At the recent American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials 2025 Washington Briefing in Washington, D.C., a knowledge session focused on how state departments of transportation are developing more “meaningful public engagement” as part of their overall project delivery efforts.
[Above photo by AASHTO]
Everett Lott, vice president of federal, state, and local affairs for engineering firm EXP and former director of the District of Columbia Department of Transportation, moderated a discussion among the session’s panelists.
That panel featured Ryan Anderson, commissioner of the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities; Julie Beaubien, team lead-public involvement section for the Texas Department of Transportation; Nancy Daubenberger, commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Transportation; and Marie Therese Dominguez, commissioner of the New York State Department of Transportation.
Alaska DOT&PF’s Anderson noted that one of his agency’s challenges is that it interacts with a very small but very diverse population spread out across a huge geographic area. And, as an example of that population diversity, he noted that out of the 574 federally-recognized American Indian tribes and Alaska Native entities, approximately 229 or 40 percent are located in Alaska.
“This puts us in a unique position to make sure we’re doing outreach that not only encompasses all of our local governments, but all of our boroughs, cities, and unorganized areas – along with all of those tribes,” Anderson said. “That’s been a challenge for us. But it’s something we’ve really been working on.”
Part of that work included developing more appreciation for “cultural sensitivities” and providing more “public ownership” of transportation projects – especially in remote areas of Alaska.
“So now it isn’t just [our] department coming in and doing the work; we’re giving the communities a role,” he said. “We work together as partners.”
Anderson said that mindset is but one of the many features of a “playbook” his agency developed to help improve public engagement with the agency’s transportation projects.
“As we have different communities in different areas, especially in rural areas, we recognized that it takes different kinds of plays to get things done. That’s what we’re building our [outreach] policy around,” he noted. “It takes a lot of flexibility and [employee] training has been an integral part of that. We are fairly new in terms of things like transportation planning organizations. But we feel like this team approach, where we’re trying to get everyone together moving on this, including the communities, is going to be successful.”
MnDOT’s Daubenberger noted that when her agency engages in such detailed public outreach, they incorporate that feedback back into the transportation project design.
She pointed to Minnesota’s “Rethinking I-94” project as an example.
“We heard from community interests and desires outside of transportation and prepared and revised guiding documents based on that feedback,” she explained. “[Not just] the purpose and need for the project, but also a statement of goals, evaluation criteria, and a ‘livability’ framework. And we collected ideas on how I-94 could be improved for all modes of transportation and went above requirements … sharing alternatives with stakeholder groups and the public as well as listening to potential new ideas for this corridor.”
Daubenberger explained that her agency cast a wide net for much of that project feedback as well.
“We’ve organized a community leader working group to incorporate more diverse representation of corridor interests,” she said. “We attend community events and hold open house meetings online and in communities. We engage with businesses, including the freight community, emergency responders, professional sports teams, health providers, small businesses, minority businesses, and [others] like Chambers of Commerce.”
That outreach also included engagement with educational institutions, participation in “community walks” in neighborhoods along and near I-94, plus the hiring of high school students as interns to work on the project and post material on social media to help reach a wider group of people.
“That helped us learn how to frame issues while reaching as many people as possible and have deeper conversations [about I-94] than many thought possible,” she said.
NYSDOT’s Dominguez noted that her agency engages in similar efforts for a singular goal: building more trust between the agency and local communities.
“It’s actually not just about delivering [transportation] benefits for all New Yorkers but engaging them in following through and further developing a high level of trust,” she explained. “Because I think at the core of everything that everybody’s talking about here, it’s how do we actually make sure that we’re engaging the community in such a way that we’re building trust; not just having conversations with our communities about projects but meaningful conversations with them.”
Dominguez stressed that highlighting what she called the “amazing economic opportunities” that come with investing in transportation projects, whether small or large, is critical.
“In the end, in order to move the project forward, we have to listen,” she said. “And not just listen but act. We actually have to act and say ‘okay, we heard what you’re saying,’ and then act and make changes on what’s been said. You have got to close that loop because, in the end, it’s all about public trust and a level of communication that drives what I would call continuous improvement. In the end, you want to show that you’re actually delivering results.”
TxDOT’s Beaubien explained that her agency is engaged in a similar effort, pointing to its new “Strategic Public Engagement Guidance” or “SPEG” document unveiled in early 2024 that helps guide the department’s statewide public involvement process.
“Changing demographics in Texas are really at the heart of this project,” she said. “It not only requires us to update our best practices and our methods but incorporates a range of strategies to encourage broad participation reflective of our state’s populations.”
The ultimate purpose of TxDOT’s SPEG, then, is to provide department staff and consultants with “consistent guidance and resources” to engage all of the populations within the state in the decision-making process for transportation initiatives, she emphasized.
“We spent nearly two years creating this and we plan to continually update this document moving forward,” Beaubien said.
Top Stories
