Former state geometrics engineer joins TKDA

TKDA is pleased to announce that former state geometrics engineer Darwin Yasis, PE, has joined the firm’s Surface Transportation Division. Many of his 22 years of experience in the areas of transportation planning, project development and implementation were spent with the Minnesota Department of Transportation.

During that time, Yasis led the department in the successful design and delivery of innovative interchange and intersection designs, many of which were first in the state, in order to meet the growing needs of the transportation industry and the community. He oversaw the development of design guidelines and their implementation for diverging diamond interchanges, which improve traffic safety and cut overall traffic delays by up to 60 percent, and MnDOT’s MnPASS Express Lanes, which use highway shoulders as a viable congestion mitigation strategy.

Among the dozens of complex, high-visibility projects approved for construction under his tenure as state geometrics engineer were the I-35E MnPASS Extension from St. Paul to Vadnais Heights; the I-35W MnPASS project geometrics, including adjacent interchanges; the extension of TH 610 under a design-build procurement process in Maple Grove; an alternatives analysis for the realignment of TH 53 in Virginia, Minnesota, through a United Taconite mine due to expanding mining activities; and the geometrics of the recently completed TH 36 St. Croix Bridge, which connected the states of Minnesota and Wisconsin south of Stillwater.

Projects completed while he was employed in the private sector included a traffic operations and design plan for US Bank Stadium in Minneapolis and preliminary engineering design for the 13-mile Metro Blue Line Light Rail Extension through the city’s northwest suburbs.

Yasis earned a Bachelor of Science at De La Salle University and Master of Science at the University of Minnesota, and has chaired the Transit Committee and co-chaired the Transportation Committee of the American Society of Civil Engineers, of which he is a member.

“We are very pleased to welcome Darwin to our team,” said Kevin Cullen, vice president of TKDA’s Surface Transportation Division. “He brings a breadth of experience that will help us continue to meet the growing and changing needs of our transportation clients.”