Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) secretary Yassmin Gramian recently recognized 29 PennDOT employees for their outstanding performance with the Star of Excellence Award, PennDOT's highest recognition. Two employees from PennDOT's District 8, which represents Adams, Cumberland, Dauphin, Franklin, Lancaster, Lebanon, Perry and York counties, plus seven employees from PennDOT's central office in Harrisburg were among the honorees.

Local recipients of the award were Guozhou Li, P.E., assistant chief bridge engineer, Highway Administration, and Todd Rottet, transportation planning specialist 2, Planning.

Li, who resides in Hummelstown, is a bridge engineer in the Bridge Design and Technology Division. As a member of the Associated Pennsylvania Constructors Bridge Committee, he provides updates on the various initiatives he is leading. Likewise, at the PennDOT District Bridge Engineers meeting, Li provides updates to the districts.

One of his primary job responsibilities is to evaluate and approve new structural products to ensure compliance with department standards regarding design, construction, safety and maintenance. As these vendors and the engineering professionals developing the new structural products in certain situations may not agree with PennDOT requirements, Li handles these difficult interactions in a professional manner, which projects a positive image of the department. Li has also actively engaged in providing the younger engineers with assignments to acquire experience.

Rottet, who resides in Elizabethtown, is responsible for the analysis of one-third of the department's permanent traffic-counting sites, which continuously collect traffic data on various roads throughout the state. The data from the sites are used to meet monthly reporting requirements for Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), creating the annual traffic factors, and are entered into PennDOT's TiRE website for access by PennDOT and the public.

During the COVID-19 stay-at-home period, Rottet was instrumental in ensuring data was analyzed quickly and accurately to report traffic trends to upper management on a weekly basis. He also provided weekly data from a few of the permanent sites to FHWA Headquarters as part of their travel trends analysis during the pandemic. Rottet is involved in testing and the analysis of new counter technologies to determine if the data meets FHWA requirements. He has been the lead worker and helped many new analysts learn their job.

The Star of Excellence Awards are presented annually to employees who represent the department's values of service, performance and integrity. The recipients represent a variety of organizational positions, spanning from highway maintenance and driver and vehicle services workers to traffic control specialists, communications staff and design and engineering specialists.

For more information on PennDOT activities in Adams, Cumberland, Dauphin, Franklin, Lancaster, Lebanon, Perry and York counties, visit http://www.penndot.pa.gov and search for "District 8."