Connecting Communities Both Large and Small
November, 2021
With the recent hiring of Senior Transportation Manager, Amanda Owings, and James Winslow, Transportation Business Manager, Otak has taken a bold step toward enhancing its project capabilities within the transportation sector. Transportation is a critical piece to building community, providing a way to get from point A to point B, while also creating access to areas and building opportunities that may formerly have been out of reach. Both Amanda and James are poised to expand Otak’s transportation team and project capabilities.
Amanda is a traffic engineer who has worked within all facets of transportation, from traffic signal review to accessible ramp designs. “Any time you’re doing development, there’s a requirement to look at how it impacts existing systems. My experience evolved from civil engineering to performing roadway design and then specifically to traffic,” she comments.
James has worked in the civil engineering field for 20 years. Over the past 14 years, he worked in various segments of the transportation, active transportation, and traffic signals fields, where he has managed bridge, roadway improvement, sidewalk, and traffic signal upgrade projects. This experience included managing not only the design components, schedules, and budgets, but also the public, council, and community stakeholders. He has also worked in the water, wastewater, environmental, and geotechnical disciplines.
“I remember one stakeholder meeting where many individuals, including the director, had differing visions on how to move forward. However, through hard work and a collaborative approach, cooperation was possible. Often it takes a dedicated champion and commitment to really listen to others and work towards achieving that common goal,” he comments.
The pair’s varied and extensive backgrounds in transportation made them an ideal fit for Otak.
Amanda chose to come to Otak because she sees the opportunity to take her career into a creative space while drawing upon experience in traffic solutions. She looks forward to her role in growing the engineering team and mentoring younger engineers. Her work will entail performing quality control to ensure clients’ needs are met along with supporting internal teams to make sure they have the tools they need to do their work. Potential project work Amanda will spearhead includes bike and pedestrian path planning, multi-modal design related to roadways and development, and facilitating meetings to discuss how transportation-related infrastructure will intersect with land use goals, ADA accessibility, and future growth.
“I am passionate about safe, well-connected infrastructure and that our communities have equal access to this system. Often there’s not enough money to go around to build to the ideal, but where there is new development, I’ll help see that the design is appropriate for the needs of the surrounding community,” she says.
Applying his past experience to work on solving problems with innovative and creative solutions for multiple agencies across a region is what James finds most rewarding about his work with Otak. His years of public sector experience have given him a unique understanding of both the public and private sides of the project management equation. “I’m critically aware of the potential pitfalls that can be encountered on both sides, and potential solutions or initial steps that may need to be taken to help agencies avoid those potential issues,” James states. Along with his client work, James will join Amanda in guiding and supporting the transportation team as it grows.
Both Amanda and James see a bright future for transportation projects that they predict will be more equitably distributed, from big-city projects to small rural ones, allowing for every community to benefit from enhanced connections.