TriMet selects new Executive Director of Capital Projects
Written by jrood
Dan Blocher replaces Neil McFarlane, who is TriMet's new general manager, as executive director of capital projects for TriMet in the Portland, Ore., area. Blocher, 49, will direct and manage all aspects of planning, development, design and construction of TriMet's capital projects, including the Portland-Milwaukie Light Rail Project now in the design phase. He has been with TriMet for 13 years over two periods of employment.
"Dan brings tremendous
leadership to the Capital Projects and the agency," said TriMet General
Manager Neil McFarlane. "His nearly 30 years of engineering and management
experience make him a valuable asset to our team especially as we embark on the
unprecedented construction of a new bridge across the Willamette as part of the
Portland-Milwaukie Light Rail Project."
Blocher joined TriMet in
1995, leading the project control, cost analysis and contract management
functions of Capital Projects and playing a significant role in the Westside
light rail project. In 2002, he became the senior director of Capital Projects
where he helped deliver the Interstate MAX Yellow Line, WES Commuter Rail and
the I-205/Portland Mall MAX Green Line, which opened in September 2009. Blocher
has also played an instrumental role in keeping TriMet’s focus on meeting its
disadvantaged business and workforce participation goals.
Blocher left TriMet for two
years in 2000 to be the program change control manager for Parsons Brinckerhoff
in London. There he worked on the Westcoast Route Modernisation Programme, an
upgrade of a major mainline railroad from London to Glasgow, Scotland. Prior to
TriMet, Blocher was a bridge engineer for G.A. & F.C. Wagman, Inc., a
bridge contractor in Pennsylvania and senior engineer and then vice president
for Alpha Corporation, a multi-disciplinary engineering consulting firm, in
Virginia. In addition to project control work, Blocher has done significant
work in the construction arena, managing bridge construction projects while at
Wagman and directing the construction program for TriMet’s Green Line.
Blocher has a bachelor’s
degree in civil engineering from George Washington University.
