Robert E. Prouse at home in front of his antique car work shop.

Bob Prouse began a career with the Maryland State Highway Administration in August of 1963. As a new inspector for the State Roads Commission Bob left his home on the Eastern shore of Maryland and was assigned inspection duties for portions of the new Capitol Beltway I-495. Work on the beltway has not stopped since the early 60’s with continual widenings, resurfacings, deck replacements, wetland mitigation, noise walls and even I.T.S. construction.

Bob’s next assignment took him even farther west to work on the initial construction of I-270. It was here that he learned about the tenacious nature of water bound macadams. Grade changes for adequate bridge clearances were difficult before equipment developments such as today’s milling machines and carbide saws. By the latter 1960’s Bob had become a hot mix asphalt specialist.

A transfer to District 2 found Bob working on the dualization of US route 301 for SHA District Engineer Roland Sharretts.

Another transfer placed Bob in Southern Maryland where he spent much of his long SHA career. It was here that Bob met Al Tate, Arnold Gardner, Ed Meehan, Brian Dolan, Charles Robert Olsen, Paul Armstrong, Junior Raley, Ray Hutzler, Mike Moore and Mike Moses. In the late 60’s and early 70’s SHA still maintained many county roads. Bob would frequently help save these older roadways by bringing them back into proper section, correcting superelevated curves and then resurfacing the reconstructed sections.

Bob’s home of more then 30 years is directly on Main Street in “downtown” Federalsburg.

Frequently the first wedge and level course would drag the roadway crown and be very thick (8” or more) on the outside edge. Southern Maryland mixes were generally uncrushed gravel often BF (base fine) or BI (base intermediate). Surface mixes were originally PC 161 mixes which eventually gave way to SN (surface nominal) many years before the first SHA coarse graded surface mix SC.

Early in his long career Bob enrolled in an industry training course given by the Blaw Knox Corporation in Mattoon Illinois. SHA could not pay for this training; however, Bob felt that it was very important to understand exactly what modern pavers were capable of and the expertise necessary to achieve those capabilities; so he paid for his own travel and training.

Rt 2, Ritchie Highway from Arnold Maryland to US 50 was redesigned by Brian Dolan,
constructed by Reliable Contracting Company, Inc. and the Project Engineer was
Robert E Prouse. This work occurred 21 years ago in 1984.

MD Rt 2 in Arnold

Ray Hutzler was Bob’s Area Engineer during the 1970’s and early 1980’s and advised Bob that in order to be promoted he needed to become more diverse and learn about structures as well as paving. Bob was immediately transferred to the reconstruction of Ft. Smallwood Road over Furnace Creek in Anne Arundel County. It was here that Bob met Mel Sprinkle and worked with Genstar for the first time. Ironically Bob was chosen to oversee the paving on a job which was supposed to expose him to bridge construction.

Some of Bob’s largest projects included the reconstruction of MD 175 through Ft. Meade’s “boomtown”, MD Route 2 from US 50 to Arnold, a project which found Reliable Contracting working day and night to insure a timely completion. The MD 32 dualization from I-295 to the Anne Arundel County line was constructed by A.V. Williams with P. Flanigan paving the new roadway.

Fort Meade, MD 175, Boomtown constructed by The Asphalt Services Company and managed by Project Engineer Bob Prouse.

Training became a keen interest of Bob’s as both a project engineer and an area engineer. While in District 5 Bob helped train Joe Geckle, currently SHA Homeland Security Coordinator; Dan Samluck, currently Regional Construction Engineer; David Creighton, currently District 4 Area Engineer and Greg Holsey, Queen Anne’s County Resident Maintenance Engineer in proper HMA paving techniques.

In 1985 Bob continued his training activities in a new capacity as Southern Maryland Area Engineer. In this new capacity Bob was responsible for the dualization of Md 2 and Md 4 from Solomons Island North and also the dualization of Md 235 from Hollywood to Lexington Park. During the late 1980’s Bob began doing hands on paver training for his inspectors in District 5 and also for SHA District 4. Bob later found that NAPA’s Jim Warren was working on the NHI laydown course.

MD 175 was another collaboration between Brian Dolan, Project Designer and Bob
Prouse Project Engineer. Jim Dunphy had begun the original redesign of this project.

In 1991 Bob accepted a position as the State Highway Administration’s first State wide Paving Coordinator for the Office of Construction. Initially Bob could not convince the Administration the value of NHI training; however, Larry Michael worked closely with NAPA on pilot presentations of the course and Bob was quickly drafted to be SHA’s lead trainer. One of Bob’s abilities was to form joint participation industry-owner classes where information was freely exchanged and “common sense” decision making was taught. Bob remained as SHA’s leading HMA trainer until his retirement in October 1996.

It was at this time that Bob took a leadership role on the industry side by
continuing to present the NHI Laydown course for the Maryland Asphalt Association.

During his long career Bob pursued an avid interest in antique automobiles. In 1984 Bob drove cross country in a Model T Ford and he currently owns six Model T’s ranging from 1913 to 1926. Tinkering in his garage is among Robert E. Prouse’s favorite pastimes.

Rt 2 Ritchie Highway

MD Rt 32 from the Baltimore-Washington Parkway to the Anne Arundel County line
was Bob’s last major job as a Project Engineer.