Damon Allen, who started with ITD in 1999 and has been North Idaho (District 1) District Engineer since 2007, retired January 16.
His departure brought a close to the second-longest run as D.E. in District 1’s history, with his 18.5 years trailing only the 19 years of Merle Harding, who served aa the District Engineer over the northern Idaho counties from 1965-1984.
When the top spot came open in Coeur d’Alene in late summer 2007, Damon moved north to replace current ITD Director Scott Stokes, who was moving down to HQ to become Deputy Director.
North Idaho was experiencing rapid growth, increasing demand from its citizenry, and an ambitious construction schedule when Allen arrived in 2007, and that only increased during his time at the helm. Citizens of northern Idaho are very engaged in the transportation-planning process. District 1, which extends from the Canadian border to the Latah County line north of Moscow, also features difficult terrain for highway construction and challenging environmental considerations.
Damon is a native of Missouri. Before coming to Idaho in 1999, Allen was a construction manager for the St. Charles (Missouri) County Highway Department, and a bridge engineer for the county. He also was a staff engineer, construction inspector and engineer for private firms and the Missouri Department of Transportation. He is a licensed professional engineer and earned a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from the University of Missouri at Rolla in 1989.