-00) under different traffic loading and weather conditions
3. Alternative performance-based commercial vehicle size and weight enforcement programs with a focus on changing commercial vehicle loading behavior and reducing infrastructure damage rather than issuing citations.

Carson has provided expertise on proposal review panels related to commercial vehicle operations for the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Transportation. She received a Ph.D. in civil engineering from the University of Washington and is a licensed professional engineer in Montana and Texas.

George Conner is the assistant state maintenance engineer for bridges for the Alabama Department of Transportation (ALDOT) in Montgomery, AL. Conner is responsible for the maintenance, inspection, and rating of bridges for ALDOT, including the analysis of numerous superload permit vehicles. He has worked with the Southern Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (SASHTO) Multi-State Permit Working Group to promote more uniform rating and permitting practices between States. Conner has bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Alabama. He is a licensed professional engineer in Alabama, a member of the AASHTO BRIDGE-Ware Task Force for Bridge Rating and Design Software, and a member of Technical Committee T–18, Bridge Management, Evaluation, and Rehabilitation, of the AASHTO Subcommittee on Bridges and Structures. He was a panel member for the National Cooperative Highway Research Program's Project 20–5, Topic 36–01, "Bridge Evaluation Practices and Permit Policies for Overweight Vehicles."

David Jones is a transportation specialist for the FHWA Office of Highway Policy and Governmental Affairs in Washington, DC. Jones has more than 16 years of experience with weigh-in-motion (WIM) systems and WIM data management. He manages the Truck Weight Study and Heavy Vehicle Travel Information System Program, which is part of FHWA's national database for travel monitoring. Before his current position, Jones was an electronic engineering technologist for FHWA's Office of Technology Application (OTA). He served as lead technologist for OTA's Demonstration Project 76, which was conducted in 43 States to provide State highway administrators, pavement designers, weight enforcement personnel, and planners with an understanding of the various types of WIM technologies, their accuracies and reliability, installation costs and procedures, maintenance requirements, appropriate applications, limitations to their use, and cost-effective methods of coordinating WIM data. He studied computer and electronic technology at Northern Virginia Community College and obtained an electronic technician certificate from the Northern Virginian Industrial System.

Tom Kearney is a statewide planner in FHWA's New York Division. Kearney coordinates the division's New York State Truck Size and Weight Program. His duties include working with enforcement agencies on equipment and resource issues, coordinating with State officials on preparing and submitting the annual certification of enforcement and annual enforcement plan, and providing technical assistance to trucking firms and local officials on commercial vehicle mobility issues. Kearney also oversees New York State highway data programs and coordinates the Statewide Transportation Improvement Program. Kearney is a National Highway Institute-certified instructor for FHWA's "Highway Program Financing" course. Before joining FHWA in February 2000, Kearney worked in the New York State Department of Transportation's (NYSDOT) Planning Division for 14 years, including serving as supervisor of NYSDOT's Highway Inventory Program. Kearney has an undergraduate degree from Albany State University and a master's degree in regional planning with specialties in urban and transportation planning from Albany State. Kearney is a trustee on the Village of Cambridge Board, a member of the Washington County Planning Board, and a member of the Community Advisory Board for Albany State University's Graduate Planning Program. Kearney has been a member of the American Planning Association since 1983.

John Nicholas is a Commercial Vehicle Program manager with the Washington State Patrol. He works as part of a management team in the Commercial Vehicle Division headquarters responsible for operation of four ports of entry, 52 interior scales, and 200 enforcement officers. Nicholas is responsible for developing Federal size and weight certification and enforcement plans, managing State CVISN and weigh-in-motion commercial vehicle weigh station bypass programs, and planning new commercial vehicle weigh station facilities in conjunction with the Washington State Department of Transportation. He is a representative to the Western Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (WASHTO) and a voting member of the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA) Vehicle Committee. Nicholas has a bachelor's degree in political science from the University of Washington. He has been with the Washington State Patrol Commercial Vehicle Division for 27 years.

