(The Center Square) – Long sooner than the tip of summer season, the Colorado Department of Transportation was once getting ready for wintry weather by restoring its workforce thru pay will increase and housing stipends.
“We experienced a brutal winter season last year that required around the clock operations to keep the state’s roadways open,” John Lorme, operations director for the Colorado Department of Transportation’s Division of Maintenance and Operations, mentioned in a observation. “CDOT took an all-hands-on deck approach last season including rotating crews to address roadways that were being highly impacted by adverse conditions, provided updated and increased housing stipends and workforce housing in some of Colorado’s most sought-after locations and grew CDOT’s Commercial Driver’s License training program.”
Last August, the upkeep and operations department had a 37% task emptiness fee. In May, the speed was once lowered to 18%. The division emphasised recruitment, larger salaries and housing systems.
The division attended roughly 40 occupation festivals around the state and likewise held festivals the place rapid-hire systems came about. Department staff won a three% pay building up each and every yr for the previous 3 years and the first-year salary for core repairs positions was once larger 7.5%.
The division started offering housing stipends for workers in make a choice spaces in 2018. It just lately performed some other research of marketplace prerequisites for housing. The analysis supported the hot extension of stipends to staff in a much broader vary of geographic spaces. Employees can obtain as much as $2,000 per month in response to their paintings location.
“Although housing stipends further the ability for employees to continue to rent or buy houses where they live and work, Colorado still continues to lack an inventory of homes that the stipend cannot address,” in line with a media release posted ultimate week from the dept. “As a result, CDOT is building new workforce housing that will allow essential employees to live within 30 minutes of their assigned duty area.”
A pilot undertaking growing workforce housing in Glenwood Springs resulted in equivalent initiatives underway in Frisco and Fairplay.
The division mentioned the imply reasonable of when Colorado will see its first snow of the season is Oct. 19.
“We are building off of the successes we saw last year and doubling down on our efforts this upcoming winter season,” Lorme mentioned.
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