November 4, 2025 • 23 mins
MDOT Roadway Design Engineer Chris Nail joined The Extra Mile Podcast to provide an overview of the division, explain the technical skills used in roadway design, discuss recruitment and the need for more MDOT engineers, and much more.
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Episode Transcript
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Narrator (00:09):
MDOT presents the Extra Mile Podcast.
Paul Katool (00:15):
Welcome in to another edition of the Extra
Mile podcast presented by theMississippi Department of
Transportation. I'm Paul KatoolAnd as always, I'm joined by my
cohost, Will Craft. And, hey,listeners, viewers, if you use
our interstate highway system,this episode is very relevant to
you. We've got one of ourawesome MDOT engineers on.
(00:37):
We have state roadway designengineer, Chris Nail, joining us
in studio today. Chris, thankyou so much for making time to
speak with The Extra Mile.
Chris Nail (00:46):
I appreciate the invitation. I'm glad to be here.
Paul Katool (00:49):
Awesome. Awesome. So we're gonna throw you a a
softball right off the bat. Solisten. Tell us about you.
You know, where'd you go toschool? I know you've been at
MDOT a while, but you've hadkind of a interesting path to
get to the position that youhave now.
Chris Nail (01:02):
Okay. Well, I grew up in Kosciusko, Mississippi.
Proud Kosciusko High Schoolgraduate 1991. Go Whippets!
Whippets.
After graduating high school, Iwent to Starkville and attended
Mississippi State University.Graduated there in 1996 with a
bachelor's degree in civilengineering. Side note on that,
(01:25):
after I had been working at MDOTfor a while, I decided to go
back to school, and I got mymaster's degree in civil
engineering from Kansas StateUniversity. Oh. So that was I
did that distance education,that that route, which is pretty
cool.
Will Craft (01:40):
That is.
Chris Nail (01:43):
After I graduated at Mississippi State, I began
working at the Newton ProjectOffice in Newton, Mississippi.
That'd be District 5. Startedthere in June 1996. And for
nineteen years, I worked in theproject office at Newton.
Will Craft (01:57):
Right.
Chris Nail (01:58):
In 2015, I got an opportunity to go over to the
district office and I worked fortwo and a half years doing LPA
projects, local public agencyprojects, which was really fun.
Got to meet a lot of differentpeople around the district and
saw a lot of unique projects. In2017, I got the opportunity to
(02:20):
go to a different role, and Iwas the district preconstruction
engineer for district five. Andin that position, I was sort of
the liaison between the districtand all the design divisions. So
if we had a preference for howwe design things, I was the guy
that was responsible for makingsure that, you know, that they
did it the way we wanna do it.
Will Craft (02:39):
Nice. Okay. And now parlay that, you have managed to
come all the way up the ladder,if you will, and you are the
head of this division here thatwe were just talking about
roadway design. What all do youguys do?
Chris Nail (02:51):
Well, we we have a lot of responsibilities. I'm
gonna move my notes around herea
little bit.
We've got a lot ofresponsibilities. Thankfully, we
have a lot of people that withcertain specialties. Sure. Our
main objective is that we helpthe districts and the other
(03:12):
divisions to put together plansfor construction projects. Those
projects would include bridgereplacement projects, bridge
repairs, safety projects wherewe would build a J-turn or the
dreaded roundabout.
Will Craft (03:26):
Yeah.
Chris Nail (03:27):
We do widening projects where we're adding
capacity to existing roads ormaybe a road out through the
middle of the woods. We alsoassist with mill and overlay
projects, and then there's anynumber of other miscellaneous
type projects that we work on.
Will Craft (03:42):
So, I mean, you guys are in just about every step
seemingly of of the the designprocess, the completion, the
construction. Y'all are in alittle bit of everything.
Chris Nail (03:51):
We we touch a little bit of all of that. You know,
one of the things that we'vestarted doing more in the last
few years is we work with ourutility division and the
district utility coordinators toevaluate the presence of
existing utilities that are inan area where we're gonna be
doing work. And we reviewpermits for for relocation of
(04:12):
utilities. And we also look tosee if there's any way that we
can design around thoseutilities to keep from moving
them. For instance, liketransmission lines, whether it
be gas or power, something likethat.
Those are really expensive. Sowe we look at it pretty in-depth
to see if there's a way to avoidthat.
Will Craft (04:30):
Y'all ever get out on a job and find utilities that
you're not expecting to bethere?
Chris Nail (04:35):
It happens quite often. And, you know, it it's
not fun when you find thosethings, but you roll with the
punches and you just deal withit.
Will Craft (04:44):
Yeah. I can imagine. Probably lots of trials and
tribulations and differentthings that you guys have have
done and undertaken. What do youthink some of the the work that
you guys do again since it's somultifaceted and you y'all are
plugged into so many differentthings. Your experience coming
from the district, from the, youknow, the local side of it and
(05:05):
seeing things two ways and thencoming to Jackson, has that been
helpful?
Chris Nail (05:08):
It has. You know, I still am trying to learn more
about the design side of it, andthere and I learn something
every day. But coming from theconstruction side of things, I
have a different perspective inthat I can look at a set of
plans, and it helps me to do aquality control check to see if
we've left out pay items or ifthere's a better way of doing
(05:31):
something or we if in theunlikely event that we just
absolutely miss something Sure.I I can see those things because
I've got the experience of ofreading the plans.
Will Craft (05:42):
Been out there before when it was missing.
Chris Nail (05:44):
Right. And and if I have, you know, designers that
come and say, hey. How do how isthis doing? Then, you know, I
can explain it to them. And if Idon't know, then I I still have
connections to contractors.
We can call them up and say,hey. We're gonna do this on this
project. How in the how do youdo this?
Will Craft (06:02):
Yeah.
Chris Nail (06:03):
And and, thankfully, all of our contractors are very
helpful, and they they they arewilling to lend a hand at any
time because, I mean, it's totheir benefit too
Will Craft (06:13):
Sure.
