{"id":46317,"date":"2021-06-06T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-06-06T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/a-science-nerd-helps-realign-u-s-highway-550\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:30:56","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T09:30:56","slug":"a-science-nerd-helps-realign-u-s-highway-550","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/a-science-nerd-helps-realign-u-s-highway-550\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018A science nerd\u2019 helps realign U.S. Highway 550"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Andrea
Andrea Meduna, project engineer for the U.S. Highway 550 realignment, discovered Southwest Colorado while working on transportation projects. She\u2019s particularly fond of the Paradox Valley after working on the bridge replacement in Bedrock. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Andrea Meduna has a side job as a math tutor.<\/p>\n

Her main gig as project engineer for the $98.6 million U.S. Highway 550 realignment in Southwest Colorado helped provide some real-world inspiration to her niece, Breanna, whom she\u2019s helping on Skype.<\/p>\n

Meduna\u2019s sister, Colleen Barnes, recently asked for her older sister\u2019s assistance saying, \u201cWe\u2019re struggling with linear point equations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meduna took a selfie in front of the 600-foot Gulch A Bridge, one of two bridges that will link the realigned highway to the Grandview interchange, and texted it to her sister and niece with a one-word message: \u201cmath.\u201d<\/p>\n

Barnes texted back, \u201cI\u2019m glad somebody\u2019s good at it.\u201d<\/p>\n

As project engineer for the Highway 550 realignment, Meduna is on-site ensuring quality control is up to snuff. She also ensures completed work meets the original design requirements and construction processes meet state standards and specifications.<\/p>\n

Pointing to the 2\u00bd-inch thick \u201cStandard Specifications for Road and Bridge Construction, CDOT 2017\u201d reference binder, she said: \u201cThat\u2019s our bible. Everyone has a copy of it in their vehicle.\u201d<\/p>\n

The realignment is the sixth and biggest Colorado Department of Transportation project for Meduna, who works for Wood Environment and Infrastructure Solutions, a contractor on the realignment.<\/p>\n

However, in total size and dollar value, the realignment doesn\u2019t equal work she did in the mining industry between 2007 and 2016, when she worked as a consultant with Newmont Corp.\u2019s gold and silver mines.<\/p>\n

While the realignment might not be as big as past mining projects, she said its complexity presents even more challenges.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s really not a whole lot to mining. You\u2019ve got piping, earthwork, tailing facilities, leach pads, whereas in this project you\u2019ve got asphalt, concrete, conduit. It\u2019s got lighting. You\u2019ve got public safety, transportation and traffic control. You\u2019ve just got so many more moving parts,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\"Andrea
Andrea Meduna, project engineer for the U.S. Highway 550 realignment, says she\u2019s worked on bigger projects in the mining industry, but the complexity of the highway realignment creates its own challenges. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of moving parts,\u201d she said. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>Jerry McBride<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Nancy Shanks, public information officer for the realignment project, said an unusually high number of women are involved in the project.<\/p>\n

Besides Meduna, Shanks said 14 other women are currently working on the project or playing a role in its completion, including Bridget McDougall, assistant project engineer; Emily Byers, an environmental protection specialist; and Michelle Heinrich, construction project control manager.<\/p>\n

The replacement of the historic Bedrock Bridge in the Paradox Valley in 2017 is Meduna\u2019s favorite project.<\/p>\n

The bridge replacement corresponded with a high snowpack year, and it was the first time rafters could run the Dolores River in 10 years.<\/p>\n

Meduna strung buoys across the river so rafters could anchor themselves until construction crews could get to a point to let them float safely under the bridge.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe would open and close the river to the rafters because you can\u2019t have suspended loads above them with a rafter going underneath. That\u2019s just terrifying. So we did a river closure,\u201d she said. \u201cYou might have to wait 15 or 20 minutes, until we got to a good place, and then we\u2019d let you go down the river. It was fun to do, a fun challenge to solve, and it worked really well.\u201d<\/p>\n

The number of tourists who stopped to inquire about the site, which was used in a scene in \u201cThelma and Louise,\u201d Meduna said, was astonishing.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really had to go watch the movie. I hadn\u2019t seen it before.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meduna, who graduated from Metropolitan State University in 2001 with a degree in civil engineering technology, said her lifelong interest in science drew her first to biology and then to engineering.<\/p>\n

She credits her father, Russ Meduna, a petroleum engineer, for nurturing her \u201cscience nerd.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI got a lot of stuff from my dad,\u201d she said. \u201cHe would point out a geologic feature, and say, \u02bdHey, don\u2019t you think that\u2019s cool.\u2019 And then he\u2019d explain it. We spent a lot of time at the (Denver) Museum of Nature and Science and different national parks.\u201c<\/p>\n

Her father also helped her hone her math bona fides.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe would give us a sheet of math problems that we had to do before we could go outside and play in the summertime,\u201d Meduna said. \u201cMy sister hated them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many of Meduna\u2019s CDOT projects have come in Southwest Colorado, and she has a temporary residence in Durango for the three-year duration of the realignment project.<\/p>\n

Occasionally, her husband, Mark Carter, also an employee at Wood Environment and Infrastructure, visits her in Durango, but they have two dogs and a cat, so it\u2019s easier for Meduna to return to see him on the Front Range, where they have a home in Centennial.<\/p>\n

When they manage to get together in Southwest Colorado, a pleasure drive to Bedrock is now a regular.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just so beautiful through there. It\u2019s still one of my favorite places,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s the only place I\u2019ve been able to use the excuse that I was stuck in a cattle drive when I was late for work, and it was true.\u201d<\/p>\n

parmijo@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

credits her dad for nurturing passion for science and numbers<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":46318,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[576,1142,1384],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-46317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-colorado-department-of-transportation","tag-profile","tag-u-s-highway-550"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46317","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46317"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46317\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":86830,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46317\/revisions\/86830"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46317"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=46317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}