October Employee of the Month- Steve Billings

Steve Billings is Deputy Chief of the Facilities Engineering Division within Facilities Planning, Design, Construction & Energy. His expertise is projects that are high profile and/or emergency.

The Lawyers Mall project in Annapolis? Steve’s got that! He is on top of the emergency underground utilities replacement project – a project that took center stage this winter when it was discovered that the piping was so deteriorated, it looked like Swiss cheese.  Steve drove the design team to finish plans in record time. An emergency project, he bid it quickly, contacted the contractors, held the pre-bid, and accepted the prices. Ground was broken in August, immediately hitting an unknown underground fuel tank. Steve was on it!

In addition to being a fast-paced project, is in the heart of Annapolis, within viewing distance of the Governor’s offices in the State House and Government House, his residence. This requires regular and high-level communication with the Governor’s staff, legislative leaders, other state officials and the City of Annapolis. Steve has spent hours coordinating with the City of Annapolis and State Highway on road closures and event relocations. He also works closely with the utility companies and the Maryland Department of the Environment on the underground infrastructure.

On September 6th, Steve presented this project at the Engineers Club in Baltimore, noting lessons learned so far and explaining how he is managing a project of this complexity.