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Arnold W. Oliver portrait

TTI Council Member, Arnold W. Oliver

TTI Council Member: Arnold W. Oliver

Arnold W. Oliver, P.E., graduated from the University of Texas with a Bachelor of Science degree in civil engineering in 1960. He began his 33 year career with the Texas Department of Transportation as a summer employee while still attending college. Upon graduation, he joined the department full-time in the Wichita Falls District.

While a senior engineer in Wichita Falls during the mid-1960s, he pioneered applications of computer automation, producing the first set of state highway plans created entirely by automation. Ten years later, as resident engineer in Young County, he introduced the first integrated engineering/maintenance operation in the history of an agency which traditionally maintained separate engineering and maintenance organizations. His innovation subsequently became the model for all districts statewide. Concurrently, he helped TxDOT's Austin-based central administration develop and implement the comprehensive filing and file retention system used to this day.

In 1986 he was promoted to district engineer for the Paris district. There, his attention to the dangerously deteriorating condition of the area's bridges resulted in much-needed funding for bridge replacement. His next promotion, a year and a half later, was to district engineer for Dallas, where he expedited the long-stalled $500 million Dallas Central Expressway project and oversaw the design and planning of the city’s first High-Occupancy Vehicle lanes.

In 1989, Mr. Oliver was named Executive Director of the department, heading an organization of 15,000 employees, $1 trillion in asssets, and a budget of more than $3 billion.

Upon his retirement from TxDOT in 1995, Mr. Oliver joined HNTB Corporation. In 2002 he was recognized with the Friend of TTI Award as well as being named Distinguished Engineering Graduate of the University of Texas at Austin.

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