By Conrad Dudderar
Staff Writer
A former Canadian County elected official recently began a new position.
Marc Hader has joined TEIM Design as a utility coordination specialist.
Hader served two terms as Canadian County District 1 commissioner from 2015-22. He left elected county office Dec. 31.
After a brief month-long “retirement,” Hader went back to work Feb. 1 after being hired by TEIM Design in Oklahoma City.
“As I was looking at opportunities, I wasn’t in a rush,” Hader said. “My background is mostly in highway construction and design.”
Hader’s new job at TEIM (formerly Triad) Design focuses on utility relocation and right-of-way acquisition for the Oklahoma Department of Transportation and the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority.
“There will be a lot of this type of work needed,” said Hader, referring to proposed Oklahoma highway and turnpike projects.
In past years, state transportation leaders made a concerted effort to improve bridges across Oklahoma – many of which had been structurally deficient.
With Oklahoma’s bridges now ranked among the safest in the U.S., the focus now is to enhance all two-lane state highways by creating “super-two” roadways.
A prime example is State Highway 4, which is being widened with 12-foot lanes and eight-foot shoulders north of SH-66 in Yukon.
“They want to try and do that for every state highway that has that kind of ‘drop-off’, because that’s where a large number of the accidents come,” Hader explained.
“Those (wider) shoulders will provide a lot more forgiveness.”
State highway widening projects frequently require utility lines to be moved and right-of-way to be purchased.
On behalf of ODOT and the OTA, Hader will be proactive by using a practice called Subterranean Utility Engineering (SUE) to designate and locate existing underground utilities before highway construction starts.
The process combines civil engineering, survey and geophysics.
SUE benefits highway agencies and impacted utility companies by avoiding unnecessary utility relocations. That’s because accurate utility information is available to highway designers early enough in the development of a project to design around many potential conflicts.
By determining what utilities must be moved, this practice reduces costly relocations and delays in highway construction projects.
‘FAMILY ENVIRONMENT’
TEIM Design is the fourth civil engineering firm that Hader has worked for during his career. His professional background includes road and bridge design, and construction oversight/inspection.
“I’ve been really pleased to work with the team here,” Hader said. “It’s very much a family environment.
“It’s just been delightful. Everybody’s been wonderful to work with.”
He worked with some of TEIM Design’s owners many years ago when they were engineers in training at ODOT and he was a draftsman.
The TEIM name is an acronym, referring to the “creative yet practice solutions” the firm provides for its transportation, environmental, infrastructure, and municipal clients.
Among TEIM Design’s clients is the City of Yukon, having served as the city’s engineering firm for decades.
Established in 1961, the company has completed more than 2,000 projects in its history.
TEIM Design’s 10,000-square-foot office is near 150th and May in northwest Oklahoma City.
Although he was defeated in his re-election bid last year, the former Canadian County commissioner won’t rule out a future run for public office.
“As a person of faith, I’m trying to go where I feel the Lord will lead me,” Hader said. “It’s not on my radar right now.
“But I would never close the door on the possibility – whether that would be back in the county government, or the legislature or something else.”
His wife, Denise Crosswhite Hader, is in her third term as Oklahoma’s District 41 state representative.
For now, Hader said he’s “really happy and content” with his new role at TEIM Design.
