FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE; September 19, 2005

Patrick Ryan takes reins of highway department largest area

Patrick Ryan, a 35-year-old engineer who spent five years with the Texas Department of Transportation in Junction during the late 1990s, has come back to West Texas as the highway engineer in charge of one of TxDOT’s largest geographic areas - Pecos, Reeves and Terrell counties.

Ryan took over the Fort Stockton-Pecos Area [which runs from New Mexico to the Rio Grande and from the Davis Mountains to the Pecos River] on Sept. 1 after a statewide search was conducted to find a replacement for Mohammad Moabed, who transferred to TxDOT’s Dallas District in June to become that district’s top traffic official.

“Just as Mo [Moabed] was, I predict that Patrick is going to be a great asset to this region,” said District Engineer Lauren Garduño, as he announced Ryan’s hiring. “He is not only a quality engineer who can do the job; he and his family are going to fit right in." The family will live in Fort Stockton.

In his new position, Ryan will be responsible for overseeing all maintenance and construction activities for the 9,758-square mile area -more than half of the entire Odessa District’s 18,000 square mile area.

He also has oversight of five maintenance sections in those three counties --Balmorhea, Fort Stockton, Iraan, Pecos and Sanderson.

Ryan began his career with TxDOT as a summer-hire in the Kountze Maintenance Section, just northwest of Beaumont in far east Texas. He also spent three summers working in the Silsbee Area office, and another at the Beaumont District Lab.

He earned his civil engineering degree in 1994 at Lamar University in Beaumont and got his professional engineering license in 2002. He worked as an engineer’s assistant in the Junction office in the San Angelo District from March 1, 1995 until April 30, 2000, when he transferred to the Livingston office near Lufkin.

He and his wife, Nicole, have one daughter, Abigail [Abby], age 5.

For more information: contact Glen Larum, Texas Department of Transportation, at (432) 498-4746.