Shift in Role and Focus

In the Interstate era, building new infrastructure was the primary task for DOTs across the country. While DOTs continue to deliver capital projects, there is an increasing emphasis on operations and maintenance to make more efficient use of existing capacity (across all modes) and maximize life of physical infrastructure. Agencies are working to build transportation system resiliency in the face of extreme weather events. This shift to systems management and operations changes the skillset required of employees of the DOTs and may impact their organizational structure as the emphasis on operations increases in the coming years.