Project Management and Delivery Award
Dustin Ledford, Civil Engineer with Development Services
In three different projects Dustin Ledford's mindfulness of available funding and innovative thinking resulted in a lot of money saved for the City.
"Dustin is currently titled as a Civil Engineer I due to licensure, but constantly performs at a Civil Engineer III level," Councilman David Humphries said during the Employee Awards presentation.
In one project there was only one bid, and that bid was over budget. Dustin negotiated reduced pricing on some items, and value engineered several other items to bring the project within the available funding. That got the project moving forward, and reduced the project price by $126,000. On another project to move pipe outside of a building footprint, the price potentially would have been $500,000. Dustin investigated pipe rehabilitation techniques, and ended up saving the City $150,000 - $200,000 easily. Dustin also volunteered to design the FUSE utility relocations in lieu of consulting this work out. This saved the City roughly $100,000 in design costs, according to the award nomination.
Dustin works a lot in the right-of-way storm water assistance program. This program involves major coordination with property owners in coming up with designs that will be suitable or aesthetically pleasing, but still something that will in turn solve the storm water issue. Dustin most recently worked through these issues on one project, getting buy-in from 10 different property owners on just one project. This was a difficult task as all had different levels of concerns and expectations.
He is always the first to volunteer, and volunteered to take on construction project management as well as managing two consultant projects going on at the same time. “He’s a major asset to Engineering, the City, and our citizens," Councilman Humphries said.
"It's an honor to work for the City of Gastonia and for the citizens," Dustin said after receiving his award. "If it were not for the good employees I work with and the great management staff that I work under to guide me in those routes, I would not be here today."
