At least as far back as 2007, Virginia Governor, then Attorney General, Bob McDonnell has been calling for an audit of VDOT.
With his election in 2009, and a General Assembly willing to pay for it in 2010, the governor got his wish and the first results of this audit are starting to come to fruition.
And just what, pray tell, were the big results of the first report: change the name of those doing research!
The Virginia Transportation Research Council (VTRC) will now be known as the Virginia Transportation Innovation Center (VTIC).
Whew…I feel the cost savings already.
“The new name is intended to reflect the broader mission of the program and the role we need it to play,” Secretary of Transportation Sean Connaughton said. “Virginia is facing multifaceted and complex transportation challenges that we need innovative ideas and practices to overcome. The Virginia Transportation Innovation Center will be at the forefront of reinvigorating a culture of innovation within VDOT and Virginia’s other transportation agencies.”
OK. So be it.
The audit of the council formerly known as VTRC was conducted by the Federal Highway Administration’s Turner-Fairbank Highway Research Center and B.T. Harder Inc. of Philadelphia and they found that the state spends between $10-13 million a year on research for transportation projects alone.
By tweaking the way VDOT does research and what outcomes can be expected from that research, the administration hopes we find a more comprehensive and cost-efficient approach to our transportation woes.
“We now intend for this program to identify, research, test and implement creative solutions that will fuel Virginia’s multi-modal transportation program and make it the best state transportation research organization in the country,” said McDonnell in a statement. “A modern, integrated and cost-efficient transportation system is crucial to job creation and economic growth in the years ahead.”
This is just the first of four performance audits ordered by the governor.
Let’s just hope the innovation doesn’t stop with a new monicker.
