DDOT Acting Director Gabe Klein is already starting to take concrete steps to open up information to the public and improve the agency’s flawed processes. DDOT has plenty of experience with concrete, but less with openness. Just announcing a change is only the first step (or, should we say, curb), and we’ll need to watch closely to ensure the new processes are better than the old. Still, if Klein successfully executes these promises he’s already made, that will move DDOT a lot closer to smooth relations with the public.

Posting projects on the Web site. During the DC Council’s oversight hearing on his agency, Klein testified that DDOT will start posting all projects online. Moreover, they will update each “on a weekly basis.” I hope that will include up-to-date engineering sketches of any currently-planned modifications, not just when a project’s design is complete, but throughout the process so that residents and advocates can weigh in. I also encourage DDOT to include specific information on the dates when they currently estimate the project will begin and end.

We might already be seeing changes stemming from this new policy. Last night,  DDOT engineers spoke to the Dupont Circle ANC about plans for reconstructing 18th Street between Florida Avenue and Massachusetts Avenue, and P Street between 18th and Dupont Circle. They had presented substantially similar plans last year and recently at a public meeting. Then, attending the meeting was the only way for residents to see and weigh in on the plans. Last night, on the other hand, Project Manager Olusegun Olaore Deputy Program Manager Dawit Muluneh announced their intention to post the presentation and plans to the Web site for all residents to study. DDOT’s policy should call for that with every project.

New customer service liaisons. In the past, communities would hear from different DDOT employees for every project. There was no single person residents could contact. DDOT assigned each ward a planner, but once projects moved from the planning stage into the engineering stage, the planner ceased to be the primary point of contact. Nor would the planner be versed in all tree issues or traffic signal work in the ward.

Klein has started to create a new customer service group. It appears that community members can contact these individuals about any issues concerning DDOT. And he’s made a great start, by hiring Mark Bjorge, formerly the Mayor’s Ward 2 representative. The Mayor’s community liaisons were very helpful, or at least Bjorge was for those of us in Ward 2. When the tree crisis occurred last week, Bjorge immediately got involved, helped contact the right people, and followed up with me about suggestions for the future. (Klein emailed a few days later as well.)

Better IT systems. DDOT is also implementing a new work order system, called CityWorks, to replace the current Hanson system. According to Klein at the oversight hearing, if DDOT has an open “trouble ticket” which they want to reassign to the Department of Public Works, today they have to close the ticket and create a new one on DPW’s system. As a result, “often things get dropped.” The current system also requires a lot of “double and triple work.” Upgrading workflow systems is always a tricky proposition, since all systems tend to encounter unexpected hurdles when you put them into practice. Still, it’s clear that DDOT needs a better system, and hopefully this will fit the bill.

Pulling “blanket utility permits.” Previously, utility companies didn’t have to get individual permits to tear up any specific street. One irritating consequence was that multiple utilities would often work on the same block within a few months of each other. For example, last summer WASA ripped up the roadway and sidewalks on my block in the summer. After a few months, they completed their lead pipe removal and repaired the sidewalks. Within weeks, the gas company began cutting into the newly-redone sidewalk for gas pipeline upgrades.

Klein told ANC 1B that DDOT has revoked these permits, which will stop this chaos. In its place, presumably, DDOT will have to manage the timing of utility work. We’ll know once the new system is working for some time if it truly improves coordination.

Klein’s initial work seems to be focusing on process. That’s a good decision. As long as residents feel totally uninformed about DDOT’s activities and have no way to contact the right people, we’ll have friction no matter how good a job DDOT does. Still, he has the right perspective on policy as well. Klein told the oversight hearing, “All too often I think we focus primarily on vehicular movement in the city.” He stressed “the importance of [pedestrian] plans and prioritizing ped and bike safety over the needs of cars trying to rush in and out of the city before and after work,” calling this “one of [his] biggest priories at DDOT.” The more successful Klein is in his job, from revamping internal processes, to strengthening cohension and morale within the agency, to pushing a better vision for our streets, the better off DC will be.

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Tagged: ddot, gabe klein

David Alpert created Greater Greater Washington in 2008 and was its executive director until 2020. He formerly worked in tech and has lived in the Boston, San Francisco Bay, and New York metro areas in addition to Washington, DC. He lives with his wife and two children in Dupont Circle.