Women of asphalt
A Woman of Asphalt: meet TxDOT’s Brenda Guerra
Brenda Guerra
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With skills in highways, project estimating, construction, site inspections and traffic control, Brenda Guerra has achieved success as a woman of asphalt. Guerra attained her associate degree in science at Palo Alto in 2002 and her bachelor degree in civil engineering at The University of Texas at Austin in 2005. She joined the asphalt industry shortly after graduation. Her career trajectory included design and construction, and she now serves as the district maintenance engineer for the Texas DOT in the Austin District. “I started out as an engineer-in-training, learning how to use the software. There is a young engineers program in the DOT, so after five years of design, I was rotated to construction. The 18 months I spent in construction was very eye-opening; made me think of things I didn’t think of in design.”
28 // November 2020
Now with that background and experience, Guerra leads the Austin District four-year pavement management plan for 11 counties and was willing to share specific challenges she and her team have met head-on for other women in the industry to learn from. For example, she encourages women to take initiative when they see the right opportunity to do so. “Working in a state agency, there are still some unestablished S.O.P.s. If I see there’s something not headed in the right direction, I will raise a flag. Don’t be shy or scared to ask the wrong question; go ahead and ask your question. Don’t just sit back.” Guerra also worked in area offices, where she felt comfortable asking questions, learning and leading different efforts because she had good leadership mentoring her. One of the mentors she gives credit to is Miguel Arellano, deputy district engineer, previously director of operations and pavement engineer. “He handles policies in our district now. He is a bright person who sees solutions. If I have an issue, I want to talk to him about it. “I had some great supervisors. Teamwork is so important. In my teams, we put everything on the table. You have to resolve disagreements or put away differences of opinions and don’t be afraid to make decisions.” In 2020, as district maintenance engineer, she got to lead the four-year pavement management plan. This process takes teamwork Guerra is a proponent of. “A four-year plan starts with field visits of 15 maintenance sections who drive the areas daily. They handle routine maintenance like fixing potholes and sealing cracks. Our section reviews the pavement scores for the previous year. We identify critical sections for the fiscal year based on
The four-year pavement management plan that Guerra manages begins with field visits of 15 maintenance sections.