Chris Nail (06:14):
To help with that design because they're the ones
gonna have to build it.
Paul Katool (06:18):
Yep. That's no doubt. So listen. You were kinda
bragging on your team a littlebit before we we got on air.
Lots of big accomplishments inthe roadway design division.
You wanna kinda shout any ofthose out that you guys have
accomplished over the years?
Chris Nail (06:33):
Well, let me just start with the people
Paul Katool (06:39):
Yeah. Sure.
Chris Nail (06:40):
That we have in the Roadway Design Division. I can't
say enough about the theemployees that we have or the
team that we have in the RoadwayDesign Division. We're pretty
young. I'm really thankful thatwe've been able to attract a lot
of young, talented engineers,and and we've built a very good
(07:02):
team.
They're all very hungry, andthey're willing to learn, and
they're and they're doing areally good job. We're all
learning together. So I'm verythankful for that. Some of the
things that we've been doinglately are we've started getting
into 3-D modeling andalternative delivery type stuff
(07:24):
where we are actually creatingthree-dimensional models of the
roadways Mhmm. With the hope ofone day getting to where we
don't have a set a a paper setof plans.
Will Craft (07:36):
Right.
Chris Nail (07:36):
We've just got a a digital model that we provide to
the contractor and to ourinspectors, and we go out and
build that project and you can,you know, inspect it off of an
iPad. So we've we've got sometalented folks that embrace
that, and they're digging in andthey're learning so much more
above the minimum of what wewant, but they dig in to get a
(07:59):
little bit a little bit deeperto say, hey. Did you know it can
do this and it can do this? Andand embracing that technology
and and just seeing that goforward is is been great.
Paul Katool (08:10):
That's amazing. How many people are in the roadway
design division around?
Chris Nail (08:13):
We got 46.
Paul Katool (08:14):
46. Okay. Lots of smart engineers doing their
thing.
Chris Nail (08:17):
Yep. Got a lot of a lot of good folks. You know,
while we're talking about thefolks, you know, we've got a
lighting engineer. We've got twohydraulic engineers. We've got
an engineer that works with ourenvironmental division and also
outside agencies to get stormwater permits and other resource
(08:39):
permits.
We've got a CAD engineer thatmaintains our CAD software. He
facilitates training in the CADsoftware. And also, he's a
problem solver. So if, you know,one of our folks in house has
got problems or one of ourconsultants has got problems,
they can just call him up andand he gets into it and he'll
figure out a way to make itwork. So it it's really cool to,
(09:03):
you know, have have those, verytalented people working with us.
Will Craft (09:06):
That's amazing. Yeah. It's something you just
alluded to sort of a minute agowith the, you know, sort of
advent of of new alternativedelivery and technology. You
know, what are the changes inyour programs that you guys are
seeing? Is that sort of the maintwo kind of things you've been
looking at?
Chris Nail (09:23):
Yeah. A lot of the things that we do are sort of
the the way we've always donethem, and a lot of people hate
to hear Right. But we do a lotof things that we've always
done, putting together plans andthat type stuff. But as I
mentioned earlier, you know,we're getting into the digital
delivery stuff where we'reproducing those three d models.
(09:44):
But also, we're working with thealternative delivery division to
where we are getting into designbuild jobs, CMGC projects,
progressive design build, waysof being able to accomplish
those projects in a in a muchmore expedient manner.
Will Craft (10:02):
Yeah. Have any of those sort of changed your
recruitment model? I mean, yousuccessfully sounds like you're
you're having no issues withrecruitment, maybe even
retaining, but some of thatcontributed to that?
Chris Nail (10:13):
I think so. You know, one of the things that we
do when we go and we interviewsomebody is we take a laptop or
we bring them into the officeand we we get out a laptop or we
put it on the big screen and weshow them the software that we
use and all the things that wedo. And we start zooming in and
looking at the three d modelsand all that. They just go, wow.
(10:35):
That's cool.
Yeah. And, you know, knowingthat in two or three months of,
you know, getting training, theycan go in there and create those
three d models and all and allthat. And it it's really cool. I
can't do that, but I know folks.
Will Craft (10:51):
Yeah. Absolutely. Hey. Does that as as long as the
train is moving forward, youknow, as they say. Absolutely.
For sure.
Paul Katool (10:57):
And so we're doing a little more capacity projects
these days rather than just kindof the maintenance thing that we
that we're doing for a while. Isthat kinda changing things too?
Kind of like the day to day thaty'all handle?
Chris Nail (11:08):
It is. It it makes gives us plenty of work to do.
You know, we've got thankfully,a lot of those projects that
were being developed ten orfifteen years ago are are being
pulled out of the grave. And,you know, since we've got those
other funding sources, we'reable to dust those off and
(11:29):
refurbish them. And we've got alot of work that's going on up
in the Northeastern part of thestate with Highway 15 expansion
in Union and Tippa and whateverother county.
There's so many.
Paul Katool (11:43):
I know.
Chris Nail (11:44):
Yeah. But we've got those going on. We're designing
Highway 25 expansion up aroundMonroe County. I 55 in DeSoto
County, which, you know, is areally busy place.
Will Craft (11:56):
Oh, yeah.
Chris Nail (11:56):
Here in the metro, we've got I 55 up toward
Gluckstadt. We got 25 LakelandDrive. And, of course, 90 And 49
down on the coast. So we've gota lot of those projects that are
coming up. We've got some otherlarge projects that are in the
in different stages ofdevelopment such as the Port
(12:20):
Gibson Bypass down at PortGibson.
We've got some work that'scoming up around Hattiesburg. So
there's plenty to do.
Paul Katool (12:28):
Orange barrels all around the state. Will like to
say we're wide open here. That'sright. We are wide open.
Absolutely.
So Will also mentionedrecruitment and, you know,
you're a shining example. Soyou've been with MDOT forever.
So why why did you decide tostick with MDOT so long? Like,
tell us the benefits of being astate servant.
