Oklahoma Department of Transportation Director Mike Patterson announced the promotion of two longtime employees to fill the agency’s top leadership positions. Tim Gatz was named Deputy Director and will oversee all of the department’s project management, administrative, financial, legislative and public information activities. Casey Shell was named Chief Engineer and will lead ODOT’s preconstruction, construction and maintenance efforts statewide.
Gatz has more than two decades of service with ODOT, beginning his career with the agency as a Drafting Technician in 1990. In 1992, he became the Enhancements Program Coordinator, and then moved up to Special Projects Manager in 1997. In 2000, he became Division Manager of the Project Management Division, where he was instrumental in the development of ODOT’s Eight-year Construction Work Plan. He was promoted to Director of Capital Programs and Information Management in 2006 and led the department’s coordination with county governments to develop and deliver the County Improvements for Roads and Bridges program, which provides dedicated state funds for high-priority county transportation projects statewide. Gatz was named Deputy Director in May and succeeds Patterson, who was appointed as the agency’s director in April.
Gatz earned a bachelor’s degree in landscape architecture from Oklahoma State University in 1989 and is a registered professional landscape architect. He has received several honors including the Oklahoma Good Roads & Transportation Association’s Bill Skeith Stewardship Award, the Governor’s Public Service Award and the Association of County Commissioners of Oklahoma’s Connecting Transportation Partners acknowledgement. He is a member of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials and the American Society of Landscape Architects.
Shell joined ODOT in 1986, and has served as Director of Operations since October 2009. Prior to that, he served as Division Engineer for Division 4, which covers nine counties in north-central Oklahoma, including much of the Oklahoma City metro area. He will officially begin in his new role as Chief Engineer in July and will succeed Gary Evans, who is retiring.
Shell was born in California and graduated from the University of Arkansas with a bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering in 1986, joining ODOT soon after as an Engineer-in-Training. In 1987, he became a Project Engineer at Stillwater, moving up to area Maintenance Engineer in 1992. He was named Resident Engineer in Perry in 1996, and in 2000, was promoted to Assistant Division Engineer for Construction and Maintenance, a post he held until being named Division Engineer in August 2002.
Shell has been a registered Professional Engineer since 1991. He is an honorary member of Chi Epsilon, an OSU engineering honor society. He is an assistant scout master with Boy Scout Troop 828 and a member of the Sunnybrook Church.