Cooke County — With transportation and roadways being such an essential part of life, Texas Department of Transportation Area Engineer Michael Hallum of the Gainesville area office has his plate full.

This year, Hallum stepped into the top dog position for this area of the Wichita Falls District, after working as the assistant area engineer since 1998.

In his new position, he said he spends about 40 percent his time on the road, checking out the TxDOT maintenance sites and construction jobs.

“I just get out and make sure that everything has been done according to the plans,” he said. “A lot of times when I’m out there it’s because of issues and you’re trying to resolve the issues on the project.”

Hallum said that TxDOT projects usually fall into the maintenance or construction categories, and it’s his job to oversee Cooke County, Montague County and the lower third of Clay County.

As far as maintenance, TxDOT works to maintain the farm to market roads, state highways and U.S. highways and interstates, after determining what roadways need to be worked on most.

One huge maintenance issue right now are the roads that have been torn up with all the oil exploration going on down in the southwest part of Cooke County and the southeast part of Montague County, he said.

“They have literally destroyed probably four to five FM roads,” he noted. “There is no end to the damage done in that area, so we’re going to focus a lot of attention and a lot of our resources and money to that area trying to just keep the roads passable.”

Hallum said the legislature may be looking at ways to tax or to get money from the oil and gas industry to help pay for damage to the roads, but for now, TxDOT is responsible for keeping the potholes patched so the public can still use the roads.

TxDOT construction projects include building new infrastructure and bridges, such as those on California and Broadway streets in Gainesville. Overlays and widening roadways also fall into the construction category.

“We’ve got a number of roadway widening jobs,” Hallum said. “We just let (put out to bid) three more projects this month...and we will let two more projects next month. One of them being the U.S. Highway 82/FM 678 bridge in the Callisburg and Woodbine area, so we’re excited about that.”

Determining the budget for the year is a huge responsibility, Hallum noted. The process includes determining what projects need to be done and estimating what it will cost.

“Budgeting is a large part of the job and probably one of the largest challenges at this time,” he continued. “Obviously, we have a lot less money to work with, so we’re trying to determine the best ways to make what money we have go the furthest.”

He said that working with the government entities and trying to meet their needs is also a very important part of the job.

Goals are a part of Hallum’s day-to-day work and he said his No. 1 goal is safety.

“I take it very seriously and TxDOT takes it very seriously,” he said. “Safety for our own employees, because there probably isn’t a more dangerous job than working on the highways. Then, obviously, the traveling public’s safety. It’s dangerous in and around our construction work zones, so safety is paramount.”

Working well with the public is an important goal for Hallum.

“I’m a firm believer that I have 22 million bosses that live in the state of Texas and obviously I work for them, so it’s my goal that I give them prompt, courteous service when they call and have issues and complaints,” he noted. “I try to address them as quickly as we can. I’m not always able to give them the answer that they want, but I think I owe them a prompt response and to do my best to address their concerns.”

Back to the budget, one of Hallum’s goals is to make the most of what is in the budget.

If all the money was spent in one week on one road, that wouldn’t be doing a service to anyone else in the area, he said. Part of the process is to figure out how to do things cheaper and to be able to spread out the work and address as many issues as possible in the area.

“What we’re doing now is probably not as permanent as a fix,” he continued. “If you have a lot of money, you can go fix it one time and it’ll be done. But, that costs a lot more money. So, now we’re having to find ways to go in there and solve the problem and fix the pothole for now. But, we know that’s not going to be a lasting fix, but hopefully we can still fix as many potholes as we can.”

Hallum grew up on a farm near Marietta, Okla. where his family had a cattle business.

“Gainesville was the big city then and it had all the conveniences of a big city and a movie theater on California Street,” he said of his growing up days.

Hallum graduated from Oklahoma State University with a Bachelor of Science in civil engineering.

He now lives on the family farm with his wife Shari and their three children, Travis who is 13, Bailey who is 12 and Randal who is 9. He still keeps a few of his own cows on his farm, but leases out most of the land for others to run cattle on.

For fun, he likes to hunt and fish.

“I’m a country boy, so it’s kind of a given, I guess. I like to go to the mountains every year for elk and mule-deer, and then around here hunt white-tails and hogs and turkeys,” he added.

“Right now, I find with my three kids, that’s a hobby in itself,” Hallum noted. “I coach baseball, football and I help my wife coach basketball. They like to ride motorcycles, so we do a lot of that. I find that a lot of things I used to do before I had kids is kind of on the back burner, or I do a lot of those things with them.”

Regarding his professional life, Hallum said he has been very fortunate to work with some very good engineers, and he learned from them how to do his job well.

He spoke highly of his previous boss, Wayne Bell, who retired after 40 years with TxDOT, and said since becoming area engineer, he appreciates his previous bosses even more.

“He was a busy man,” he said of Bell. “I think he’s enjoying retirement. He says he sleeps a lot better at night and now I know what he meant.

“When you’re the one that’s responsible for everything in your area, it is a lot that weighs on your mind,” he noted. “At night when you go to bed you’re wondering, is this project OK and you start thinking about what you need to do tomorrow and who you need to talk to.”

Believe it or not, Hallum said he appreciates that the public calls him to let him know when something is going on in his area.

“A lot of people think they’re complaining but they’re not, because they will alert me to something out on the road and otherwise we may not have known,” he said. “I definitely do urge people to call when they see something that needs to be addressed.”