Minnesota Highways, October 1956

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VOL.  5,  No.   12
1246  University Ave.,  St. Paul 4, Minn.
October,   1956
Bovitz Head
Of Publicity
Vince Bovitz, n i n e-y ear
public relations veteran in the
Highway department, is the
new director of the  depart-
. '" Division of Public In-
£ i ion. He was appointed
ommissioner Hoffmann,
effective October 1, after a
statewide competitive Civil
Service examination for the
position. He has been assistant director for the past five
years.
Vince succeeds Johnnie Johnston, who resigned February 1 to
become executive director of Minnesota Good Roads, Inc. He has
been acting director since Johnnie's
departure.
A 1932 graduate of the University of Minnesota School of Journalism, Vince joined the Public Information division in 1939, serving as an informational writer until he enlisted in the Air Force for
service in World War II. Return-
•V'T   in   November,   1945,   he  re-
• 1 in January to become owner
)erator of the Hotel Chat-
t Chatfield.
Prepared Special Reports
Re-entering the Highway department in 1950 as an information writer, Vince was assigned for
a year and a half to the then Planning Survey division, where he
prepared the report on the Twin
Cities Traffic study and similar reports on a dozen other Minnesota
cities.
Vince became assistant director
of the Public Information unit in
1951, following the retirement of
H. E. Samuelson. In that capacity,
he has directed the preparation of
the department's news and feature
releases to Minnesota's  400 daily
(Continued on page 6)
Vince   Bovitz
New Buildings
In 6 Locations
Now in the construction and
planning stages is the Highway
department's largest program in
several years for building new district and sub-district headquarters
and storage facilities.
Included are new or enlarged
headquarters at Brainerd, Thief
River Falls, Detroit Lakes, and
Golden Valley, and truck and general equipment storage buildings at
Bosemount and Red Wing.
The activity will continue
through next year with the contemplated erection of buildings in
several additional cities and towns
to provide headquarters, permanent construction offices, truck
storage, and maintenance shops
and other facilities.
The expansion is required to
meet the needs of the department's
growing state highway construction and maintenance programs
and for the newly established permanent stations for project engineers.
Plans are expected to be completed this month and a contract
let next month for construction of
the following facilities at Brainerd,
just west of the present district
headquarters:
(Continued on page 2)
Minnesota Weather, Soils
Draw French Engineers
Central Offices
Expand Quarters
Expansion of the Highway department to handle its increasing
construction and maintenance program has induced some growing
pains regarding space in the Central offices in St. Paul, as well as
in the field districts. (See adjoining story on new district buildings.)
To relieve the Central offices situation, the department has leased
more than 4,000 square feet of
space on the third floor of the
Griggs Cooper & Co. building at
University and Fairview Aves. and
considerable reassignment of quarters is planned in the Central offices building at 1246 University
Ave. and the rented quarters at
468 N. Lexington Ave.
The changes are designed to accommodate primarily the increase
of personnel in the Right of Way
division and the District 5 and
Metropolitan district headquarters,
as well as the crowded conditions
of the Materials and Research and
County divisions, some of the top
administrative offices, and various
other headquarters units.
On or about November 1, the
District 5 and Metropolitan district
headquarters, together with their
drafting squads; the Roadside Development section, and the Construction division's final squad will
move to the Griggs Cooper building. The two district headquarters
now are at 1246 University and
the Roadside Development section
and final squad, at 468 N. Lexington. A big computing machine
(mechanical brain) now being acquired by the department also will
be placed in the Griggs Cooper
building.
(Continued on page 2)
When we learned that a
party of five top French highway engineers were to visit
Minnesota, we just naturally
saw it as a recognition of our
superior engineers and their
attainments in highway planning, construction, and operation.
Well, we were partly right,
any way. They were very
much interested in how our
engineers have met and are
meeting successfully problems
of highway design, construction, and maintenance particular to this state.
But a compelling reason for
them to include the North Star
state in their transcontinental
study of American highway engineering, it was revealed on their
arrival, was that Minnesota has
the same highway engineering
problems as certain sections of
France in regard to extreme temperature ranges and to inferior
soils such as peat, silt, heavy clay
and sand. Rather a dubious recognition to a loyal Minnesotan.
Included in the party were
Raymond Peltier of Paris, chief
highway engineer and director of
the Laboratory of bridges and
roads for the French government;
Pierre Bertin, Marcel Robin, Jacques Lerouge, and Jean Rene
Beau, all district engineers; and
Claude Badoux of the French embassy in Washington, who served
as interpreter.
They Wanted  to  Know
The visiting engineers were
most anxious to learn how we
build our flexible pavements to
withstand the state's rather extreme ranges in temperature. . . .
(Continued on page 2)