无论规模或地理位置如何，都没有以“ DOT”为首字母缩写的公共代理机构很容易。但是，考虑到新泽西州运输部面临其基础设施管理职责中的复杂环境。

Packed within the borders of the nation’s fourth-smallest state are more than 2.3 million miles of agency-managed roads and bridges. They connect the nation’s first- and fifth-largest metropolitan areas, New York City and Philadelphia, as well as most other destinations along the Eastern Seaboard and points west. Farmers and industries are as dependent on NJDOT’s infrastructure as commuters and vacationers, with many corridors in near constant use. And all of them must be maintained, rebuilt and expanded against a yearly cycle of weather extremes ranging from multiple doses of snow and ice and asphalt-buckling heat to surges from major Atlantic storms. According to Dodge Data & Analytics, the department started on projects worth $614.7 million in 2017.

Bell Road Bridge over I-295 in Camden County is part of the $900-million Direction Connection program, whose Contract 3 was awarded in 2017. PHOTO COURTESY OF NJDOT

Many of these challenges aren’t unique to New Jersey, “but with all due respect to other states, [NJDOT’s] job is more difficult than most others,” says former agency assistant commissioner Anthony Attanasio, who now serves as executive director of the state’s Utility and Transportation Contractors Association.

A similar kind of perseverance has helped NJDOT weather other problems, like being a political football in the state’s recent pitched budget skirmishes. The agency won the battle for funding reliability through a 23-cent fuel tax increase in 2016 that will provide $2 billion for the state Transportation Trust Fund through fiscal year 2024. But it could still lose the war in carrying out its multifaceted mission. NJDOT’s decade-long hiring and wage freeze has cost the agency hundreds of employees—and their decades of experience.

Uncertainties over the future of federal government support for the Northeast’s infrastructure raises questions about how far those newfound Transportation Trust Fund dollars can go. The money could even become a double-edged sword. Joe Fiordallso, president of the American Council of Engineering Cos. of New Jersey, notes that while the program should help get more new projects into the pipeline, “the public, legislators and stakeholders will have higher expectations” about the department’s efficiency in managing projects.

Newly elected Gov. Phil Murphy, a Democrat who succeeded two-term Republican Chris Christie in the 2017 off-year election, opted for a homegrown approach to deal with these complex issues. In December, he tapped Newark-born Diane Gutierrez-Scaccetti as transportation commissioner, bringing the former N.J. Turnpike Authority executive director back to the Garden State following her six-year stint heading Florida’s 483-mile turnpike system.

Gutierrez-Scacetti’s appointment, which is pending approval of the state Senate, has drawn wide praise from the industry. “Diane is an experienced transportation executive who appreciates the symbiotic relationship between the agencies and the industry,” says Attanasio, who worked with her on Murphy’s transportation and infrastructure transition team. “We believe she will be an excellent commissioner of transportation.”

Don DiZuzio, senior vice president and transportation practice leader for T&M Associates, Middletown, N.J., shares that enthusiasm, citing Gutierrez-Scacetti’s success building a team environment at the Florida Turnpike Authority. “We hope she can do the same at NJDOT,” he says.

Strong starting point

黛安·吉特雷斯·斯卡塞蒂（Diane Guiterrez-Scaccetti）在一月份被任命为新泽西州的运输专员。她等待立法确认。照片由NJDOT提供

Gutierrez-Scaccetti has publicly acknowledged her tough mission ahead, which includes overseeing both NJDOT and NJ Transit. The country’s third-largest provider of bus, rail and light rail transit by ridership, NJ Transit now faces key financial, management and construction challenges, particularly mandated completion of positive train control installation by the year’s end. Murphy was noncommittal in a March CBS news interview about whether the deadline will be met or if the system will gain an extension. But he noted a $242-million state boost for NJ Transit in fiscal 2019.

Fiordallso notes that NJDOT has made good progress in recent years on the “state of good repair” front, reducing the number of structurally deficient bridges and beefing up deteriorated pavement statewide.

And many of the agency’s projects are hardly routine or lacking for new ideas. The $920-million Direct Connection program to untangle the I-295/State Route 42/I-76 interchange in Camden County reached another milestone with the award of the $192.2-million Contract 3 to South State Inc. That project calls for completing the I-295 mainline Direct Connection ramp over Route 42/I-76, working on an adjacent road overpass and building ramps to Route 42. Its fourth and final contract is scheduled to get underway in 2019.

