DOT's Revolving Door

For motorists stalled in stretches of gridlock on Connecticut's interstate highways in last week's first big snow of the season, there was yet another chance to grouse about the state Department of Transportation (DOT), an agency long prone to complaints from travellers by road and rail.

The most damning comment about the DOT is that it doesn't seem to matter to "lifers" at the behemoth agency what the public thinks, what governors say, or what commissioners order. The 3200 employees just keep doing their thing, their way.

"They (the DOT veterans) do move at glacial speed," said State Sen. Bob Duff (D-Norwalk), whose district is filled with Metro-North rail riders and highway commuters on the persistently jammed I-95 and Merritt Parkway. "A lot of the employees over there probably feel they're going to outlast the commissioners," he said. Duff seems to be right on the mark.

Since Republican Gov. Jodi Rell took office in July 2004, the DOT has seen two commissioners and three deputies head for the exit doors. The latest is Commissioner Ralph Carpenter, who held the DOT top spot for just 16 months. Rell announced Carpenter has accepted a post at Aetna Insurance and will finish up his 30 years of state service (State Police, DMV, DOT) by the end of this month.

Word of Carpenter's departure came just a week before a special task force named by Rell was due to issue recommendations for reforms at the DOT. That study was launched after the highly-publicized multi-million dollar scandal involving badly-installed and poorly-inspected storm drains on a stretch of I-84.

"I charged the Commission on Reform of the DOT to create a whole new DOT with a refocused mission and a top-to-bottom change at the agency," said Rell. "The national search for a new commissioner is a golden opportunity for a fresh start all the way around."

Neither Rell nor Carpenter commented on any link between the reform recommendations and Carpenter's quick departure. Democratic critics of the DOT have blasted the "musical chairs" pattern of change in top leadership at the agency.

Rell announced that former DOT commissioner Emil Frankel will return as interim commissioner while the nationwide search for a successor to Carpenter is made. Frankel was DOT chief for independent Gov. Lowell Weicker between 1991 and 1995 and later served as as assistant secretary for transportation policy for President George Bush.

Whoever takes the job faces a daunting task, trying to wrangle control of a large and important state department that has defied control for decades and through several governors' administrations. In addition to the recent I-84 debacle, the DOT has seen convictions of some of its employees for corruption during the Rowland administration, weathered the collapse of bridges and roadways, battled (mostly unsuccessfully) with highway congestion, and faced stinging criticism from rail commuters over aging rail cars and poor conditions on the Metro-North railroad.

One of the few success stories in recent memory for the DOT is the rise of Bradley International Airport in Windsor Locks with new terminals and facilities—and even the launch of a round-trip flight to Europe, so the "international" in the airport's name gains some credibility.

The road (or rail line) to overall success for the DOT may be long. "Those of us concerned about transportation in Connecticut have an enormous, pent-up frustration with the Department of Transportation," said State Sen. Andrew McDonald (D-Stamford). "There is a culture there that is crippling the state," McDonald said. "That culture has to change."

Posted 12/17/07

Comments or questions?  Contact us at  CTReport@crnradio.com

© Connecticut Radio Network