Contact: Glen  W. Larum
Phone: (432) 498-4746
 

October 23, 2009

 

Gonzales Wins AASHTO Public Transportation Honor

District employee champions rural transportation effort in Texas

ODESSA - Alfredo Gonzales, the Texas Department of Transportation’s public transportation coordinator for the West Texas region, was named the winner of a national award this week for his work.

Gonzales won the prestigious American Association of State Highway and Transportation Organization President’s Award for promoting public transit in a region larger than most states.

He was among those honored at the 2009 AASHTO annual meeting Oct. 24 in Palm Desert, Calif., during its President’s Transportation Awards ceremony.

Gonzales was a driving force for EZ Rider in Odessa and Midland; as well as creating a seamless transportation network extending service to 22 rural counties –including several that had not had public transit.

Gonzales began his career with TxDOT in August 2000 as the Odessa District’s Public Transit Coordinator and his entire career has demonstrated his commitment to an extraordinary work ethic.

Under his watch, transportation funding in the Permian Basin and Big Bend Regions have gone from $1.2 million in 2000 to a projected $13.4 million in FY 2009.

“It is no exaggeration to say that many Texans’ lives have been improved dramatically because of his commitment to public transportation,” said District Engineer Mike McAnally.

He was a key player in the 2003 startup of the Midland-Odessa Urban Transit District [an urban transportation system for both Odessa and Midland, which at the time was the largest urban area in Texas without local inter-city bus service]. Midland had been without intercity bus service since 1986, while Odessa last had intercity bus service in the 1960s.

In 2006, when EZ Rider decided to buy new 30-passenger, low-sulfur diesel fuel-powered buses with earmark funds from the Federal Transit Administration, Gonzales helped facilitate that funding as well as a state award for the local 20 percent match.

He has worked to secure more than $2.2 million in local commitments for new public transit facilities in three cities –Fort Stockton, Marfa and Presidio.

He has promoted “TRAX” as the public transportation logo in the seven West Texas TxDOT districts.

“Alfredo has literally has worked miracles for public transportation in our district --and the entire region,” said TxDOT Public Information Officer Glen Larum. “When you think about the scope of this award –the entire United States, you come away with a real appreciation for how much he has done.”

Contact Glen Larum, Texas Department of Transportation, at (432) 498-4746 for more information.