DOT praised, razzed on reforms

Legislators are happy to see the DOT admit to problems but want solid proof of progress

Legislators say the state Department of Transportation has made a good start at confessing its failures and promising to make itself more accountable and efficient, but they are impatient for results before they will trust DOT with additional funding.

"All I can say is, hallelujah," Rep. Danny McComas, a Wilmington Republican, said Tuesday after DOT briefed a House-Senate oversight committee. "We finally have the department admitting there have been problems and things were moving slower than molasses. We're now moving in the right direction."

Two DOT officials told committee members that the department will speed its work on road projects by breaking down a "silo mentality" that keeps parts of the agency from working smoothly together.

Citing safety concerns, they said DOT is realigning its bridge program to tackle 8,000 aging structures in line for replacement over the next 20 years. The agency must figure out how to quadruple the number of bridges it fixes or replaces every year.

"The quicker we can deliver them, the more bridges we can actually deliver with the same amount of money," said Roberto Canales, a deputy transportation secretary. "Instead of the mind-set that we're going to replace them, we'll look at other alternatives. Maybe we can upgrade them. Maybe we don't even need that bridge."

Sen. Neal Hunt, a Raleigh Republican, said the department must make clear who is accountable for individual projects.

"So when there is a boo-boo out there," Hunt said, "there is one person we can go to and say, 'What's the deal? Why did you not catch this?' "

Mark Foster, DOT's chief financial officer, said each project will have "an owner," and each employee involved with a project will share responsibility for its success.

"Everybody from the design throughout the process understands that that job is not done until traffic is on the road," Foster said. "They all have a vested interest in getting traffic on the road, not just in their piece of the process."

Proof is wanted

Sen. Clark Jenkins, a Tarboro Democrat who is co-chairman of the oversight committee, told Foster and Canales to return in a month with proof of the agency's transformation.

"You should be able to show us a new organization chart by then and how you're going to tear down those silos -- or, not how you're going to tear 'em down, but that you have torn 'em down -- and you've got a new operating mode over there," Jenkins said.

He complained that committee members had expected to receive a formal evaluation from McKinsey & Co., a management consultant that was paid $3.6 million to evaluate DOT's problems and advise department leaders on how to make lasting changes.

"Up until 4 o'clock yesterday afternoon, we thought that somebody from McKinsey would be here today," Jenkins told Foster.

Foster said McKinsey will produce a written, public report in early November and will send representatives to the oversight committee's meeting in late November.

Without McKinsey's report, Jenkins said, DOT officials cannot regain credibility with legislators.

"Right now I don't know if they've got buy-in from the General Assembly to give them additional funding to do some things they want to do," Jenkins said in an interview. "And that's what prompted this whole thing to start with."