Minnesota Highways, March 1955

              TO WW
VOL.   4,  NO.  5
1246  University  Ave.,  St.  Paul  4,  Minn.
MARCH,   1955
Anton   E.   LaBonte
Walter Nitardy
Clarence   F.   Bertossi
Lyle  Dills
7 Engineers Promoted
In Bridge Division
Promotion within the division of seven members of the
Highway department's bridge division was announced by-
Commissioner M. J. Hoffmann in early March.
Elevated to higher posts were Anton E. LaBonte, Walter
Nitardy, Clarence F. Bertossi, Lyle Dills, Herbert Bergstrom,
Paul Swenson and Robert Langguth, all veterans in the department.
The promotions are part of a realignment of sections and
positions in the division to better handle the department's
Sjased bridge building program. The projected bridge
ling program for 1955, totaling about six million dollars,
most twice as large as the 1954 program.
Anton E. LaBonte
Anton E. LaBonte, 30-year veteran in the Highway department
and assistant bridge engineer for
the past six years, on March 1 replaced M. O. Giertsen as bridge
engineer. Giertsen is on leave of
absence because of illness. In his
new post, LaBonte will supervise
all activities concerned with the
design, construction, and maintenance of bridges under jurisdiction
of the Highway department.
LaBonte, who is widely recognized as an outstanding expert on
bridge design, joined the department May 28, 1925, as a materials
inspector. He became a bridge designer in the early 1930's. He has
had a hand in the design and construction of most of the major
bridges built in Minnesota in recent years. LaBonte is an engineering alumnus of the University
of Minnesota and a veteran of
World War I.
Walter Nitardy
Succeeding LaBonte as assistant
bridge engineer was Walter Nitardy, who joined the Highway department in 1921 as a bridge inspector and who has been in the
bridge division during his 34 years
with the department. Most recently he has had general field super-
(Continued  on  page 6)
Herbert  Bergstrom
Paul  Swanson
Robert   Langguth
E. M. Gould Wins Duluth Promotion
Edwin M. Gould
Edwin M. Gould, whose most
recent assignment in the Highway
department has been as a project
engineer, has been promoted from
civil engineer II to civil engineer
III and assigned as assistant district engineer of Construction District 1, which has its headquarters
at Duluth.
Joining the department in 1921
as a rodman, Gould has spent most
J of his time with the Construction
Division. He served with Right-of-
Way for a few months in 1945 after which he was county engineer
for Aitkin county for 18 months.
In his new post, Gould succeeds
Lester Miller, who recently became
construction district engineer at
Duluth.
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