Some three dozen employees of the Utah Department of Transportation would be affected through proposed restructuring of districts with headquarters in Richfield, Price and Cedar City.
Proposals include eliminating District Three offices in Richfield or making that location the headquarters of a consolidated district. Employees who might be affected have been involved as designers, mechanics, accountants and as secretaries.UDOT's design and construction work in the area will be changed to mostly maintenance duties now that I-70 has been completed through southern Utah.
When the proposal surfaced and the study neared completion, the department's commission was not aware of it, according to Commissioner Sam Taylor of Moab. He thinks a longer study is needed.
District engineer Sterling Davis in Richfield said a task force committee was assigned by state UDOT headquarters to determine staffing and alternatives to existing district structures. Personnel in UDOT's state office will examine results and recommendations of the study.
Some employees may be moved to state headquarters. There will be no design departments left in the three districts involved in the study.
Among alternatives being considered that would affect design personnel are eliminating the district in Richfield, combining all three districts into one, or keeping district boundaries intact but with changes in departments.
If the Richfield district is eliminated, Sevier, Sanpete and Wayne counties would be combined with the Price district while Piute, Garfield and Kane counties would be assigned to the Cedar City district.
If present districts were combined into one, the headquarters would likely be in Richfield, with satellite offices operating in Price and Cedar City.
Under the option of retaining present boundaries, design and construction departments would be integrated with the state office, with all design work being done there. Davis said employees in those departments would be offered continued employment but would be transferred to state headquarters.