TRANSACTIONS NEWSLETTER ONLINE

October 2004

Greta Ericson Distinguished Service Award:

Rich Monroe

The bicycle/pedestrian bridge over Interstate 80 in Berkeley is just one of many projects Rich Monroe has been instrumental in delivering. (Photo: Kit Morris)

Rich Monroe is Caltrans District 4’s Local Assistance Chief, and although most people will never hear his name, his work touches nearly every person traveling in or through the Bay Area.

Over $500 million in state and federal transportation funding is committed to projects throughout the Bay Area every year. With those public funds come pre-award audits, field reviews, design standards, environmental clearances and accessibility requirements — all as funding deadlines loom. Monroe and the Caltrans Office of Local Assistance are key to supporting project sponsors through this onerous federal-aid process and delivering transportation projects on time. “My early years spent in my parents’ hardware store taught me how to let people with problems walk out with solutions,” said Monroe. It is this approach to life that has earned him the Greta Ericson Distinguished Service Award.

Frank Furger, deputy director of the Alameda County Congestion Management Agency, described working with Monroe: “We always know we are going to get a swift, direct and correct response to questions or issues on project delivery, whether it be a simple overlay or a complex transit village project. Whether it is finding out where a project’s environmental document is in the review process, or managing to get a flood of requests processed by the end of the fiscal year, Rich Monroe always gets it done.”

Monroe has been part of District 4’s Office of Local Assistance for the past 30 years, rising from a junior engineer to his current position as chief, which he has held for the last seven years and from which he will retire in December 2004. During this time, District 4’s Office of Local Assistance has successfully spent over $5 billion in federal and state aid, and has awarded more than 4,000 construction contracts of all sizes. Notable projects include the Golden Gate Bridge deck replacement and seismic retrofit, reconstruction of San Francisco’s earthquake-damaged Embarcadero roadway, Berkeley’s University Avenue bike/pedestrian bridge, Santa Clara County’s SMART corridor traffic management system, Napa’s Maxwell Bridge replacement and, currently, BART’s seismic retrofit program.

“It’s quite a challenge,” said Monroe, “because there are over one hundred agencies with at least one hundred different ways to do the same thing.” The Berkeley bicycle/pedestrian bridge, for instance, had multiple funding sources each with its own criteria.

“Rich visits projects on his own time during the evenings and weekends to expedite reviews,” said Marcella Rensi, principal transportation planner with the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority. “Despite a heavy workload and diminishing resources, he still makes himself available whenever he is needed. He wants projects and people to succeed.”

Contents

2004 Transportation Awards