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New WSDOT secretary outlines priorities: workforce, preservation, safety, ferries and fish‑passage funding
Summary
Julie Meredith, the new Washington State Secretary of Transportation, briefed the House Transportation Committee on agency priorities including workforce development, system preservation, safety goals, ferry operations, and fish passage delivery. Meredith said the department faces revenue declines, an aging workforce, and rising project costs and
Julie Meredith, the newly confirmed secretary of the Washington State Department of Transportation, told the House Transportation Committee she intends to focus on workforce development, preservation of existing assets, safety, ferry reliability, and fish‑passage work amid a constrained state budget.
“WSDOT’s mission is to provide safe, reliable and cost‑effective transportation,” Meredith said, introducing herself and noting she has worked at WSDOT for more than 36 years. She told lawmakers the department manages a multimodal system with a replacement value she described as “a quarter of a trillion dollar state transportation system.”
Meredith said WSDOT’s workforce has become less experienced in recent years: median tenure in a current job is about six years, nearly 40% of staff have been in their current job for a year or less, and almost 60% have…
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