Hill International, Inc. is excited to welcome Arthur (Art) Dao, PE, to our Northern California offices. Art joins our team as Project Executive, reporting directly to First Vice President, Northern California Operations Andy Kreck, PE, CCM.

Art has enjoyed a long and distinguished career leading multiple transportation agencies, including the Alameda County Transportation Commission (ACTC), the Alameda County Transportation Authority (ACTA), and the Alameda County Transportation Improvement Authority (ACTIA), where he served as First Executive Director and CEO, Deputy Director, and Project Development Manager, respectively. Art also worked for Caltrans District 4 in multiple positions over the course of a 15-year tenure, ultimately rising to the post of Design Office Chief.

Highlights of Art’s work include developing the 30-year, $8 billion Transportation Expenditure Plan at ACTC, managing ACTIA’s approximately $2.5 billion capital program—and delivering the program 10 years ahead of schedule, and creating lasting partnerships with multiple regional, state, and federal agencies that now span decades. In addition, Art created the management and administrative infrastructure to transition ACTIA from 1986’s Measure B to the 2000 Measure B, which helped to achieve several projects with significant budget savings. He has led project teams of up to several dozen professionals and built major organizations from the ground up and understands how to achieve agency goals and develop strong management teams, no matter what challenges may arise. Specifics of his accomplishments include:

• Developing the 2014 Transportation Expenditure Plan, Measure BB, which was overwhelmingly approved by Alameda County voters in November 2014 to generate more than $8 billion of transportation investments.
• Delivering more than $800 million of State Proposition 1B bond-funded projects to relieve congestion on major freeway corridors.
• Developing and achieving consensus on comprehensive plans and strategies for goods movement investments, transit improvements, and major multimodal arterials improvements throughout Alameda County.

Art’s individual project achievements include:

• The Bay Area’s first express lanes—the Interstate 680 Sunol Express Lanes, the first in a 550-mile regional network of high-occupancy toll lane projects, and subsequent express lanes on Interstate 580.
• The BART to Warm Springs station, the BART West Access Bridge and Plaza, the BART/Oakland Airport Connector, and the $178 million East Bay Bus Rapid Transit project.
• The introduction of Integrated Corridor Mobility technology for the approximately 270,000 vehicles per day that use the I-80 corridor, one of the Bay Area’s busiest.
• Interjurisdictional arterial corridors such as the East 14th Street/Mission Boulevard and Fremont Boulevard Corridor and the San Pablo Avenue Corridor projects.
• Vanguard programs such as Safe Routes to Schools and the Affordable Student Transit Pass Program, both of which were a part of the Alameda County School Travel Opportunities Program.

“Realizing transportation programs in Northern California successfully requires a diverse mix of skills, perspectives, and abilities,” says Art. “I’ve been fortunate to work with exceptionally talented people from many agencies, organizations, and other groups over the course of my career, and it’s this pool of experts and engaged stakeholders that, time and again, enabled us to beat our cost and schedule goals and keep our residents moving safely and on-time.

“Today, I’m looking forward to continuing my career with Hill, which has the depth and breadth of expertise I know our clients need to realize their own critical improvement programs.”

Kreck concludes, “Art brings more than 33 years of success to Hill. It’s a track record that’s hard to match, let alone surpass. Transit and roadway projects and programs are a keystone of Hill’s work in Northern California. Art’s presence makes our team exponentially stronger.”

As Project Executive, Art will help deliver Hill’s programs and projects and grow Hill’s transit and transportation practice throughout the company’s Western Region, which encompasses offices Arizona, California, Colorado, Texas, and Washington. Art will enhance the entire team’s performance through his long-standing relationships with key stakeholders, deep library of transit best practices and lessons learned, and his first-hand knowledge of meeting budget and schedule goals on Northern California construction projects. Art will also be responsible for evaluating team performance and strengthening our staff, as needed.