Chris Nail (12:47):
Well, I've been here for twenty nine years, and I
really enjoy what I do. I lovethe people that I work with. You
know, it feels like a family tome. It is a family because I've
been here so long that, youknow, I've seen a lot of the
faces change over the years andthat's you know, if you stick
(13:08):
around long, you see that. Sure.
But I've seen the changing ofthe guard many times. But,
again, I I enjoy what I do, andI I like the people that we work
with. And it's fun being apublic servant and sort of being
in the know of things that arecoming
Paul Katool (13:26):
Oh, yeah.
Chris Nail (13:26):
And trying to make a difference in the state's
infrastructure.
Paul Katool (13:30):
That's perfect, James. We'll clip that one right
there.
Will Craft (13:32):
Absolutely. Yeah. I would second that. I mean, it is
we we throw that around so oftentalking about how it's such a
family environment. But, again,I would submit to anybody out
there listening that we wedidn't rehearse this, you know,
coming into it.
It people say it all the time.And, I think I said this maybe a
year ago on an episode. I Itruly hope that everybody has an
(13:53):
opportunity to work at a placethat feels as family oriented
and and together sort of inunity, as MDOT is. It's just a
great place to work, great placeto be. Lots of technology and
and things the modern world ofof engineering in full force
here.
Great spot to work. Are are youhiring right now? There's the
Chris Nail (14:14):
next question. Hiring.
Will Craft (14:15):
Hey. There we go.
Chris Nail (14:16):
You know, I I can't put a finger on on a number of
people that that we have hired.I'm not gonna say I have hired
anybody, but we as a divisionhave hired probably 10 or 12
people in the last three years.
Will Craft (14:31):
Oh,
Chris Nail (14:31):
wow. And, you know, we're not gonna slow down. We
we're being selfish. We wannahire people Sure. The more
people we can.
And, of course, as I toldsomebody the other day, I'm team
MDOT. So if we can't getsomebody, if we can get them to
go to Bridge, if we can get themto go to planning or
environmental or out to one ofthe project offices, hey, as
(14:53):
long as it's MDOT.
Will Craft (14:54):
Yeah. Love that. Yeah. I'm saying.
Paul Katool (14:56):
And I'll plug that website. If you are looking for
a job in engineering or reallyanything at MDOT, visit
gom..com/careers. It's reallygreat little web page right
there, everything for you. Goapply for a job and and join.
Come to MDOT.
Will Craft (15:10):
Please. Absolutely. Moving fast and furious here,
but just real quick talkingabout your division. I know
there's a lot of things, a lotof projects that you've worked
on. Maybe anything that, aproject that you're most proud
of or one that you're mostlooking forward to.
Put you on the spot with thatone.
Chris Nail (15:26):
That's okay. You know, I would have to say this
is gonna be one of the projectsthat is in the local area to me.
I live in Smith County, so I'm,you know, way out away from all
the hustle and bustle in themetro. But I travel Highway 25,
Lakeland Drive a good bit, goingout to Northwest Rankin High
(15:48):
School. So I'm really lookingforward to Highway 25 getting
expanded because if you drive 48lanes.
Five, it's it's pretty rough.And, you know, I've been driving
out that way for a long time. Mywife was a teacher out there and
principal out there for severalyears. That's where my daughter
went to school. Okay.
(16:09):
And so we go out there still alot, and so I'm looking forward
to that expansion.
Will Craft (16:14):
Hey. As a as a ranking county native out there,
I I submit the same. I'm verymuch looking forward to that.
They're just building housesleft and right out there. You
know?
Nothing wrong with that, butmore more houses usually got
more people driving cars.
Chris Nail (16:26):
That's right. That's
Will Craft (16:27):
right. It's a it is a a fragile place to be from
about July to 08:30. It's a ormaybe not fragile. Hostile.
Paul Katool (16:35):
There you go.
Will Craft (16:37):
A better word. For sure. No. Appreciate that.
Absolutely.
Yeah. And whatever we can do tomake 25 into 48 lanes, I'm I'm a
big fan of.
Paul Katool (16:46):
I hear about this every morning. Big fan. 25.
Yeah. Yeah.
There we go.
Will Craft (16:49):
No. Absolutely. Look. Moving on. Paul, did you
have anything else on that?
Paul Katool (16:52):
I did not. Hey. That's that's a lot of good
information about Red WeedDesign.
Will Craft (16:55):
We wanna move into the fun questions as we like to
refer to them around here, as apodcast. As a people, we like to
eat. We like music. So I wannathrow these two at you. One,
I'll I'll still, let's go.
I'll still have the musicquestion today.
Paul Katool (17:10):
Okay. We're switching it up.
Will Craft (17:11):
You know, just throw people a curveball when we can.
Okay. What about a favoriteconcert you've ever been to?
Doesn't have to be inMississippi, but just one that
maybe stuck out to you.
Chris Nail (17:19):
Yeah. I hadn't been to a lot of concerts in my day,
but I got the opportunity thissummer to travel to Atlanta, and
I went to see Metallica.
Will Craft (17:29):
Oh, wow. Okay. Yeah.
Chris Nail (17:30):
It's one of my favorite bands of all time. My
wife and I got tickets and wentover to Mercedes Benz Stadium.
Yeah. She really stepped up andgot us very good seats Oh. In a
suite.
So we had all you could eat, allyou could drink. Oh, man. Really
comfortable seats, but that wasjust a side note. But Metallica
(17:54):
put on a really good show. Itwas loud, and it was, you know,
a lot of colors.
And, I mean, it was it was justreally cool.
Will Craft (18:01):
I can only imagine. And let me parlay that a little
bit, I suppose, but now you'reyou're are you in a band? Were
in a band? You're very musicallytalented as well.
Chris Nail (18:09):
I am. I play with a a few groups. We've got the
Mississippi Community SymphonicBand Yeah. That meets out at
Northwest Rankin High School.And it's much like a a high
school band, but now we've gotplayers in that band that go
from, you know, high school ageup through you know, currently,
(18:33):
are people in there throughtheir seventies.
