IDOT or IDiOT Your Preference

[3467]

http://capitolfax.com/2012/05/01/oh-yeah-this-will-soothe-a-lot-of-tensions/

I put this here because it covers road budgets and several other topics. There is a pension fight and a budget problem in general but IDOT throws fuell on the fire and does not do itself any favors
IDOT announced a 6 year plan I was going to go over that under an existing topic (probably 67 Contruction because that is really the only construction) but I thought you would find the very negative opinions of this agency and its checkered history.
How would you reform this agency?

[Brandon]

And people wonder why I like ISTHA better.

Here's my plan for fixing IDOT:

1. Sell all the freeways to ISTHA, make them toll.
2. Change the ISTHA board into one with a rep from each of the 102 counties in the state.
3. Lower the gas tax due to the tolls.
4. Turn over any secondary roads to the counties.
5. Create a new county highway system a la Wisconsin for navigation.
6. New, smaller IDOT takes care of a smaller highway system.

I make no bones about the fact that I am not a fan of IDOT.  They refuse to learn new ideas from other states to improve traffic flow.  They are stuck in a cookie-cutter mindset when it comes to road building and interchange design.  They are usually 20-30 years behind when it comes to growth in Chicagoland, even after the municipalities have told them what they need to do.

[3467]

http://abetter54.com/54.html

Brandon I agree completly. IDOT uses its standard 4 lane divided for roads of less than 1000vpd when something like Missouris 2+1s would be fine
I cant really add anything else

[Scott5114]

You can't just sell all of the freeways in Illinois to ISHTA and toll them. FHWA would have a cow and demand all the billions in federal funding used on them over the last 50 years to be repaid.

I am not sure what problems IDOT is having in particular, but if I were thrown into the top spot, my inclination would be to look first into the DOT's back-of-house organization for ways to reduce overhead. Scrutinize the org charts and look for redundant positions. Look for waste. Hold employees accountable for their actions–don't make people untouchable. (My company has a policy of effectively requiring six write-ups before termination...we accumulate shitty employees by the busload.)  Pay competitive salaries to lure talented engineers to Illinois instead of other DOTs or engineering firms. Though this increases overhead, it pays dividends by ensuring that your projects hold up over the ages.

If you really want to save cash, consider merging IDOT and ISTHA. Take the best and the brightest from the combined agencies and lay off the rest. Then, rather than having two executive hierarchies that you have to pay, you have just one. Then you have the combined experience and expertise of the two and can plan a strategy for the future using toll roads and free roads as appropriate.

Of course various laws, unions, politics, and contracts might make these ideas impossible, but it's the sort of thing I'd try to implement.