Then there’s the $480-million Wittpenn Bridge replacement in Jersey City, which includes installation of the state’s first orthotropic steel deck for the new elevated vertical lift structure spanning the Hackensack River. Lighter and stronger than conventional designs, the lift section should be easier to operate and require less maintenance. While construction won’t finish until about 2021, NJDOT seems particularly proud of Wittpenn—adding a website feature last summer for infrastructure enthusiasts to follow the deck in real time as it traveled from prefabrication in Washington state through the Panama Canal to the Garden State.

The oldest structure in NJDOT’s inventory, the Stone Arch Bridge over Stoney Brook in Princeton, also received a makeover in 2017. Built in 1792 and widened in 1916, the historic triple-arch structure was closed for more than a year following a partial parapet collapse. South State Inc. rehabilitated it, then reapplied as many original stones as possible to restore its historic look.

NJDOT has no shortage of other bridge projects on tap for 2018. Work is underway on a new $90.3-million rehabilitation of the nine-span I-495 Bridge over Route 1/9 and Paterson Plank Road in North Bergen, a key connector to the Lincoln Tunnel. I.E.W. Construction Group Inc., Trenton, is handling the multistage project that includes repair and reconstruction of the 80-year-old bridge deck, replacement and strengthening of deteriorated structural steel and substructure repairs.

Construction is also set to resume on the long-stalled $53-million Route 206 bypass in Hillsborough, which has languished for lack of funding since the initial 1.7-mile segment of the four-mile project was finished in 2013.

尽管关注主要交通走廊，但该州的社区并未被忽视。NJDOT资助的1.61亿美元在2018年为公路和桥梁修复提供的是州历史上最大的分布。

NJDOT has also adopted innovative approaches such as accelerated bridge construction (ABC) to tackle space-constrained structural replacements. Last summer, J.F. Creamer and Son LLC and Sanzari Inc. used ABC to replace the Route 1/9 bridge over Jones Road in Bergen County. The $4.3-million project was timed to minimize traffic disruptions for both Manhattan-bound commuters and students at a nearby school. ABC has also helped expedite the $56.4-million phased replacement of the Mathis and Tunney bridges over Barnegat Bay, helping to compress the complex project into three limited construction seasons to minimize impacts to shore-bound motorists.

Having to manage infrastructure in close confines has also helped make NJDOT a national leader in the use of drones.

该部门的举措之一是检查240多个高桅杆灯杆。无人机提供了整个杆的特写景观，包括提供高清照片，它们既经济又不对交通造成破坏。该机构现在正在探索的其他无人机应用程序包括施工监控和3D走廊映射和建模。

Cultural restoration

As Gutierrez-Scaccetti settles into her Trenton office, revitalizing NJDOT is among her highest priorities. She recently told NJ Business magazine that state transportation agency employees “are hungry to do their jobs,” and that it’s on her to provide the needed tools, otherwise “that shortcoming falls on me.”

DiZuzio would like to see legislation authorizing the agency to use nonconventional project delivery methods such as design-build and public-private partnerships. “This is an ideal time to start looking at ways to do things differently and get more projects out,” he says.

The Wittpenn Bridge replacement project is expected to wrap up in 2021. PHOTO COURTESY NJDOT

Fiordallso说，现在是时候了，请仔细研究新泽西的运输未来。他说：“计划功能本质上是被封存的，没有长期的信息，即我们在自动驾驶汽车和与其他模式的连接等方面所需的东西。我希望在这个政府的领导下，我们会开始看到这一点。”

Gutierrez-Scaccetti已经表现出了拥抱未来的意愿。东海岸运输工程公司东南部区域经理David Mulholland VHB归功于Gutierrez-Scaccetti帮助指导佛罗里达州的“下一浪潮浪潮的未来愿景”。在该州收费公路系统的领导下，她在奥兰多建立和推进Suntrax AV测试轨道方面发挥了作用，奥兰多是全国十个联邦指定的公认基地之一。

Attanasio believes that rebuilding agency relationships with the engineering and construction sector will be essential to any goals the new administration hopes to achieve. “To have a strong industry, you need a strong owner,” he says, citing the legacy of NJDOT-industry collaboration that helped overcome dire infrastructure challenges, such as the one-two punch of 2011’s scour-induced collapse of I-287 into the Rockaway River and Superstorm Sandy the following year. Extreme examples to be sure, Attanasio admits, “but they show how agency and industry can work together to get things done.”