We actually, a few years ago,had a tuba player that was about
in his late eighties, maybe even90 years old. So he'd been
playing tuba for a long time.Yeah. But I play the trumpet,
and I'm in the communitysymphonic band. I also, as part
of that, the Mississippi swingbig band.
(18:53):
And both of those are volunteerorganizations. We don't
Will Craft (18:56):
Oh, wow.
Chris Nail (18:56):
We're not paid employees. We do it because we
love to play. Yeah. And, youknow, just a shameless plug.
Please.
Saturday, December 13 at 03:00,we'll be at Bellhaven, and we've
got a concert. So look us up onthe Internet or on Facebook,
Mississippi Community SymphonicBand.
Will Craft (19:15):
Love
Chris Nail (19:16):
it. We're gonna be playing a lot of good Christmas
music. So that's that's fun.Also, occasionally play with the
Bellhaven Symphony right up hereat Bellhaven. Oh, cool.
And that's pretty cool. So, youknow, it's good to still make
music after all these years.
Will Craft (19:31):
Amen. No. You didn't you didn't try and jump on stage
with Metallica and give them asolo?
Chris Nail (19:35):
No. You know, actually, Aime Tinley, who is
the he is the assistant roadwaydesign director. He and his wife
went to that concert, and theywere down on the floor.
Will Craft (19:45):
Oh, of course.
Chris Nail (19:46):
So it would have been up to him to jump on the
stage, but he he knew betterthan that.
Will Craft (19:50):
Yeah. Thank you thank you for behaving yourself,
Ames.
Chris Nail (19:52):
We appreciate that. Now I wanna throw something out
since I'm talking about band.
Will Craft (19:55):
And Sure.
Chris Nail (19:56):
I really wanna something near and dear to my
heart is my daughter is atrumpet player, and she's at
Mississippi State majoring inmusic education.
Will Craft (20:05):
Okay.
Chris Nail (20:06):
And the last two years, she marched drum corps
with the Spirit of Atlanta Drumand Bugle Corps and as part of
the drum drum corpsinternational organization. And
so we followed her around thelast two summers to Atlanta, to
all over the state, and they endup in Indianapolis at August 1
where they have the worldchampionship competitions and
(20:28):
all that. And so it's beenreally cool to see her
development over time and andjust following her around and
getting to see her marchingplay. Sure. So
Will Craft (20:37):
I I can I I have a four year old and two year old
and one on the way? For thosethat may not know that out
there, could this serves as asomewhat official announcement,
I suppose. But it's all for thekids, man. I can only imagine. I
bet that was very fun getting todo that, see her enjoy it.
It's great.
Paul Katool (20:52):
Yeah. That that's amazing. I'll ask you one more
music related question. What'syour favorite Metallica song?
Gotta gotta know.
Oh.
Will Craft (20:57):
Oh, that's really on the spot.
Paul Katool (20:59):
You Just throwing it out there.
Will Craft (21:00):
I only know the one. Just one.
Chris Nail (21:04):
One probably is
Will Craft (21:06):
Interesting Sandman.
Chris Nail (21:06):
I mean my favorite, but Inner Sandman is good. You
know, I'm partial to theInjustice For All Yeah. And and
the Black Album because thosewere the ones that were came
about when I was in high school.But any of the songs that come
off of those are great. One is areally good song and, you know,
(21:28):
a piece of trivia there is thatwas Metallica's first music
video.
Oh, wow. Went along with thatsong.
Will Craft (21:34):
Man, I would've never known that one. Yeah.
Paul Katool (21:36):
Alright. That's amazing. I'm partial to their
first album, their early speedmetal stuff. Very good stuff.
We'll move on.
Music question. Or we did themusic question. Food question.
It's mixed things up.
Will Craft (21:47):
I know.
Paul Katool (21:48):
So you're you're driving around the state of
Mississippi. I know you get outand about. So when you have to
stop, get a bite to eat, whereare you where are you stopping?
Anywhere in the state?
Chris Nail (21:57):
Well, if I'm in Missus if I'm in Jackson, I like
to go to Martin's. And I thinkthere are a lot of us that like
to go to Martin's for for lunchor or supper. It's a great place
to go. And I don't go a lot ofplaces. I'm either in Jackson or
I'm at home or I'm inStarkville.
And so if I'm in Starville,probably my favorite place to go
(22:22):
is probably a place that not alot of people know about, but
it's the guest room.
Will Craft (22:27):
Okay. I have not heard. Have not
Chris Nail (22:28):
heard it. It's a it's one of those that's hidden,
which is by design.
Will Craft (22:34):
Not for long.
Chris Nail (22:35):
But check it out. It's actually part of the
restaurant Tyler Oh, yeah. Okay.Yeah. Restaurant, and they got
really good food, and it's got areally cool atmosphere.
If you're up there duringChristmas, they do really
special decorations forChristmas.
Will Craft (22:52):
Oh, cool.
Chris Nail (22:53):
And that's it's really neat to go in and see
that. But a piece of advice, ifyou decide to go, especially
during Christmas, go earlybecause the line sometimes is
two hours long.
Will Craft (23:05):
It's it's usually a good indicator. Oh, yeah. Yep.
Paul Katool (23:07):
For sure. Well, that's a good one. I think I'm
heading to the egg bowl thisyear, enemy territory, if you
will. So I'll I'll go and stopby and and check it out. So,
Chris, lots of informationtoday.
Thank you so much for joiningus. You nailed it.
Chris Nail (23:20):
Well, I appreciate it.
Paul Katool (23:21):
Absolutely. Good. See what I did there. Alright.
Thank you to our looselisteners, our viewers for
tuning in to the extra milepodcast.
