#IAMKDOT: Kade Cooper

This month’s #IAMKDOT focuses on Highway Maintenance Supervisor Kade Cooper. He started in spring 2004 at the KDOT Mankato Subarea, then went to the Area crew and in 2011, was named the Supervisor in Belleville.

Cooper appreciates his work environment. “You don’t find many places that you enjoy the company of the people you’re working with,” he said. “And I like the hours in the summer so I can spend more time with the kids.”

Cooper coaches the baseball team for his son, Andrew, and attends softball games for his daughter, Kinley. He and his wife, Jackie, like to take the kids camping when they can. And they have a few cattle on his father-in-law’s farm that they take care of.

Cooper and his crew members are out on the highways year-round with overlay projects, right of way maintenance and snow removal operations. Winter brings a busier schedule, he said, with keeping all the equipment running, planning repairs with the mechanics, scheduling shift when storms come up, making sure pot holes are patched and stay patched as well as other maintenance duties.

We’re very dependent on the weather, Cooper said, and plans can get changed quickly. “We live in Kansas, if you don’t like the weather, wait 15 minutes,” he joked.

Cooper has seen many improvements in work zone safety. “We’re very fortunate we have the tools we have for safety,” he said. Everything has a purpose – from the cones to the attenuators to the arrow boards to the people working in the lane. We’re out there for a reason.”

But motorists must pay attention and follow the signs. “There are times we’ve had close calls even with crash attenuators,” Cooper said. “Sometimes they’ll go around the attenuators and then try to get in the lane that we’re trying to block.”

When he’s not on the highway, Cooper assists co-workers and agency partners in various training efforts. Cooper is a certified bucket truck trainer throughout District Two. To work in a truck with a basket, employees must go through certification before they can do it by themselves. 

He also trains people for Traffic Incident Management. Cooper works with fire departments, local law enforcement, local utility companies and others to train people how to set up traffic control if there was an incident in their area. Then they can go back and train their staff, he said.