National Video to Focus on Wyoming DOT's response to lean times.
Press Release Summary:
In video released by AASHTO, Wyoming Department of Transportation (WYDOT) Director John Cox describes his department's strategy for preserving highways and bridges during transportation funding crisis. Two-Minute State DOT Update, produced by AASHTO's Transportation TV, features Cox saying WYDOT has shifted focus from nominal reconstruction and improvement projects towards making primary goal preserving existing highway system "as long as possible."
Original Press Release:
Wyoming DOT's Response to Lean Times is the Focus of a National Video
(WASHINGTON D.C.) - In a video released today by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, Wyoming Department of Transportation (WYDOT) Director John Cox describes his department's strategy for preserving highways and bridges during Wyoming's current transportation funding crisis.
In the Two-Minute State DOT Update video produced by AASHTO's Transportation TV, Cox says, "In anticipation of major funding decreases, WYDOT is making sweeping changes. WYDOT has shifted its focus away from the kind of reconstruction and improvement projects we've been doing for the past four decades into more of a survival mode. Our primary goal is to preserve the existing highway system as long as possible. What that does is it kind of staves off the inevitable, because sooner or later we're going to have to take care of the system by getting underneath the pavement and reconstructing stuff."
In the absence of additional funding, Cox says changing the department's focus to preservation will make the decline in the condition of the state's highways more gradual. However, this approach will also result in fewer safety improvements to highways and a smaller number of projects designed to accommodate increasing traffic volumes.
Cox says the transportation debate in Wyoming appears to have moved from whether there is a need for additional state funding to where the needed funding can be found.
"Transportation funding is an incredibly important conversation to have in Wyoming and in other states because the federal picture is pretty bleak right now," Cox says.
Watch this Two-Minute State DOT Update and more than 100 transportation-related videos available to the public 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.
