- Georgia State Transportation Board Elects New Annual Leaders
- Ohio Turnpike And Michigan AG Reissue Text Scam Alerts
- Researchers Connect High Project Costs To Low DOT Staffing And Weak Market Competition
- These are just some of the toll industry developments TRN is following.
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Georgia State Transportation Board Elects New Annual Leaders
Georgia DOT announced that the State Transportation Board elected a new executive leadership team at its August 15 meeting.
Ann Purcell, the First Congressional District representative, assumed the board chair. She is a former state representative and has been a board member since 2013. She was elected to chair the body once before, in 2018-2019, and has also held the offices of vice chair and secretary. Ms. Purcell has been named one of the 100 Influential Women in Georgia Engineering by the professional publication “Engineering Georgia.” magazine. Purcell has previously served as chair, vice chair and secretary.
Jamie Boswell, the Tenth Congressional District representative and a member since 2013, was elected vice chair during the meeting. He is an executive and owner of the Boswell Group, which includes insurance, real estate, and appraisal companies. Mr. Boswell is also a former chair, vice chair and secretary of the board.
Dennis McEntire, representative of Congressional District Three since 2022, is the board’s new secretary. He is a utilities executive.
The GDOT announcement notes, “Board elections are held annually to ensure all regions of the state are represented at the executive leadership level. The 14-member State Transportation Board is responsible for setting policies and governing the Georgia Department of Transportation. Board members are elected by a caucus of Georgia General Assembly members from their respective congressional districts and serve staggered, five-year terms.”
Appointments-Promotions-Retirements Georgia Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT)Ohio Turnpike And Michigan AG Reissue Text Scam Alerts
Yesterday, the Ohio Turnpike and Infrastructure Commission (OTIC) issued another alert about the smishing text messages sent by imposters requesting toll payments. OTIC emailed its warning to almost 560,000 of its customers but emphasized that the scam is targeting mobile phone users generally, many of whom are not E-ZPass account holders or regular turnpike users. Once again, OTIC reminds the public that it does not make payment requests via text or collect revenue in that method.
Also yesterday, an apparent resurgence of fraudulent texting in Michigan led Attorney General Dana Nessel to reissue a consumer alert from May. The announcement warns that smishing messages are circulating that purport to come from Florida’s SunPass system. As usual, the texts include a link to a website with an address deceptively similar to a legitimate SunPass website’s.
Crime Beat ETC Systems Michigan Ohio Ohio Turnpike and Infrastructure CommissionResearchers Connect High Project Costs To Low DOT Staffing And Weak Market Competition
A “lack of [state] DOT staff capacity and a dearth of contractor competition in the market” are the key factors behind the high cost of producing US transportation infrastructure, according to a research paper presented last month at a Brookings Institution municipal finance conference. Construction Dive spotlights the findings compiled by academics from Yale, Columbia, and UC Berkeley based on their survey of procurement practices, an analysis of project data, and interviews of government and company employees. “The paper is the first to use cross-state evidence to understand what role procurement practices play, according to the researchers. They found project quality and prices are not uniform across the country: There is notable variation in procurement practices, costs and road quality across the 50 states.”
Construction Dive and a Brookings article summarize the paper’s conclusions about current state DOT staff capacity and the limited competition for major project contracts.
Economic & Social Considerations Affecting Transportation Highway-Tunnel-Bridge Maintenance Infrastructure Investment Trends Transportation and Infrastructure Research & Development Transportation And Infrastructure Workforce IssuesThese are just some of the toll industry developments TRN is following.
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