Pam Thurber is the bridge management and inspection engineer for the Vermont Agency of Transportation (VTrans), headquartered in Montpelier, VT. Thurber manages Vermont's bridge inventory and management systems, develops the draft yearly bridge program, oversees the bridge inspection and fabrication programs, is project manager for several bridge projects under consultant design, and is responsible for statewide overweight and overheight permit reviews that support the Vermont Division of Motor Vehicles permitting process. After contributing to its development, Thurber presented Vermont's self-propelled crane self-issuance permit process to the AASHTO Subcommittee on Highway Transport in June 2004, and is now involved in the development of a VTrans position paper on the effects of possible increased interstate truck weight limits in Vermont. Thurber has a bachelor's degree in civil engineering from the University of Vermont. She is a licensed professional engineer in Vermont and has served on or contributed to various AASHTO user groups and technical committees.

Randy Woolley is the chief of the Systems Engineering Branch for the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) Division of Research and Innovation. Woolley leads the division in integrating systems engineering into mainstream transportation research and is conducting a truck monitoring/safety project for the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration using the systems engineering "Vee" model. He led a team of transportation professionals developing a highly successful virtual weigh-in-motion display for the 2005 World Congress in San Francisco, CA. Woolley's team developed the Systems Engineering Guidebook for ITS Projects and is now converting the guidebook to a Web-based format that will be hosted on an FHWA Web site. He is active in developing and presenting training in systems engineering, system integration, and configuration management and is an instructor for the "Systems Engineering Fundamentals" course for both Caltrans and the University of California, Irvine. Woolley has 26 years of experience in the electronics industry, including systems engineering, design, manufacturing, project management, and research. He is a registered professional engineer in California and has been with Caltrans for 14 years.

Contact Information

Jeff G. Honefanger (AASHTO Cochair)
Manager, Special Hauling Permits Section
Ohio Department of Transportation
1610 West Broad Street
Columbus, OH 43223
Telephone: (614) 351–5520
Fax: (614) 728–4099
E–mail: jeff.honefanger@dot.state.oh.us

Julie Strawhorn (FHWA Cochair)
Transportation Specialist
FHWA Office of Freight Management and Operations, HOFM-1
Vehicle Size and Weight Enforcement Team
400 Seventh St., SW.
Washington, DC 20590
Telephone: (202) 366–4415
Fax: (202) 366–7909
E–mail: julie.strawhorn@fhwa.dot.gov

Ric Athey
Assistant Director
Motor Vehicle Division
Arizona Department of Transportation
1801 W. Jefferson, Mail Drop 500M
Phoenix, AZ 85007
Telephone: (602) 712–8735
Fax: (602) 712–3391
E–mail: rathey@azdot.gov

Dr. Jodi Carson, P.E. (Report Facilitator)
Associate Research Engineer
Texas Transportation Institute
1106 Clayton Lane, Suite 300E
Austin, TX 78723
Telephone: (512) 467–0946
Fax: (512) 467–8971
E–mail: j-carson@tamu.edu

George Conner
Assistant State Maintenance Engineer–Bridges
Alabama DOT
Maintenance Bureau, Room H–101
1409 Coliseum Blvd
Montgomery, AL 36110
Telephone: (334) 242–6281
Fax: (334) 242–6378
E–mail: connerg@dot.state.al.us

David Jones
FHWA Office of Policy, HPPI-30
400 Seventh St., SW.
Washington, DC 20590
Telephone: (202) 366–5053
Fax: (202) 366–7742
E–mail: david.jones@fhwa.dot.gov

Tom Kearney
FHWA-HOFM
400 Seventh St., SW.
Washington, DC 20590
Telephone: (518) 431–4125, ext. 218
Fax: (202) 366–7909
E–mail: tom.kearney@fhwa.dot.gov

John Nicholas
Commercial Vehicle Program Manager
Commercial Vehicle Division
Washington State Patrol
PO Box 42614
Olympia, WA 98504–2614
Telephone: (360) 753–0281
Fax: (360) 586–8233
E–mail: john.nicholas@wsp.wa.gov

Pam Thurber, P.E.
Bridge Management and Inspection Engineer
Vermont Agency of Transportation
1 National Life Drive, Drawer 33
Montpelier, VT 05633–0001
Telephone: (802) 828–0041
Fax: (802) 828–3566
E–mail: pam.thurber@state.vt.us

Randy Woolley, P.E.
Division of Research & Innovation
California Department of Transportation
c/o Caltrans District 12
3337 Michelson Drive, Suite CN380
Irvine, CA 92612
Telephone: (949) 756–4930
Fax: (949) 724–2219
E–mail: randy_woolley@dot.ca.gov