You can listen and watchepisodes by visiting Goem dot
dot com forward slash the extramile. Follow us on social media
at Mississippi DOT is thehandle. We wanna thank our
editor producer Drew Hall forholding things down behind the
(23:41):
scenes. And remember, to drivesmart out there on Mississippi
highways.
MDOT presents the Extra Mile Podcast.
Paul Katool (00:15):
Welcome in to another edition of the Extra
Mile podcast presented by theMississippi Department of
Transportation. I'm Paul KatoolAnd as always, I'm joined by my
cohost, Will Craft. And, hey,listeners, viewers, if you use
our interstate highway system,this episode is very relevant to
you. We've got one of ourawesome MDOT engineers on.
(00:37):
We have state roadway designengineer, Chris Nail, joining us
in studio today. Chris, thankyou so much for making time to
speak with The Extra Mile.
Chris Nail (00:46):
I appreciate the invitation. I'm glad to be here.
Paul Katool (00:49):
Awesome. Awesome. So we're gonna throw you a a
softball right off the bat. Solisten. Tell us about you.
You know, where'd you go toschool? I know you've been at
MDOT a while, but you've hadkind of a interesting path to
get to the position that youhave now.
Chris Nail (01:02):
Okay. Well, I grew up in Kosciusko, Mississippi.
Proud Kosciusko High Schoolgraduate 1991. Go Whippets!
Whippets.
After graduating high school, Iwent to Starkville and attended
Mississippi State University.Graduated there in 1996 with a
bachelor's degree in civilengineering. Side note on that,
(01:25):
after I had been working at MDOTfor a while, I decided to go
back to school, and I got mymaster's degree in civil
engineering from Kansas StateUniversity. Oh. So that was I
did that distance education,that that route, which is pretty
cool.
Will Craft (01:40):
That is.
Chris Nail (01:43):
After I graduated at Mississippi State, I began
working at the Newton ProjectOffice in Newton, Mississippi.
That'd be District 5. Startedthere in June 1996. And for
nineteen years, I worked in theproject office at Newton.
Will Craft (01:57):
Right.
Chris Nail (01:58):
In 2015, I got an opportunity to go over to the
district office and I worked fortwo and a half years doing LPA
projects, local public agencyprojects, which was really fun.
Got to meet a lot of differentpeople around the district and
saw a lot of unique projects. In2017, I got the opportunity to
(02:20):
go to a different role, and Iwas the district preconstruction
engineer for district five. Andin that position, I was sort of
the liaison between the districtand all the design divisions. So
if we had a preference for howwe design things, I was the guy
that was responsible for makingsure that, you know, that they
did it the way we wanna do it.
Will Craft (02:39):
Nice. Okay. And now parlay that, you have managed to
come all the way up the ladder,if you will, and you are the
head of this division here thatwe were just talking about
roadway design. What all do youguys do?
Chris Nail (02:51):
Well, we we have a lot of responsibilities. I'm
gonna move my notes around herea
little bit.
We've got a lot ofresponsibilities. Thankfully, we
have a lot of people that withcertain specialties. Sure. Our
main objective is that we helpthe districts and the other
(03:12):
divisions to put together plansfor construction projects. Those
projects would include bridgereplacement projects, bridge
repairs, safety projects wherewe would build a J-turn or the
dreaded roundabout.
Will Craft (03:26):
Yeah.
Chris Nail (03:27):
We do widening projects where we're adding
capacity to existing roads ormaybe a road out through the
middle of the woods. We alsoassist with mill and overlay
projects, and then there's anynumber of other miscellaneous
type projects that we work on.
Will Craft (03:42):
So, I mean, you guys are in just about every step
seemingly of of the the designprocess, the completion, the
construction. Y'all are in alittle bit of everything.
Chris Nail (03:51):
We we touch a little bit of all of that. You know,
one of the things that we'vestarted doing more in the last
few years is we work with ourutility division and the
district utility coordinators toevaluate the presence of
existing utilities that are inan area where we're gonna be
doing work. And we reviewpermits for for relocation of
(04:12):
utilities. And we also look tosee if there's any way that we
can design around thoseutilities to keep from moving
them. For instance, liketransmission lines, whether it
be gas or power, something likethat.
Those are really expensive. Sowe we look at it pretty in-depth
to see if there's a way to avoidthat.
Will Craft (04:30):
Y'all ever get out on a job and find utilities that
you're not expecting to bethere?
Chris Nail (04:35):
It happens quite often. And, you know, it it's
not fun when you find thosethings, but you roll with the
punches and you just deal withit.
Will Craft (04:44):
Yeah. I can imagine. Probably lots of trials and
tribulations and differentthings that you guys have have
done and undertaken. What do youthink some of the the work that
you guys do again since it's somultifaceted and you y'all are
plugged into so many differentthings. Your experience coming
from the district, from the, youknow, the local side of it and
(05:05):
seeing things two ways and thencoming to Jackson, has that been
helpful?
Chris Nail (05:08):
It has. You know, I still am trying to learn more
about the design side of it, andthere and I learn something
every day. But coming from theconstruction side of things, I
have a different perspective inthat I can look at a set of
plans, and it helps me to do aquality control check to see if
we've left out pay items or ifthere's a better way of doing
(05:31):
something or we if in theunlikely event that we just
absolutely miss something Sure.I I can see those things because
I've got the experience of ofreading the plans.
Will Craft (05:42):
Been out there before when it was missing.
Chris Nail (05:44):
Right. And and if I have, you know, designers that
come and say, hey. How do how isthis doing? Then, you know, I
can explain it to them. And if Idon't know, then I I still have
connections to contractors.
We can call them up and say,hey. We're gonna do this on this
project. How in the how do youdo this?
Will Craft (06:02):
Yeah.
Chris Nail (06:03):
And and, thankfully, all of our contractors are very
helpful, and they they they arewilling to lend a hand at any
time because, I mean, it's totheir benefit too
Will Craft (06:13):
Sure.
Chris Nail (06:14):
To help with that design because they're the ones
gonna have to build it.
