Session 4E: PennDOT Connects is Coming to a Project Near You!
Session Description: PennDOT Connects was established as a department policy priority in December 2016. It formalizes a flexible process for early community and stakeholder collaboration in the planning and project delivery process. It also entails value adding collaboration among engineers and planners.
PennDOT Connects is scalable to almost every project type and size. The ultimate goal is to achieve both better transportation and better communities. A more comprehensive approach to upfront planning and collaboration also helps to better define project opportunities and to prevent potentially costly surprises/impacts later in project delivery.
This interactive session will review progress to date, provide varied department and MPO perspectives for the future, and highlight some of the tools and technologies that will bolster PennDOT Connects implementation success. This includes a PennDOT Connects IT system that will be completed by early 2018. Participant ideas for technology innovations for supporting PennDOT Connects will be encouraged, including:
- GIS and other mapping and data collection/sharing tools
- Performance measurement — including opportunities for real time metrics afforded by IT innovations to monitor system performance
- Corridor analyses — for improving operations and safety
- Longer-term considerations associated with autonomous and connected vehicles
Moderator: Keith Chase, Planning and Management Consultant, Gannett Fleming, Inc.
- PennDOT Connects Perspective, Brian Hare, Planning Division Chief, Pennsylvania Department of Transportation
- PennDOT Connects System, Greg Ulp, Director, GeoDecisions
- Regional and Local Perspectives, Tom Zilla, Principal Transportation Planner, Centre County MPO, Centre Regional Planning Agency
Speaker Bios:
Keith Chase is a planning and management consultant. His managerial and executive leadership experience spans the public, private, and non-profit sectors. His primary focus areas include strategy, leadership/organizational development, and policy. Keith has been involved with PennDOT Connects development for PennDOT’s Program Center for several years. He has successfully facilitated many workshops and retreats for transportation, public health and other sectors. Recently, he was involved as both a trainer and coach for a Commonwealth executive development program. Keith joined Gannett Fleming in 1995 after 14 years with the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. He served as PennDOT’s deputy secretary for aviation, rail, and ports; unit manager with the Joint Legislative Budget & Finance Committee; executive policy analyst with the Governor’s Policy Office; and transportation planner with PennDOT’s Office of Planning. He began Commonwealth service as a Pennsylvania management intern. He is presently on the boards of the Central Pennsylvania American Red Cross and the Susquehanna Regional Airport Authority. He was long-time chair of the Penn State Hershey Medical Center’s PRO Wellness Center’s Advisory Council and was a member of the South-Central Pennsylvania Sickle Cell board for about five years. Keith holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Penn State, respectively in public service (political science) and public administration. He also completed the AASHTO Executive Institute at the University of Virginia.
Brian Hare is a 28-year employee of the PA Department of Transportation. He is currently chief of the Planning and Contract Management Division in PennDOT’s Center for Program Development and Management. His responsibilities include oversight of PennDOT’s long-range transportation planning, the PennDOT Connects process, and oversight of various State and Federal Programs, including the Pennsylvania Infrastructure Bank and Transportation Alternatives Set-Aside. Prior to his current position, Brian served as chief of the Design Services Division in the Bureau of Project Delivery, and chief of the Highway Quality Assurance Division in the Bureau of Design. Brian graduated from Widener University with a bachelor of science in civil engineering in 1989. He is a registered professional engineer in Pennsylvania, where he served as a member of the American Association of State Highway Transportation Officials Subcommittee on Design from 2002 to 2011.
Greg Ulp is a director with GeoDecisions, a division of Gannett Fleming specializing in GIS and IT. Greg has more than 25 years of experience in applying spatial technologies to solve transportation problems, and has worked with a number of state departments of transportation. He has worked extensively with the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation’s (PennDOT) GIS Division. He was the technical architect for a GIS application called MPMS IQ which is used to access and visualize data for the Department’s highway and bridge projects. He is currently serving as the project manager for the development of the PennDOT Connects web application. Greg received his bachelor’s degree in computer science from Penn State.
Tom Zilla has administered the transportation planning work program for the Centre County Metropolitan Planning Organization since 1988. The Centre County MPO is responsible for maintaining a long-range transportation plan that guides decisions about the priority of transportation improvement projects. The MPO is also responsible for adopting a short-range transportation improvement program, or “TIP”, which lists the federal and state capital dollars that have been approved for transit, roadway and bridge projects. Along with administering the MPO program and overseeing the preparation of the long-range plan and TIP, Tom helps with the completion of other special transportation and land use studies. From 1985 to 1988, Tom worked for the Altoona/Blair County MPO, and was also employed by the City of Uniontown (Pennsylvania) Redevelopment Authority from 1982 to 1985. Tom holds a bachelor of science degree from Penn State University in urban and regional planning.
