DOT Chief Dreams Big, Needs Workers

Because of a change in state government’s pension rules, workers throughout the system are retiring by the end of June. Giulietti is anticipating that he’ll need to hire between 600 to 800 workers, from bus drivers and snow-plow steerers to bridge inspectors, paving testers, and supervisors responsible for making sure crews are on the road and federal grant paperwork is in. “People with 30 to 40 years of service are walking out the door,” bringing decades of institutional knowledge with them, the commissioner remarked during an interview Tuesday on WNHH FM’s ​“Dateline New Haven” program. ​“I’m signing a lot of retirement letters every day.” You may notice something else about the bus soon — it may be electrified. The state just announced it’s receiving $11.4 million from the feds toward the $25.7 million cost of adding 22 new electric buses to its fleet on top of the 12 already on the road. Giulietti said the state expects to replace all 800 of its buses with electric models over the next decade.

https://www.newhavenindependent.org/article/trasnportation_chief

Share This Article: