NJDOT: It's Transition Time in Transportation

摘要

No public agency with "DOT" as part of its acronym has it easy, regardless of size or geography. But consider the complicated milieu that the New Jersey Dept. of Transportation faces in its infrastructure management responsibilities.Packed within the borders of the nation's fourth-smallest state are more than 2.3 million miles of agency-managed roads and bridges. They connect the nation's first- and fifth-largest metropolitan areas, New York City and Philadelphia, as well as most other destinations along the Eastern Seaboard and points west. Farmers and industries are as dependent on NJDOT'sinfrastructure as commuters and vacationers, with many corridors in near constant use. And all of them must be maintained, rebuilt and expanded against a yearly cycle of weather extremes ranging from multiple doses of snow and ice and asphalt-buckling heat to surges from major Atlantic storms. According to Dodge Data & Analytics, the department started on projects worth $614.7 million in 2017-Many of these challenges aren't unique to New Jersey, "but with all due respect to other states, [NJDOT's] job is more difficult than most others," says former agency assistant commissioner Anthony At-tanasio, who now serves as executive director of the state's Utility and Transportation Contractors Association.