Speaking at the March ITS Georgia meeting, newly appointed GDOT Commissioner Gena Abraham addressed more than 100 members of the ITS community about the Department’s current status and her plans for change and improvement.  Key topics included department reorganization, current and future finances, and what she has designated as priorities for the agency. 

As Ms. Abraham begins her tenure as commissioner, she plans to reorganize the department and consolidate services.  The three major items on her agenda are the development of a statewide transportation plan, project prioritization, and identification of alternative funding sources.

Project prioritization will be implemented to ensure that GDOT can deliver what they say they will, Ms. Abraham said.  GDOT currently has 9,211 projects documented and let 270 last year.  She plans to utilize an engineering approach to prioritize and let projects in the future to move the most high priority projects to the top of the list for funding.

Finding funding for projects is also key as the department currently does not have the required $29.5 billion to fund the current projects on the books.  For future project funding, she commented on a one percent regional sales tax as well as public-private partnerships as possibilities.  She said that Federal funding is about $1.6-$1.7 billion annually, and she does not expect to see any significant increase in that amount in the new transportation bill authorization.

Ms. Abraham also addressed recent stop-work orders issued by the department that affected nearly 150 construction contracts. GDOT has distributed 79 stop-work orders to contractors working on expired contracts.  The Department is currently deciding how this work will be finished and how future task orders will proceed.  The Commissioner stressed that open ended contracts will on longer be accepted with no scopes of work and no deliverables.

She indicated that technology will play a bigger role in transportation as more toll roads and High Occupancy Toll (HOT) lanes are added, and, at this point, the department is leaning toward dynamic pricing for tolls.

Addressing the state of ITS technology in Georgia, Ms. Abraham said she is impressed with what has been deployed in Georgia and recognizes the need for upgrades and maintenance.