Minnesota Highways, June 1957

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VOL.   6,  NO.  8
1246  University Ave., St. Paul  4, Minn.
JUNE, 1957
Service Awards Presented
To Long-time Employees
John H. Swanberg Promoted
To Post of Chief Engineer
The State of Minnesota this
spring is giving honor where honor is due—to the many hundreds
of its employees who have achieved 20 or more years of employment service with the state. It is
a well deserved public recognition of loyal service to the government and the people of Minnesota.
Among the Highway department's approximately 3,500 full-
time employees, there are 844
eligible to receive the long-service pins which constitute the recognition award. Beginning with
390 employees entitled to the
20 to 24-year pins, the field ranges
to three men in the 45 to 49-year
bracket. The three are Al Larkin,
ingineer in the Bridge division;
/■alter Pilcher, secretary to Commissioner Zimmerman; and A. W.
Moulster, construction district engineer at Brainerd. Larkin and
Pilcher each have 46 years of
service,  Moulster, 45.
The Highway department has
198 employees with 25 to 29
years' service; 210 in the 30 to
34-year span: 41, 35 to 39 years;
and two, 40 to 44 years.
Twenty to 24-year personnel
are to receive silver pins. The other awards are: 25-29 and 30-35
years, gold; 35-39, gold with ruby;
40-44, gold with rhinestone; 45-
49, gold with diamond; and 50
years or more, gold, with two
diamonds.
Of the 844 awards in the Highway department, 425 are for
maintenance field employees, 96
for construction field workers,
and 323 for the Central offices,
Including also the Central shops,
Materials and Research division,
and Highway patrol. The maintenance field awards were made at
the annual district safety meetings; the construction Held awards
Bre being presented at area as-
si'itililii's; and the remaining presentations were delegated to the
various division heads, to be
made as they desire.
G. G. Gladman, Engineer of Surveys
And Design, Will Retire This Month
An engineer who was largely instrumental in making Minnesota
a pioneer state in modern highway planning, location, and design is
retiring this month as a regular Highway department employee. He
is G. G. Gladman, engineer of surveys and design and in charge of
road design and surveys almost continuously since the present department was organized in 1921. He has headed the Division of Surveys
and Design, with general supervision of all phases of road location
and design.
But he will not leave the department. He has been appointed
a special liaison engineer to coordinate activities between the
department and private engineering firms working on a consulting
basis on trunk highway design.
(Former Commissioner M. J.
Hoffmann has accepted a similar
appointment for bridge plans.)
Gladman's advanced approach
to highway location has, according to other officials of the department, saved Minnesota taxpayers millions of dollars in shorter highway mileage and resulting
reduced construction and maintenance costs and in lessened
travel time. It has been a major
factor in reducing the incidence
of traffic  accidents.
A basic aim in Gladman's loca-
Mon planning for trunk highways
has been to locate trunk highways
generally in direct lines between
travel points, rather than predominantly along section lines, as
was traditional in many older
states. This has reduced mileage
by eliminating many right angle
routes. Accident probability was
lowered by elimination of sharp
turns common at section corners.
In connection with his views on
highway location, Gladman championed an aggressive policy on
right of way acquisition, a policy
based on the priority of public
need over private property rights.
As in the present case of freeway locations, many property
owners objected strenuously to
highways bisecting their land instead of going around it.
Gladman and his colleagues in
location planning have done their
(Continued on page 6)
G. G. Gladman
John Swanberg
To fill the vacancy created by
his own promotion to state highway commissioner, L. P. Zimmerman appointed John H. Swanberg, chief construction engineer,
to the post of chief engineer of
the Minnesota Highway department. Public announcement of
the selection was made by Governor Freeman, with Swanberg
assuming his new position June 1.
At the same time, the governor
and Zimmerman announced establishment of two new top level
civil service posts in the Highway department, program engineer to expedite planning activity, and administrative assistant.
The program engineer will relieve the chief engineer of his
previous program engineering
responsibility, the governor
pointed out. The new positions
will be filled as soon as examinations can be held.
Zimmerman became commissioner April 21, immediately following the retirement of M. J.
Hoffmann.
Swanberg, a member of the
Highway department for more
than 23 years, had been chief construction engineer since last July.
For 18 years before that he was
assistant engineer and engineer of
materials and research, serving
10 years in the latter post.
For his outstanding leadership
in the department's Materials and
Research division, Swanberg has
been credited with major contributions to the development of
improved standards for materials
and procedures in the building of
Minnesota highways.
After receiving bachelor's and
master's degrees in engineering
from the University of Minnesota in the 1920's, Swanberg was
with the Army Corps of Engineers and in private industry until he entered the Highway department as a bituminous engineer. He was named assistant engineer of materials and research
in 1936.
The new chief engineer was
last year's president of the Minnesota Federation of Engineering
(Continued on page 7)