#IAMKDOT: Robyn Daniels

By Priscilla Petersen
Southeast Kansas 
Public Affairs Manager,
Illustration by Mallory Goeke 

When she’s not administering contracts and coordinating staff at the Independence office, Robyn Daniels can be found checking the progress on construction projects and visiting with KDOT inspectors throughout Montgomery, Wilson, Elk and Chautauqua counties.

Daniels is the Engineering Technician Specialist for the Independence Construction office. She began her KDOT career of over 30 years – 31 this May – as an Office Assistant at Independence. She continued her path forward by promoting through the construction ranks as an Engineering Technician and Engineering Technician Senior before being selected as the Specialist several years ago.

Daniels was among the KDOT employees who developed and constructed 11 miles of new roadway for U.S. 400 through Wilson and Montgomery counties during the 1990s. She remembers how different it was back then as construction personnel traveled from place to place along the new highway corridor.

“Every part of the work zone was torn up,” she recalled. “We had only hand-held radios - it was hard to track down other people on the project.”

Another great change that she has experienced through the years has been in the progress of office paperwork - the transition from using carbon paper to making multiple copies of change orders to a much more streamlined electronic systems for contract administration and record keeping.

She and her husband, Terry, live in Independence. The couple has three daughters. In her free time Daniels and her family enjoy camping and boating at Elk City Lake.