Paul Katool (06:18):
Yep. That's no doubt. So listen. You were kinda
bragging on your team a littlebit before we we got on air.
Lots of big accomplishments inthe roadway design division.
You wanna kinda shout any ofthose out that you guys have
accomplished over the years?
Chris Nail (06:33):
Well, let me just start with the people
Paul Katool (06:39):
Yeah. Sure.
Chris Nail (06:40):
That we have in the Roadway Design Division. I can't
say enough about the theemployees that we have or the
team that we have in the RoadwayDesign Division. We're pretty
young. I'm really thankful thatwe've been able to attract a lot
of young, talented engineers,and and we've built a very good
(07:02):
team.
They're all very hungry, andthey're willing to learn, and
they're and they're doing areally good job. We're all
learning together. So I'm verythankful for that. Some of the
things that we've been doinglately are we've started getting
into 3-D modeling andalternative delivery type stuff
(07:24):
where we are actually creatingthree-dimensional models of the
roadways Mhmm. With the hope ofone day getting to where we
don't have a set a a paper setof plans.
Will Craft (07:36):
Right.
Chris Nail (07:36):
We've just got a a digital model that we provide to
the contractor and to ourinspectors, and we go out and
build that project and you can,you know, inspect it off of an
iPad. So we've we've got sometalented folks that embrace
that, and they're digging in andthey're learning so much more
above the minimum of what wewant, but they dig in to get a
(07:59):
little bit a little bit deeperto say, hey. Did you know it can
do this and it can do this? Andand embracing that technology
and and just seeing that goforward is is been great.
Paul Katool (08:10):
That's amazing. How many people are in the roadway
design division around?
Chris Nail (08:13):
We got 46.
Paul Katool (08:14):
46. Okay. Lots of smart engineers doing their
thing.
Chris Nail (08:17):
Yep. Got a lot of a lot of good folks. You know,
while we're talking about thefolks, you know, we've got a
lighting engineer. We've got twohydraulic engineers. We've got
an engineer that works with ourenvironmental division and also
outside agencies to get stormwater permits and other resource
(08:39):
permits.
We've got a CAD engineer thatmaintains our CAD software. He
facilitates training in the CADsoftware. And also, he's a
problem solver. So if, you know,one of our folks in house has
got problems or one of ourconsultants has got problems,
they can just call him up andand he gets into it and he'll
figure out a way to make itwork. So it it's really cool to,
(09:03):
you know, have have those, verytalented people working with us.
Will Craft (09:06):
That's amazing. Yeah. It's something you just
alluded to sort of a minute agowith the, you know, sort of
advent of of new alternativedelivery and technology. You
know, what are the changes inyour programs that you guys are
seeing? Is that sort of the maintwo kind of things you've been
looking at?
Chris Nail (09:23):
Yeah. A lot of the things that we do are sort of
the the way we've always donethem, and a lot of people hate
to hear Right. But we do a lotof things that we've always
done, putting together plans andthat type stuff. But as I
mentioned earlier, you know,we're getting into the digital
delivery stuff where we'reproducing those three d models.
(09:44):
But also, we're working with thealternative delivery division to
where we are getting into designbuild jobs, CMGC projects,
progressive design build, waysof being able to accomplish
those projects in a in a muchmore expedient manner.
Will Craft (10:02):
Yeah. Have any of those sort of changed your
recruitment model? I mean, yousuccessfully sounds like you're
you're having no issues withrecruitment, maybe even
retaining, but some of thatcontributed to that?
Chris Nail (10:13):
I think so. You know, one of the things that we
do when we go and we interviewsomebody is we take a laptop or
we bring them into the officeand we we get out a laptop or we
put it on the big screen and weshow them the software that we
use and all the things that wedo. And we start zooming in and
looking at the three d modelsand all that. They just go, wow.
(10:35):
That's cool.
Yeah. And, you know, knowingthat in two or three months of,
you know, getting training, theycan go in there and create those
three d models and all and allthat. And it it's really cool. I
can't do that, but I know folks.
Will Craft (10:51):
Yeah. Absolutely. Hey. Does that as as long as the
train is moving forward, youknow, as they say. Absolutely.
For sure.
Paul Katool (10:57):
And so we're doing a little more capacity projects
these days rather than just kindof the maintenance thing that we
that we're doing for a while. Isthat kinda changing things too?
Kind of like the day to day thaty'all handle?
Chris Nail (11:08):
It is. It it makes gives us plenty of work to do.
You know, we've got thankfully,a lot of those projects that
were being developed ten orfifteen years ago are are being
pulled out of the grave. And,you know, since we've got those
other funding sources, we'reable to dust those off and
(11:29):
refurbish them. And we've got alot of work that's going on up
in the Northeastern part of thestate with Highway 15 expansion
in Union and Tippa and whateverother county.
There's so many.
Paul Katool (11:43):
I know.
Chris Nail (11:44):
Yeah. But we've got those going on. We're designing
Highway 25 expansion up aroundMonroe County. I 55 in DeSoto
County, which, you know, is areally busy place.
Will Craft (11:56):
Oh, yeah.
Chris Nail (11:56):
Here in the metro, we've got I 55 up toward
Gluckstadt. We got 25 LakelandDrive. And, of course, 90 And 49
down on the coast. So we've gota lot of those projects that are
coming up. We've got some otherlarge projects that are in the
in different stages ofdevelopment such as the Port
(12:20):
Gibson Bypass down at PortGibson.
We've got some work that'scoming up around Hattiesburg. So
there's plenty to do.
Paul Katool (12:28):
Orange barrels all around the state. Will like to
say we're wide open here. That'sright. We are wide open.
Absolutely.
So Will also mentionedrecruitment and, you know,
you're a shining example. Soyou've been with MDOT forever.
So why why did you decide tostick with MDOT so long? Like,
tell us the benefits of being astate servant.
