The New York Times-20080127-Perestroika for Connecticut- -Editorial-
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Perestroika for Connecticut; [Editorial]
Full Text (302 words)Contract scandals, F.B.I. investigations and flooded highways don't generally have a brighter side, but in Connecticut, they just may.
With the state's highways inching ever closer to gridlock in recent years, a major project was undertaken to install a new drainage system and widen Interstate 84, which enters Connecticut from upstate New York and winds through Danbury, Waterbury and Hartford. It made traffic a nightmare, but commuters looked forward to clear roadways when it was done.
Well, not quite. It turns out that the state Department of Transportation, a notoriously hidebound agency, had arranged for contractors to both build and inspect the system. Surprise! When everything was finished, virtually every detail was constructed wrong, rendering the highway prone to washouts and sinkholes, and leaving taxpayers on the hook for tens of millions of dollars, not to mention mired in more slowdowns as the work is redone. The state is suing, the F.B.I. is investigating, and Gov. M. Jodi Rell called for a top-to-bottom study last year of how the D.O.T. conducts business.
Preliminary results of the study are in, and they are not pretty. The department, decimated by early retirements several years ago, has a management model based on the Soviet Union's. It takes as long as seven months to hire a low-level clerk. Any attempt to innovate, or even attend a meeting on innovation, requires the permission of so many higher-ups that few employees bother. Information on the agency Web page is years out of date. The department lets itself be pushed around by little towns that fight change and dole out commuter parking permits like country club memberships.
The good news? Ms. Rell is searching for someone to head the agency, and we encourage her to be bold so the transportation apparatchiks learn revolutionary thinking. Maybe Mikhail Gorbachev is available.
