Longest Serving State DOT Chief discusses agency's future.
Press Release Summary:
Arkansas State Highway and Transportation Department Director Dan Flowers, who began his career with AHTD in 1968 and helped set his state's transportation priorities for over 40 years, announced his retirement in June. In new Two-Minute State DOT Update video, Flowers discusses AHTD's critical infrastructure needs as well as important role the public must play to keep Interstate Highway System in a good state of repair.
Original Press Release:
Longest Serving State DOT Chief to Retire - Discusses Agency's Future in New Video
(Washington D.C.) - Arkansas State Highway and Transportation Department Director Dan Flowers has helped set his state's transportation priorities for more than four decades. Flowers, the longest-serving CEO of any state department of transportation in the country, announced his retirement in June. In a new Two-Minute State DOT Update video, Flowers discusses AHTD's critical infrastructure needs and the important role the public must play to keep the Interstate Highway System in a good state of repair.
"Arkansas was one of the first states to complete its portion of the Interstate Highway System," Flowers tells Transportation TV. "In 1999, the state legislature approved funding to rehabilitate about half the interstate system in Arkansas. Today we need another billion dollars to replace a number of bridges of all sizes and we're going to need to add capacity in those urban areas that have seen significant growth over the past ten years and it's up to the public to decide if we get those funds."
Arkansas voters will decide whether to approve a bond package backed by a diesel-fuel tax that would generate $1 billion for an interstate maintenance program. Arkansas Governor Mike Beebe approved the legislation and will set a date for the special election.
The Arkansas legislature also approved House Joint Resolution 1001, which proposes a constitutional amendment to be voted on in 2012 that would allow voters to decide on a half-cent sales-tax increase to finance a separate $1.8 billion bond program for construction of and improvements to four-lane highways around the state. The sales tax, if approved, would be in effect for 10 years.
Flowers, who began his career with AHTD in 1968, worked his way up through nine engineering and management positions to become director in 1994. The Arkansas Highway Commission selected Scott Bennett, the Highway and Transportation Department's assistant chief engineer for planning, to succeed Flowers.
Watch this and other State DOT Two Minute Update videos at www.TransportationTV.org.
The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) is the "Voice of Transportation" representing State Departments of Transportation in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. AASHTO is a nonprofit, nonpartisan association serving as a catalyst for excellence in transportation. Follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/aashtospeaks.
