The District Department of Transportation (DDOT, stylized as d.) is an agency of the government of the

District of Columbia Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and Federal district of the United States, federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from ...

, in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

, which manages and maintains publicly owned transportation infrastructure in the District of Columbia. DDOT is the lead agency with authority over the planning, design, construction, and maintenance of

alley An alley or alleyway is a narrow lane, footpath, path, or passageway, often reserved for pedestrians, which usually runs between, behind, or within buildings in towns and cities. It is also a rear access or service road (back lane), or a path, w ...

bridge A bridge is a structure built to Span (engineering), span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or railway) without blocking the path underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, whi ...

sidewalk A sidewalk (North American English), pavement (British English, South African English), or footpath (Hiberno-English, Irish English, Indian English, Australian English, New Zealand English) is a path along the side of a road. Usually constr ...

street A street is a public thoroughfare in a city, town or village, typically lined with Building, buildings on one or both sides. Streets often include pavements (sidewalks), pedestrian crossings, and sometimes amenities like Street light, streetligh ...

street light A street light, light pole, lamp pole, lamppost, streetlamp, light standard, or lamp standard is a raised source of light on the edge of a road or path. Similar lights may be found on a railway platform. When urban electric power distribution b ...

s, and

traffic signal Traffic lights, traffic signals, or stoplights – also known as robots in South Africa, Zambia, and Namibia – are signaling devices positioned at intersection (road), road intersections, pedestrian crossings, and other locations in order t ...

s in the District of Columbia."About DDOT." District of Columbia Department of Transportation. No date.
Accessed 2010-01-08

History

Historical documents refer to the entity now known as DDOT as the "D.C. Department of Highways" in the 1940s and 50s, and later the "D.C. Department of Highways and Traffic" through the 1960s and early 70s. In August 1975, the department merged with the Department of Motor Vehicles and the Office of the Mayor's Transportation Systems Coordinator to become the D.C. Division of Transportation, a subunit of the D.C. Department of Public Works (DPW).Ungar, Bernard L. ''Restructuring of the District of Columbia Department of Public Works' Division of Transportation.'' GAO-01-347R. Washington, D.C.: United States General Accounting Office, March 16, 2001.
Accessed 2010-01-08Goldstein, Mark L. ''District of Columbia's Department of Transportation's Reorganization and Use of Federal-Aid Funding.'' GAO-04-644R. Washington, D.C.: United States General Accounting Office, May 14, 2004.
Accessed 2010-01-08 The division began suffering from significant deficiencies in the 1990s, including an over-reliance on outside contractors, a lack of expertise with which to oversee contractors and ensure performance and quality work, severe understaffing, and excessive

lead time A lead time is the latency between the initiation and completion of a process. For example, the lead time between the placement of an order and delivery of new cars by a given manufacturer might be between 2 weeks and 6 months, depending on vari ...

s for the letting and implementing of design and construction contracts. These issues led to significant backlogs in maintenance and construction, and hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funds were unexpended. In response to the impending management crisis in its transportation division, in May 2002, the

Council of the District of Columbia The Council of the District of Columbia (or simply D.C. Council) is the legislative branch of the government of the District of Columbia. As permitted in the United States Constitution, the district is not part of any U.S. state and is overseen ...

passed the ''District Department of Transportation Establishment Act of 2002'' (D.C. Law 14-137), which separated the Division of Transportation from the Department of Public Works and created a standalone D.C. Department of Transportation (DDOT). A 2004 assessment indicated that the reorganization led to significant improvements in the District of Columbia's oversight of its transportation infrastructure.

Operations

DDOT is led by a Director who is assisted by a Chief of Staff, Deputy Director for Operations, and Deputy Director for Resource Allocation."Organizational Chart." District of Columbia Department of Transportation. No date.
The most recent director was Everett Lott, who recently left DDOT. Five operational departments oversee DDOT's main functions: the Infrastructure Project Management Administration (IPMA), the Mass Transit Administration (MTA), the Transportation Policy & Planning Administration (TPPA), the Transportation Operations Administration (TOA), and the Urban Forestry Administration (UFA). Four administrative offices (Communication, Information Technology, Contracting and Procurement, and Legal) provide managerial support. DDOT coordinates a number of programs with other city and regional agencies. DDOT shares street and sidewalk snow removal with the Department of Public Works, and coordinates a reduced-fare program for elementary and secondary school students with MetroBus and

MetroRail METRORail is the light rail system in Houston, Texas (United States). In , the system had a ridership of , or about per weekday as of . METRORail ranks as the second most-traveled light rail system in the Southern United States and the List ...

. Because of the heavy regional integration of the District's transportation system with other local, county, state, and federal governments, DDOT's Transportation Policy and Planning Administration coordinates policy with the

Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA ), commonly referred to as Metro, is a tri-jurisdictional public transit agency that operates transit services in the Washington metropolitan area. WMATA provides rapid transit servic ...

(WMATA) and the

Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments (MWCOG) is an independent, nonprofit association designed to address regional issues confronting Washington, D.C., suburban Maryland, and Northern Virginia. It was founded in 1957. MWCOG comprises 24 ...