Chris Nail (12:47):
Well, I've been here for twenty nine years, and I
really enjoy what I do. I lovethe people that I work with. You
know, it feels like a family tome. It is a family because I've
been here so long that, youknow, I've seen a lot of the
faces change over the years andthat's you know, if you stick
(13:08):
around long, you see that. Sure.
But I've seen the changing ofthe guard many times. But,
again, I I enjoy what I do, andI I like the people that we work
with. And it's fun being apublic servant and sort of being
in the know of things that arecoming
Paul Katool (13:26):
Oh, yeah.
Chris Nail (13:26):
And trying to make a difference in the state's
infrastructure.
Paul Katool (13:30):
That's perfect, James. We'll clip that one right
there.
Will Craft (13:32):
Absolutely. Yeah. I would second that. I mean, it is
we we throw that around so oftentalking about how it's such a
family environment. But, again,I would submit to anybody out
there listening that we wedidn't rehearse this, you know,
coming into it.
It people say it all the time.And, I think I said this maybe a
year ago on an episode. I Itruly hope that everybody has an
(13:53):
opportunity to work at a placethat feels as family oriented
and and together sort of inunity, as MDOT is. It's just a
great place to work, great placeto be. Lots of technology and
and things the modern world ofof engineering in full force
here.
Great spot to work. Are are youhiring right now? There's the
Chris Nail (14:14):
next question. Hiring.
Will Craft (14:15):
Hey. There we go.
Chris Nail (14:16):
You know, I I can't put a finger on on a number of
people that that we have hired.I'm not gonna say I have hired
anybody, but we as a divisionhave hired probably 10 or 12
people in the last three years.
Will Craft (14:31):
Oh,
Chris Nail (14:31):
wow. And, you know, we're not gonna slow down. We
we're being selfish. We wannahire people Sure. The more
people we can.
And, of course, as I toldsomebody the other day, I'm team
MDOT. So if we can't getsomebody, if we can get them to
go to Bridge, if we can get themto go to planning or
environmental or out to one ofthe project offices, hey, as
(14:53):
long as it's MDOT.
Will Craft (14:54):
Yeah. Love that. Yeah. I'm saying.
Paul Katool (14:56):
And I'll plug that website. If you are looking for
a job in engineering or reallyanything at MDOT, visit
gom..com/careers. It's reallygreat little web page right
there, everything for you. Goapply for a job and and join.
Come to MDOT.
Will Craft (15:10):
Please. Absolutely. Moving fast and furious here,
but just real quick talkingabout your division. I know
there's a lot of things, a lotof projects that you've worked
on. Maybe anything that, aproject that you're most proud
of or one that you're mostlooking forward to.
Put you on the spot with thatone.
Chris Nail (15:26):
That's okay. You know, I would have to say this
is gonna be one of the projectsthat is in the local area to me.
I live in Smith County, so I'm,you know, way out away from all
the hustle and bustle in themetro. But I travel Highway 25,
Lakeland Drive a good bit, goingout to Northwest Rankin High
(15:48):
School. So I'm really lookingforward to Highway 25 getting
expanded because if you drive 48lanes.
Five, it's it's pretty rough.And, you know, I've been driving
out that way for a long time. Mywife was a teacher out there and
principal out there for severalyears. That's where my daughter
went to school. Okay.
(16:09):
And so we go out there still alot, and so I'm looking forward
to that expansion.
Will Craft (16:14):
Hey. As a as a ranking county native out there,
I I submit the same. I'm verymuch looking forward to that.
They're just building housesleft and right out there. You
know?
Nothing wrong with that, butmore more houses usually got
more people driving cars.
Chris Nail (16:26):
That's right. That's
Will Craft (16:27):
right. It's a it is a a fragile place to be from
about July to 08:30. It's a ormaybe not fragile. Hostile.
Paul Katool (16:35):
There you go.
Will Craft (16:37):
A better word. For sure. No. Appreciate that.
Absolutely.
Yeah. And whatever we can do tomake 25 into 48 lanes, I'm I'm a
big fan of.
Paul Katool (16:46):
I hear about this every morning. Big fan. 25.
Yeah. Yeah.
There we go.
Will Craft (16:49):
No. Absolutely. Look. Moving on. Paul, did you
have anything else on that?
Paul Katool (16:52):
I did not. Hey. That's that's a lot of good
information about Red WeedDesign.
Will Craft (16:55):
We wanna move into the fun questions as we like to
refer to them around here, as apodcast. As a people, we like to
eat. We like music. So I wannathrow these two at you. One,
I'll I'll still, let's go.
I'll still have the musicquestion today.
Paul Katool (17:10):
Okay. We're switching it up.
Will Craft (17:11):
You know, just throw people a curveball when we can.
Okay. What about a favoriteconcert you've ever been to?
Doesn't have to be inMississippi, but just one that
maybe stuck out to you.
Chris Nail (17:19):
Yeah. I hadn't been to a lot of concerts in my day,
but I got the opportunity thissummer to travel to Atlanta, and
I went to see Metallica.
Will Craft (17:29):
Oh, wow. Okay. Yeah.
Chris Nail (17:30):
It's one of my favorite bands of all time. My
wife and I got tickets and wentover to Mercedes Benz Stadium.
Yeah. She really stepped up andgot us very good seats Oh. In a
suite.
So we had all you could eat, allyou could drink. Oh, man. Really
comfortable seats, but that wasjust a side note. But Metallica
(17:54):
put on a really good show. Itwas loud, and it was, you know,
a lot of colors.
And, I mean, it was it was justreally cool.
Will Craft (18:01):
I can only imagine. And let me parlay that a little
bit, I suppose, but now you'reyou're are you in a band? Were
in a band? You're very musicallytalented as well.
Chris Nail (18:09):
I am. I play with a a few groups. We've got the
Mississippi Community SymphonicBand Yeah. That meets out at
Northwest Rankin High School.And it's much like a a high
school band, but now we've gotplayers in that band that go
from, you know, high school ageup through you know, currently,
(18:33):
are people in there throughtheir seventies.
