CTC Inc. (CTC) announced Sept. 16 Darin Kosmak has joined the company as vice president. Kosmak, who has more than 29 years in managing highway-rail grade crossing safety programs and projects, will handle business development as well as project management for CTC.
Kosmak was most recently rail safety director for the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT). In that role, he prioritized and developed rail safety projects for the state and spearheaded advances that substantially shortened project timelines, helping the state fund and complete more projects. During the past 10 years, program efficiencies implemented by Kosmak helped to reduce auto-train involved crashes at grade crossings in Texas by 64 percent.
Kosmak was also responsible for the state’s Rail Safety Inspection Program, overseeing federal regulatory compliance of railroad operations. To better coordinate rail safety activities in the state, he led the development of a web-based railroad crossing inventory, program/project management, and incident reporting database application.
“The institutional safety knowledge that Darin possesses will immediately add depth of experience that will benefit our Class I and shortline clients, and the traveling public,” said Rick Campbell, president of CTC. “Additionally, Darin helped set standards for the state of Texas in the area of highway-rail grade crossings that are interconnected with traffic signal systems. TxDOT was one of the first state DOTs to adopt a strategic methodology to determine preemption improvements at grade crossings near adjacent highway intersections equipped with traffic signals.”
One of CTC’s specializations is interconnected highway-rail grade crossings, and the firm contracts with freight railroads, transit agencies and state DOTs to evaluate these types of grade crossings. In addition to federal regulations, state DOTs also set standards for interconnected highway-rail grade crossings, although many states and transit agencies currently use the preemption standards developed by TxDOT under Kosmak.
“I look forward to working with the team at CTC,” said Kosmak. “I am excited to help CTC continue their remarkable growth and assist with managing projects that will help our clients achieve their business objectives in a timely, efficient manner.”