' regional transportation planning and policy bodies."Transportation System Overview". District of Columbia Department of Transportation. No date.
Accessed 2010-01-08 DDOT also works closely with the District of Columbia Emergency Management Agency,

, the State of

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It borders the states of Virginia to its south, West Virginia to its west, Pennsylvania to its north, and Delaware to its east ...

, the Commonwealth of

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...

, and the U.S. federal government to plan and implement the Regional Emergency Coordination Plan (which provides for emergency evacuation of the District of Columbia and surrounding areas in case of a major event, natural disaster, or military or terrorist attack). DDOT's headquarters was located at 55 M Street SE on top of the Navy Yard Metro station until April 2021. Currently DDOT's headquarters is located at 250 M Street SE.

Funding and current projects

As of 2004, all of the District's bridges and approximately 30 percent of its roads were eligible for funding from the

Federal Highway Administration The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) is a division of the United States Department of Transportation that specializes in highway transportation. The agency's major activities are grouped into two programs, the Federal-aid Highway Program a ...

(FHWA). The remaining roads were maintained solely with D.C. government funds. DDOT is engaged in a number of critical transportation initiatives, many of which focus on economic development in the city's poorer neighborhoods. Among DDOT's major initiatives are: :*

DC Streetcar The DC Streetcar is a surface streetcar network in Washington, D.C. that consists of a single line running in mixed traffic along H Street and Benning Road in the city's Northeast quadrant. The streetcars are the first to run in the Distri ...

- DDOT owns and is currently the sole financier of DC Streetcar, a surface

light rail Light rail (or light rail transit, abbreviated to LRT) is a form of passenger urban rail transit that uses rolling stock derived from tram technology National Conference of the Transportation Research Board while also having some features from ...

and

streetcar A tram (also known as a streetcar or trolley in Canada and the United States) is an urban rail transit in which vehicles, whether individual railcars or multiple-unit trains, run on tramway tracks on urban public streets; some include s ...

network under construction in

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

:*Great Streets Initiative - DDOT is a lead agency in the District of Columbia's Great Streets Initiative, which seeks to revitalize critical transportation and retail corridors throughout the city to spur economic development. Current Great Streets projects include Brentwood Road NE, H Street NE, Kenilworth Avenue NE, New York Avenue, Pennsylvania Avenue SE, and South Capitol Street. :*

DC Circulator The DC Circulator was a bus system in Washington, D.C. The District of Columbia Department of Transportation operated the service in a public–private partnership with RATP Dev. The DC Circulator buses were similar to shuttle buses since they ...

(defunct) - DDOT owned the DC Circulator bus system, a downtown circulator

bus A bus (contracted from omnibus, with variants multibus, motorbus, autobus, etc.) is a motor vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van, but fewer than the average rail transport. It is most commonly used ...

system.O'Connell, Jonathan. "New Transit Board Would Manage Streetcars." ''Washington Business Journal.'' January 4, 2010.
/ref> The Washington Metro managed the Circulator's operations, while a contractor (

First Transit First Transit was an American transportation company. Headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, it operated over 300 locations, carrying more than 350 million passengers annually throughout the United States in 41 states, Puerto Rico, Panama, India an ...

) operated the system. DDOT and Metro funded the Circulator in cooperation with D.C. Surface Transit Inc. (a nonprofit conglomerate that includes the Downtown Business Improvement District, Georgetown Business Improvement District, Golden Triangle Business Improvement District, Capitol Hill Business Improvement District, Washington Convention Center Authority, and the Washington, D.C. Convention and Tourism Corporation). :*

11th Street Bridges The 11th Street Bridges are a complex of three bridges across the Anacostia River in Washington, D.C., United States. The bridges convey Interstate 695 (District of Columbia), Interstate 695 across the Anacostia to its southern terminus at Int ...

- DDOT is replacing both spans of the 11th Street Bridges with three new bridges at a cost of $365 million.Thomson, Robert. "D.C. to Rebuild 11th Street Bridges over Anacostia."
''Washington Post.'' April 24, 2009

''Washington Post.'' September 22, 2009. The project is the biggest construction effort ever undertaken by DDOT.Niedowski, Erika. "DDOT Starts Construction on 11th Street Bridge Project, Sort Of."
''

Washington City Paper The ''Washington City Paper'' is a U.S. alternative weekly newspaper serving the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area since 1981. The ''City Paper'' is distributed on Thursdays; its average circulation in 2006 was 85,588. The paper's editorial ...

.'' December 29, 2009.

Statistics

The District Department of Transportation is responsible for: * of streets *241 bridges * of sidewalks * of alleys *144,000 trees adjacent to city streets

Directors

References

External links

District Department of Transportation
home page
District Dept. of Transportation site on YouTube
{{DEFAULTSORT:District of Columbia Department of Transportation Government of the District of Columbia Transportation in Washington, D.C. State departments of transportation of the United States 2002 establishments in Washington, D.C.

Transportation Transport (in British English) or transportation (in American English) is the intentional Motion, movement of humans, animals, and cargo, goods from one location to another. Mode of transport, Modes of transport include aviation, air, land tr ...

Government agencies established in 2002