We actually, a few years ago,had a tuba player that was about
in his late eighties, maybe even90 years old. So he'd been
playing tuba for a long time.Yeah. But I play the trumpet,
and I'm in the communitysymphonic band. I also, as part
of that, the Mississippi swingbig band.
(18:53):
And both of those are volunteerorganizations. We don't
Will Craft (18:56):
Oh, wow.
Chris Nail (18:56):
We're not paid employees. We do it because we
love to play. Yeah. And, youknow, just a shameless plug.
Please.
Saturday, December 13 at 03:00,we'll be at Bellhaven, and we've
got a concert. So look us up onthe Internet or on Facebook,
Mississippi Community SymphonicBand.
Will Craft (19:15):
Love
Chris Nail (19:16):
it. We're gonna be playing a lot of good Christmas
music. So that's that's fun.Also, occasionally play with the
Bellhaven Symphony right up hereat Bellhaven. Oh, cool.
And that's pretty cool. So, youknow, it's good to still make
music after all these years.
Will Craft (19:31):
Amen. No. You didn't you didn't try and jump on stage
with Metallica and give them asolo?
Chris Nail (19:35):
No. You know, actually, Aime Tinley, who is
the he is the assistant roadwaydesign director. He and his wife
went to that concert, and theywere down on the floor.
Will Craft (19:45):
Oh, of course.
Chris Nail (19:46):
So it would have been up to him to jump on the
stage, but he he knew betterthan that.
Will Craft (19:50):
Yeah. Thank you thank you for behaving yourself,
Ames.
Chris Nail (19:52):
We appreciate that. Now I wanna throw something out
since I'm talking about band.
Will Craft (19:55):
And Sure.
Chris Nail (19:56):
I really wanna something near and dear to my
heart is my daughter is atrumpet player, and she's at
Mississippi State majoring inmusic education.
Will Craft (20:05):
Okay.
Chris Nail (20:06):
And the last two years, she marched drum corps
with the Spirit of Atlanta Drumand Bugle Corps and as part of
the drum drum corpsinternational organization. And
so we followed her around thelast two summers to Atlanta, to
all over the state, and they endup in Indianapolis at August 1
where they have the worldchampionship competitions and
(20:28):
all that. And so it's beenreally cool to see her
development over time and andjust following her around and
getting to see her marchingplay. Sure. So
Will Craft (20:37):
I I can I I have a four year old and two year old
and one on the way? For thosethat may not know that out
there, could this serves as asomewhat official announcement,
I suppose. But it's all for thekids, man. I can only imagine. I
bet that was very fun getting todo that, see her enjoy it.
It's great.
Paul Katool (20:52):
Yeah. That that's amazing. I'll ask you one more
music related question. What'syour favorite Metallica song?
Gotta gotta know.
Oh.
Will Craft (20:57):
Oh, that's really on the spot.
Paul Katool (20:59):
You Just throwing it out there.
Will Craft (21:00):
I only know the one. Just one.
Chris Nail (21:04):
One probably is
Will Craft (21:06):
Interesting Sandman.
Chris Nail (21:06):
I mean my favorite, but Inner Sandman is good. You
know, I'm partial to theInjustice For All Yeah. And and
the Black Album because thosewere the ones that were came
about when I was in high school.But any of the songs that come
off of those are great. One is areally good song and, you know,
(21:28):
a piece of trivia there is thatwas Metallica's first music
video.
Oh, wow. Went along with thatsong.
Will Craft (21:34):
Man, I would've never known that one. Yeah.
Paul Katool (21:36):
Alright. That's amazing. I'm partial to their
first album, their early speedmetal stuff. Very good stuff.
We'll move on.
Music question. Or we did themusic question. Food question.
It's mixed things up.
Will Craft (21:47):
I know.
Paul Katool (21:48):
So you're you're driving around the state of
Mississippi. I know you get outand about. So when you have to
stop, get a bite to eat, whereare you where are you stopping?
Anywhere in the state?
Chris Nail (21:57):
Well, if I'm in Missus if I'm in Jackson, I like
to go to Martin's. And I thinkthere are a lot of us that like
to go to Martin's for for lunchor or supper. It's a great place
to go. And I don't go a lot ofplaces. I'm either in Jackson or
I'm at home or I'm inStarkville.
And so if I'm in Starville,probably my favorite place to go
(22:22):
is probably a place that not alot of people know about, but
it's the guest room.
Will Craft (22:27):
Okay. I have not heard. Have not
Chris Nail (22:28):
heard it. It's a it's one of those that's hidden,
which is by design.
Will Craft (22:34):
Not for long.
Chris Nail (22:35):
But check it out. It's actually part of the
restaurant Tyler Oh, yeah. Okay.Yeah. Restaurant, and they got
really good food, and it's got areally cool atmosphere.
If you're up there duringChristmas, they do really
special decorations forChristmas.
Will Craft (22:52):
Oh, cool.
Chris Nail (22:53):
And that's it's really neat to go in and see
that. But a piece of advice, ifyou decide to go, especially
during Christmas, go earlybecause the line sometimes is
two hours long.
Will Craft (23:05):
It's it's usually a good indicator. Oh, yeah. Yep.
Paul Katool (23:07):
For sure. Well, that's a good one. I think I'm
heading to the egg bowl thisyear, enemy territory, if you
will. So I'll I'll go and stopby and and check it out. So,
Chris, lots of informationtoday.
Thank you so much for joiningus. You nailed it.
Chris Nail (23:20):
Well, I appreciate it.
Paul Katool (23:21):
Absolutely. Good. See what I did there. Alright.
Thank you to our looselisteners, our viewers for
tuning in to the extra milepodcast.
You can listen and watchepisodes by visiting Goem dot
dot com forward slash the extramile. Follow us on social media
at Mississippi DOT is thehandle. We wanna thank our
editor producer Drew Hall forholding things down behind the
(23:41):
scenes. And remember, to drivesmart out there on Mississippi
highways.
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