[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 15]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages 20606-20607]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     RETIREMENT OF VICTOR A. MODEER

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. JERRY F. COSTELLO

                              of illinois

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, September 15, 2005

  Mr. COSTELLO. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize and honor Vic 
Modeer upon his retirement from the Illinois Department of 
Transportation, IDOT. For the past 20 years, Vic Modeer has served with 
utmost distinction at the IDOT.
  After graduating from the Louisiana State University and receiving a 
masters in civil engineering from Purdue University, Vic worked in the 
private sector for a contractor and consultants prior to his employment 
at IDOT. Once at IDOT, he worked his way up from various positions 
within the Division of Highways to eventually become the director of 
Highways and chief engineer. IDOT's Division of Highways is a vast 
organization with over 5,000 employees, a $490 million operating 
budget, and a $4.5 billion construction budget.
  While serving as the district engineer and as director of Highways, 
Vic was instrumental in overseeing many important highway projects in 
my congressional district and across the entire State of Illinois. As 
director of Highways, he helped lead IDOT to be the first State 
department of transportation in the Nation to meet and become certified 
under the process and quality management standards of the International 
Organization of Standardization, ISO 9001:2000. This is indicative of 
the dedication Vic and his staff have shown for professionalism, 
product quality, public accountability, and customer satisfaction.
  Vic met the challenges of budget constraints and significant staff 
reductions during his tenure as director with a typical can-do 
attitude. He reorganized the division, improved communications, 
engineered process efficiencies to make up for lost work force, and 
employed innovative management and training methods to maintain 
productivity and continue delivering the highway program as promised, 
with no reduction in service, despite the loss of nearly 20 percent of 
his staff to early retirement and other attrition between 2002 and 
2005.
  Mr. Modeer's participation in numerous professional organizations, 
including the AASHTO Standing Committee on Highways and the Task Force 
with Transportation Security, his service as a Navy veteran from Desert 
Storm serving in Saudi Arabia with the Seabees as an officer in the 
U.S. Navy Civil Engineer Corps, his long list of publicized articles 
regarding geotechnical engineering as well as teaching numerous 
engineering classes at Louisiana State University and Southern Illinois 
University at Edwardsville exemplify the strength of his leadership.
  Mr. Speaker, I know my colleagues join me in offering congratulations 
and gratitude for his

[[Page 20607]]

long and successful career at the IDOT. Vic Modeer's meritorious 
service to Illinois and to our country will have a lasting legacy not 
only in steel and concrete, but his true legacy will be with the people 
who served with him and the lives he has helped and touched. I wish him 
well and hope he continues to achieve happiness, health and success in 
his future endeavors.

                          ____________________