The leader of Hanson’s roadway technical discipline group, David McDonald Jr., P.E., PTOE, Ph.D., is a vice president and the company’s chief roadway engineer. He is also a quality review engineer for Hanson projects in Illinois, Indiana, Texas, Florida, Washington and Alaska.

Since joining Hanson in 2002, David has built a reputation as a leading expert in highway geometrics. His extensive experience spans highway, tollway, local road and interchange design, as well as drainage design, highway construction and the management of highly technical projects. David specializes in interchange projects, including freeway and tollway reconstruction, widening, rehabilitation and complex maintenance of traffic. He has conducted transportation studies, contributed to industry research and provided classroom instruction on advanced engineering topics.

David’s project portfolio includes preliminary engineering and final design development for roads, intersections, manual updates, toll plaza reports, bridge repairs and replacements, as well as the installation of closed-circuit TV cameras, microwave systems and pavement sensors. Through his work at Hanson, David has played a pivotal role in advancing numerous critical roadway improvement projects across Illinois, including 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; I- 74 mainline and ramps for the 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 International Airport; and manual updates for the Illinois Tollway.

David is also shaping the future of transportation through his research on roadway geometrics and the impact of automated vehicles on roadway design. In 2017, his paper on connected and autonomous vehicles was recognized as one of the top five papers at the Transportation Research Board’s (TRB) Fifth Urban Streets Symposium in Raleigh, North Carolina. He is actively involved with the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine; the American Council of Engineering Companies of Illinois; and the Illinois Road and Transportation Builders Association. David chairs TRB Committee AKD10, “Performance Effects of Geometric Design,” and is the co-chair of the planning committee for the 7 th International Conference on
Roundabouts and Geometric Design. Additionally, he has authored or co-authored dozens of peer-reviewed articles and presentations worldwide and was the lead author for Chapter 18: Maintenance of Traffic Design and Construction Staging in the Institute of Transportation Engineers’ Traffic Engineering Handbook, Sixth Edition.

David first discovered his passion for engineering at a rock concert in the 1980s, captivated by how the stages, lighting and special effects were designed; these days, he lends his knowledge to other curious youth. He served as an adjunct professor at the University of Illinois Chicago, teaching courses on transportation engineering fundamentals and geometric design for highways, advising senior design teams, serving on thesis committees and even co-authoring papers with former students.

IN DAVID’S WORDS
“While I have had the opportunity to contribute to very complex and interesting work, the real
reason I like working at Hanson is our fantastic technical staff, who are bright, inquisitive and
dedicated to doing the right thing. We have learned that not all project challenges go as
expected, and when that happens, we find alternative solutions to discuss with the client. With
this experience and this team of achievers, we can compete with anyone … and win. Indeed, it
has been a joy to work with Hanson’s roadway staff over the past 22 years.”