County Public Works Engineer Receives Top Award

The American Public Works Association (APWA) Northern California Chapter has honored County of Marin’s Rachel Calvert with the prestigious Manager of the Year – Public Works Emergency Management Award. Calvert, Senior Civil Engineer with the County’s Department of Public Works (DPW), was the department’s interim Engineering Manager for about 18 months, during which time Marin was hit by several significant storms.

As one of only five Northern California APWA Manager of the Year awards presented for 2023, Calvert received special recognition in the category of Public Works Emergency Management. The award acknowledges Calvert’s exemplary response to storm damages sustained across Marin County roads during winter 2022-2023 and her management of staff engineers, consultants and contractors performing the subsequent repair projects.

With over 20 years in the civil construction industry and a 15-year veteran of public service, Calvert joined Marin DPW in 2019. Over the past five years, she has been a leader in delivering successful capital improvement projects, developing the County’s pavement and bridge management programs, and securing significant grant funding to support a robust slate of design and construction projects.

During winter 2022-2023, while Calvert was operating as interim Engineering Manager, Marin was pummeled with a series of strong storms that prompted the Board of Supervisors to proclaim a local state of emergency. Over just a few months, the storms caused 16 landslides on County-maintained roads. Calvert led DPW’s storm damage response, developing plans to address each of the 16 locations, and secured $13 million in emergency federal funding necessary to move the projects forward.

Calvert accomplished this feat while continuing to deliver on the department’s regularly scheduled project commitments. The effort required Calvert to develop and implement a strategy in a considerably short amount of time, staggering the design and construction of the various emergency slide repairs based on risk assessment, extent of damage, restrictions of the roadway, detour lengths, traffic volumes, and impacts to residents.

During the time that Calvert managed DPW’s Engineering Division, she was noted for fostering a collaborative work environment, adjusting staffing assignments to better leverage the diverse skill sets of each individual and maximize efficiency and teamwork.

“Under Rachel’s leadership, the division managed over a dozen construction projects, raised the pavement condition index by two points,  and secured multiple high value grants — all in addition to handling the emergency storm damage response and the related repair projects,” said Christopher Blunk, DPW Assistant Director. “She consistently goes above and beyond the call of duty. We are honored to have her on our team and proud of her for receiving APWA’s award for Manager of the Year in Public Works Emergency Management.”