Arkansas road builder Don Weaver will lead the highway and transportation division of the nation's largest national construction association, the Associated General Contractors of America (AGC). Weaver, vice president of El Paso, Ark.-based Weaver Bailey Contractors and resident of Conway, will lead the group's advocacy efforts on behalf of needed transportation investments as part of the next surface transportation legislation.
"When you look at all that Don has accomplished with his business and his community, it's hard to think of someone better qualified to lead our efforts to rebuild America's aging transportation network," said Stephen E. Sandherr, the association's chief executive officer. "Don's tenacious character and tremendous charm will help deliver safer roads, shorter commutes and significant economic opportunities."
As the chair of the association's Highway Division, Weaver will help set transportation policy for the group's 33,000 member companies and oversee the national group's legislative outreach on a range of highway and transit issues. Among the top issues Weaver will face is helping craft the pending highway and transit legislation.
"You can't transform the economy with old roads and crowded transit systems," said Weaver. "You have to build a modern and reliable transportation system if you want to reinvent the economy and rebuild prosperity."
Weaver also will focus on ways to improve work-zone safety to reduce the number of fatalities among highway construction workers. Before being named to chair the highway and transportation division, he served as the chair of the Southeast Region of the AGC-AASHTO Joint Committee. Weaver will serve as chair of the highway and transportation division through March 2010.
