David McDonald Jr., P.E., Ph.D., PTOE

David McDonald is a vice president and chief roadway engineer. He joined the company in 2002 as an experienced roadway engineer. With more than 25 years of experience, he leads Hanson’s roadway technical discipline group, for which he focuses on strengthening the company’s technical services.

David has provided preliminary and final engineering design services and guidance for roadway projects in multiple states. Specialty areas include interchanges: freeway/tollway reconstruction, widening and rehabilitation and complex maintenance of traffic.

A few project highlights are the reconstruction and widening of a 3.6-mile section of Interstate 294 near Chicago, which involved the design of the Halsted Street interchange; the widening and reconstruction of a 22-mile section of Interstate 90 between Rockford and  Chicago; the reconstruction of the I-90/I-39 interchange near Rockford, Illinois; I-74 mainline and ramps for new Mississippi River Bridge in the Quad Cities in Iowa and Illinois, design corridor management services for the master planning of 22.5 miles of I-294 near O’Hare Airport and manual and standard updates for the Illinois Tollway and the Tennessee Department of Transportation.

David earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in civil engineering in 1990 and 1992, respectively, from Clemson University and a doctor of philosophy in civil engineering in 1999 from Vanderbilt University. He is a licensed professional engineer in multiple states, a professional traffic operations engineer and is active with the American Council of Engineering Companies of Illinois and the Transportation Research Board (TRB).

His activity with the TRB includes serving on several of its committees and panels and chairing technical subcommittees. In an effort to facilitate technology transfer, he has chaired multiple technical conference subcommittees for conferences in the U.S and internationally. 

In 2016, he was appointed to a panel that researched the merits of highway lanes designated for the use of connected and autonomous vehicles. In May 2017, his paper about how connected and autonomous vehicles may affect geometric design was selected as one of the top five papers at the TRB’s fifth Urban Streets Symposium in Raleigh, North Carolina. He is an adjunct professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, where he instructs graduate and undergraduate students on road design, advises senior design teams and serves on thesis committees.

PROFESSIONAL CREDENTIALS
Professional Engineer: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Minnesota, Tennessee, Texas and Wisconsin

EDUCATION
Clemson University: Bachelor’s degree, civil engineering; master’s degree, civil engineering
Vanderbilt University: Doctor of Philosophy, civil engineering