Region 3 maintenance crews hold equipment skills competition

A Utah Department of Transportation Region 3 staff member described an equipment skills competition for Region 3 maintenance and construction crews that draws participants “from Utah County down to Juab County, and then we take you in the Uinta Basin.”

The competition is a hands-on event intended to bring maintenance sheds and crews together. The staff member said the events include a backhoe obstacle course with a cone maze and three pins to be lifted and dropped into a hole on top of a cone; a “mini x” event; a frying-pan challenge in which competitors pick up an egg in one pan and transfer it to another without breaking it; a skid-steer course scored by how much water remains in a bucket after negotiating a maze; and a truck event that requires lifting three basketballs with forks and depositing them into a hoop.

The staff member said the contests emphasize technique and finesse. “It shows off a lot of your skills. A lot of this stuff takes a lot of finesse and technique,” the staff member said, adding that the results provide “good bragging rights for the year” among crews. The speaker also described the event as a “team effort” that highlights the skill of equipment operators in the region.

No motions or formal actions were discussed during this segment of the meeting; the remarks were descriptive of the event and its format rather than proposing policy changes or funding decisions.

Organizers and participants are identified in the remarks as Region 3 maintenance and construction crews; the staff member did not provide attendance counts or a date for the competition in the transcript segment provided.