{the rough road}
working after-school jobs and coordinating activities among a wide group of friends. “I didn’t see her as someone who would build stuff, but
you could tell she’d lead and manage something,” says Heagy, who manages apartment and condominium construction projects for Greenbelt-based Bozzuto Construction Co. Growing up in Lanham, Heagy says, his sister picked
up their parents’ work ethic. Their father, Jack Heagy, 68, worked days as a civilian for the Department of Defense and evenings and weekends at a sporting goods store while coaching lacrosse at DeMatha Catholic High School in Hyattsville. Their mother, Elizabeth, 67, stayed home when their children were young and then worked as a bookkeeper while organizing church and family events. Peters says her parents taught her two things: Family comes
first, and hard work matters. “My father was very driven,” Pe- ters says. “He has a very Type-A personality, and I do, as well. I learned if you’re going to do some- thing, do it right. That was important to him.” At Eleanor Roosevelt High School in Green-
belt, she excelled in the science and technology magnet program. When it came to college, she says, “engineering seemed to fit.” The University of Maryland accepted Peters to its engineering school. She was also admitted to Virginia Tech but not to its engineering program. She chose Tech. When enough students dropped out of en- gineering after the first semester, Peters got in. “That’s why she went to Virginia Tech — to
prove them wrong,” Phil Peters says. “You don’t say no to Melinda. ... It will make her want to do it that much more.” Her husband noticed her drive when
they met in 1993 during the Baltimore- Washington Parkway’s repaving. His job was to test the concrete his company laid down before the asphalt. Her job, as a 20-year-old federal intern, was to inspect his work. “I would test it, and she’d make me test
Peters at her home north of Baltimore. “i don’t know how she physically does what she does,” her husband says.
it more and more and more,” Phil Peters recalls with a laugh. (He oversees paving projects for Baltimore-based P. Flanigan & Sons, which has agreed to refrain from bidding on ICC work.) At the Maryland State Highway Administration, Peters’s
big break came in 2003, when she became its design division’s liaison to the state’s ICC planning team. Neil J. Pedersen, Maryland’s highway administrator and Peters’s boss, says Peters had caught his eye when she oversaw construction of three interchanges on Route 29 in eastern Montgomery. Pe- ters handled contentious community meetings and managed a team of consultants to build ramps and bridges adjacent to homes, businesses and a school — all while keeping traffic moving on one of Maryland’s busiest commuter routes. Still, when Pedersen tapped her in 2006 to manage the
ICC construction, Peters says, she was wary. Her sons were 4 and 7 years old. The job would entail 14-hour work days and a five-year commitment. In the end, however, the complex project enticed her. “I
22 The WashingTon PosT Magazine | July 18, 2010
was pitching for it,” Peters says. “I’m an engineer, but what I really like is the ability to work toward a goal and solutions that people will benefit from. This really was the biggest chal- lenge you could come up with at that time.”
One October morning, Peters sets out on a site visit with Rob Shreeve, the SHA’s environmental manager. Her white hard hat compresses her layered brown bob. They pull into the construction site near Interstate 95, as
Shreeve’s Ford Explorer slides through the reddish brown muck left by two days of rain, drawing an “Ugh! It’s a mess!” from Peters in the front passenger seat. She quickly begins to assess the progress. “Will that go down before the rain we’re going to get Sat-
urday?” she asks Shreeve, pointing to the level of a storm water retention pond.
“Yeah, it’ll go down in 24 hours,” he answers. She asks how erosion control efforts are going. “That’s
good — I see grass,” she says, pointing to a nearby hillside of fresh dirt covered in green fuzz. Pulling up alongside northbound I-95, Peters gets out
to size up a half-built ICC bridge jutting over the interstate. “This is cool,” she says quietly, almost to herself, as she gazes upon the bridge’s steel beams. As they continue west along the ICC route, Peters sounds
like an excited kid on a school field trip. “You can see our pret- ty walls!” she exclaims, peering out the SUV window at new concrete barriers designed to shield a Silver Spring neigh- borhood from much of the ICC’s noise. In the distance, huge pieces of construction equipment rumble about the mud. “Look at that big hole!” she cheers. “Unbelievable!” Just off Muncaster Mill Road, she and Shreeve arrive at
the skeletal beginnings of an arched 60-foot bridge that will span Rock Creek Park. Peters hops from the SUV and points out how the designers set the arch’s foundations into the sides of the stream valley, avoiding the stream itself. “This was a big, big deal,” Peters says. She pauses a few mo-
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