Minnesota Highways, March 1957

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VOL    6,    NO.     5
1246     University    Ave.,     St.    Paul     4,    Minn.
MARCH,     1957
New Training
Head Chosen
Development of the Highway
department's expanding training
program was boosted in February
by the appointment of a full-time
training officer. He is Gunnar P.
Pederson of St. Paul.
As a member of the personnel
staff, he will plan, organize and administer a varied training program
designed to extend throughout the
department with in-service instruction  and  courses  arranged in co-
Zimmerman Named Commissioner
New Chief Is Well Qualified
Gunnar  Pederson
operation with various educational
institutions and industrial concerns.
Pederson has been a department
manager and buyer at the Emporium, St. Paul department store,
for the past 7/2 years and before
that he managed a store in Minneapolis and served 3/2 years in the
Marine corps during World War
II. In the corps, he was a master-
technical sergeant, supervising the
receiving and issuing of military
Pproperty on the west coast and in
the South Pacific theater.
He received his higher education
at Augsburg college, Minneapolis;
St. Olaf college, Northfield, where
(Continued on page 7)
Already sharing, as chief engineer, in many of the administrative problems of the
Highway department, L. P. Zimmerman, left, confers with Commissioner Hoffmann
on some of the additional responsibilities he will assume when he succeeds next
month to the commissionership.
Hoffmann Cites Economic
Gains from New Freeways
"Truly, the pulse of every section of our state and its business activity
will be quickened as work progresses on this gigantic construction
program."
In these words, Commissioner Hoffmann summarized the impact on
Minnesota of the building within its boundaries in the next 13 years of
936 miles of the new Interstate highway network.
The Commissioner described the
manpower and materials which
will be required for Minnesota's
network construction in an address
at the recent annual meeting of the
Minnesota Editorial association in
Minneapolis. He said:
"More than 975,000 tons of steel
will be required. Upwards of 28
million barrels of cement and 2H
million tons of bituminous material
will be needed. Aggregate requirements—that is sand, crushed rock
and gravel—will total upwards of
194 million tons.
"Increased   earth   moving   ma
chinery and other power equipment
to build the roads will need 266
million gallons of petroleum
products.
"Finally, more than 8,100 practically full-time workers will be
required for on-site work throughout the 13-year period within our
state.
"In addition, it is anticipated
that at least twice as many workers
will be employed elsewhere to
build equipment and to produce,
(Continued on page 3)
Recent appointment of
Chief Engineer L. P. Zimmerman to succeed M. J. Hoffmann as Minnesota Commissioner of Highways retains the
Highway department's top administration in the hands of a
professional engineer who,
like Commissioner Hoffmann,
has had wide experience in
highway construction and
maintenance in Minnesota, including extended service in
the department.
Governor Freeman named Zimmerman to the post, effective April
21, after Commissioner Hoffmann
notified the governor that he did
not wish to be considered for reappointment. Governor 1'reeman
asked Commissioner Hoffmann to
continue with the department in
the capacity of special adviser.
Hoffmann has been commissioner
since 1939.
Both Commissioner Hoffmann
and Zimmerman are natives and
lifelong residents of Minnesota,
both are engineering alumni of the
University of Minnesota, and both
have spent most of their adult lives
in highway engineering in the
state.
Native of Wadena
Zimmerman is a native of Wadena and a 1916 graduate of the
University of Minnesota; was Wadena village engineer in 1916-18,
and served in World War I in the
United States and France with the
45th Engineers, a railroad construction and maintenance regiment.
After being Big Stone county
highway engineer 1919-21, he entered the Highway department,
where he served successively until
1933 as maintenance superintendent in the Morris district, and as
Southwestern and Metropolitan di-