BATON ROUGE, La. (KLFY) – They say necessity is the mother of invention. 

All of the inventions on display at the DOTD Innovations Showcase came from DOTD workers looking for ways to make their jobs easier.

The DOTD Innovations Showcase featured new inventions and innovations for the public to see.

“This is our opportunity to show people the things we do to be more efficient,” said DOTD District 3 Administrator Bill Oliver.

DOTD employees from all nine districts across the state came up with 33 innovations that were on display outside the DOTD Headquarters.

The DOTD said the innovations have saved the state time and money and improved efficiency on many road projects.

DOTD Assistant Secretary of Operations Vincent Latino said the event is a way to recognize DOTD employees. 

“Every day they come up with ideas of how to make their lives better, to do their job quicker, faster, and easier, more efficiently,” Latino said.

This is the DOTD’s first Innovations Showcase. The agency held a contest over the past two years asking employees to come up with innovations.

The 2017 winner is called the Rutbuster. Employees from Alexandria District 8 built it for $800 and 40 hours of manpower.

The device attaches to a skid-steer loader and eliminates rutted sections of a roadway. The old method was labor intensive and involved a lot of raking. 

“They really love this because they don’t have to rake the material,” said DOTD District 8 Administrator Troy Roussell. 

“It has a beautiful finished product. Once this material is spread out by the Rutbuster we roll it back down and compact it and we really are pleased with the performance we’re getting from it.”

These ideas will be shared with employees from other DOTD districts.

“They usually have PowerPoints or videos,” Latino explained. “We will take those top ones and we’ll put all those videos on our intranet sites where all the districts can see it.”

Most of the innovations featured were for projects out in the field. However, some innovations were designed to improve efficiency in DOTD offices.