Governor appoints Calvin Reed to top spot at KDOT

Calvin Reed, a 15-year Kansas Department of Transportation employee, has earned Governor Laura Kelly's appointment to lead the agency. Reed has been acting secretary since the December 2022 resignation of Julie Lorenz.

We sat down with Secretaryappointee Reed to talk about his experience and vision for the future of the agency.

Where did you grow up? I grew up on my family’s hog farm just outside Melvern, Kansas. I’ve lived in Kansas my entire life.

What was your very first job? I helped my dad and grandpa on the farm as early as I could cut thistle out of a pasture or carry a bucket of feed to the hogs. My first “real” job was as a cashier at the BETO Junction truck stop.

Tell us about the jobs you’ve held since then on your career path: I started out as a bridge designer for KDOT in 2002 in Dick Elliot’s bridge squad. I had the amazing opportunity to be mentored by some of the best bridge engineers in Kansas. As my career progressed, I began to specialize in bridge repairs and rehabs and eventually began managing the bridge maintenance squad in 2006 and ultimately became KDOT’s bridge management engineer in 2010. In 2016 I left KDOT for an opportunity in the private sector working as bridge team lead and transportation division manager for PEC. I came back to KDOT in 2019 as Bureau Chief of Structures and Geotechnical Services, then Division Director for Engineering and Design before I was appointed to the Acting Secretary role.

What originally drew you to the engineering/ construction industry? And, what encourages you to want to stay in this industry? I’ve always had a natural curiosity and I’ve always enjoyed problem solving – which are some important skills for growing up on the farm. I remember having a small stream by our house, and after a rain one of my favorite things to do was to take whatever I could scrounge up around the farm and try to build a dam to see how high I could dam the stream up. I finally backed the stream up far enough that my dad asked me to stop. Growing up in a very small school, we weren’t exposed to engineering as a career, but I was fortunate to have a couple teachers who identified that skillset in me and encouraged me. Bridge engineering appealed to me very early on in college. Once again, I had a great mentor, Dr. Robert Peterman at K-State, who took me under his wing and challenged me in every way. Because of him, I came out of college much more prepared for the challenges thrown at me when I started at KDOT.

I would encourage anyone to get into the transportation industry – construction, engineering, surveying, etc. for a number of reasons. First and foremost, what we do is important. The ability to easily move from one place to another is something that we sometimes take for granted, but it is essential for the success of our state. I also think our industry is in a transition. While change can be scary, it can also be exciting because we get to set the path. I am very excited to see what the next generation brings for transportation.

With your long-time experience as a leader within KDOT, what do you see as the department’s biggest challenge? And, what’s the biggest opportunity you see as you step into this new role? Workforce! The pandemic accelerated the trend of retirements throughout our industry and the biggest challenge will be filling that void of experience. When it comes to projects, KDOT has two core responsibilities that cannot be delegated to someone else– decision making and oversight. With the rapid loss of experience in our industry, it is more important than ever to have a sustainable model for continuing to be able to do these within the Agency.

There are many pieces to this puzzle, including education, training, compensation and career path development. These are conversations that KDOT leadership are already having, and I look forward to leading these conversations going forward.

What do you think is the biggest challenge facing the industry as a whole? Workforce! KDOT’s role in helping industry face this challenge is slightly different. We need to communicate to industry through continual and sustained investment in our transportation infrastructure. When we do this, I am confident that industry partners in Kansas will step up and staff up to deliver.

One of the keys to success for any organization lies in the strength of its partnerships. What do you value about the department’s current partnership with contractors and the industry? And, what can contractors do to help strength that partnership? I am consistently reminded how valuable partnerships are to deliver transportation for Kansans. In fact, the IKE Transportation Program was built around partnerships and is delivered through these partnerships. What I see as valuable about KDOT and industry partnerships is this: though our missions may be different, at the end of the day we are all working toward a common goal – delivering a transportation system that Kansans have come to expect. My expectation is continued open and transparent dialogue between industry and KDOT – at all levels. Trust is developed through this type of collaboration, and trust is necessary to solve our problems together.

Electric vehicles and the impact on motor fuels tax stands to change transportation revenues in Kansas and around the country. What is/can KDOT and the industry do to be proactive? This is one of the most transformative times in the transportation industry and how we fuel the fleet of the future is a big national conversation. A lot of the conversation so far has been about EV, but there are other emerging technologies that I think have a lot of potential, including hydrogen. I think the most important part of the conversation is that these innovations are a GOOD thing. Diversification of our fleet provides a more sustainable model for continuing to have the freedom to move around like we do now. As we move forward, it is important that we don’t get too married to adapting to one particular technology and instead look for solutions that would work for a whole range of options.

Kansas is in the final year of our Road Usage Charge (RUC) study. RUC has been used on the coasts for years, but has not been widely explored in the midwestern states. This study will be one of the first steps in informing policymakers what the values of Kansans are as we look to funding transportation for the future. I look forward to engaging with the governor, the legislature and industry in identifying sustainable strategies for funding into the next transportation program.