MDOT hosting annual Maintenance Meeting
BILOXI, Miss (WXXV)- The Mississippi Department of Transportation is hosting its annual maintenance meeting this week—an important event that brings together maintenance leaders from all across the state. Held each year, the conference gives MDOT staff the chance to hear directly from executive leadership and central support divisions about the latest advancements in roadway maintenance, safety, and technology.
MDOT executive director, Brad White says, “it’s about 250 to 30 employees that come in and it’s a lot of training that goes into this and just meetings that help equip them better to carry out their jobs, safety factors, information about the administration side of the agency and just kind of annual training if you just to keep everybody up to speed on the new regs and rules and all the things necessary to conduct their work.”
It’s also a prime opportunity for vendors and consultants to share new tools and services that help keep Mississippi’s highway system running efficiently.
One part owner of Duff Capital Investors, Tommy Duff says, “one of our companies is a transportation company. We own about 4000 semi-trucks. We are here every day at the Port of Gulfport picking up bananas and hauling them throughout the country. The better roads you have the quicker you can get there. And so, it’s important that we have the road and the bridges to take care of the transportation needs not only for today, but for our future.”
Brad White, the executive director of MDOT says when you see the orange barrels on the road, that means your tax dollars are at work. White says, “the Mississippi Department of Transportation is one of the largest special fund agencies in the state. Meaning that most of our revenue comes from sources that are identified early on like fuel tax, 80 million of the lottery, certain fees and taxes that go in with contractors or with electric or hybrid vehicles. So, most of our budget requires legislature to simply to give us the authority to spend the revenue that’s generated for the purpose of maintaining highways bridges and interstates across the state.”
The last day to attend the meeting is May 1st.
