GDOT Ahead of the Curve Podcast

Georgia’s population is growing. It is anticipated that our state will have approximately 1 million more people on our roads in just 10 years. In today’s episode, Host Natalie Dale talks with Georgia Commute Options’ Program Administrator and Marketing Communications Director Jill Goldberg and Livable Buckhead’s Executive Director Denise Starling about how their organizations plan their programs t...

Created in 1982, the Disadvantaged Business Enterprise Program (DBE) is a legislatively mandated U.S. DOT program that applies to Federal-aid highway dollars expended on federally-assisted contracts issued by state DOTs like GDOT. In this episode, Host Natalie Dale talks with Georgia DOT’s Equal Employment Opportunity Director Kimberly King and State Transportation Board Member Stacey Key about th...

Innovation. Mobility. Safety. Three buzzwords that are often used to describe transportation projects – especially by GDOT. Those words are included in the department’s mission, after all. But these words are also used in regard to autonomous vehicles. In this episode, Host Natalie Dale talks to GDOT’s Director of Intermodal Clement Solomon and ATL Airport CIDs Executive Director Gerald McDowell a...

In this month’s episode, host Natalie Dale talks with GDOT’s Assistant State Transportation Planning Administrator Habte Kassa, Transportation Planner with Modern Mobility Partners Candace Foster, and Senior Consultant, Air Quality with ICF International Seth Hartley about the research and development involved with the creation of GDOT’s Carbon Reduction Strategy Plan (CRS Plan). Georgia’s CRS Pla...

Data released in June 2023 from the Governors Highway Safety Association showed American drivers are projected to have struck and killed at least 7,508 people walking in 2022. That is a 77% increase since 2010 and the highest number since 1981, according to the study. Georgia saw 344 pedestrian fatalities in 2022. That is 344 too many. In this episode, we talk to GDOT’s State Safety Engineering Su...

Summer is a time when a lot of families head out on vacation. In this episode, host Natalie Dale talks with HERO Manager Jason Josey, CHAMP Manager Chadrick Hendon, TMC Technical Specialist Billie Rose, and WSB Traffic Reporter Ashley Frasca to get the insights and best tips about safe driving, the resources available to motorists in Georgia, and firsthand accounts of how decisions made behind the...

In this month’s episode of the Ahead of the Curve podcast, host Natalie Dale chats with Strategic Communications Director Scott Higley, Digital Services and Web Strategy Manager Ron Battle, and District Six Communications Officer Joe Schulman about how Georgia DOT keeps the public informed about the people, projects, and initiatives that make our agency one of the best in the country.

In this episode of the Ahead of the Curve podcast, Host Natalie Dale talks with HR Deputy Director Brian Robinson, State Talent Development Manager Kyle Mote, and Recruitment Supervisor Nicole Glenn about our efforts to attract and retain a talent workforce at Georgia DOT. Resources GDOT Employment Website

Georgia DOT’s mission is to deliver a transportation system focused on innovation, safety, sustainability and mobility. In this month’s episode of the Ahead of the Curve podcast, Host Natalie Dale talks to Assistant State Traffic Engineer Sam Harris and State Safety Program Manager Kelli Roberts about the important and impactful projects and programs GDOT is working on to improve the safety of our...

Ever wonder how Georgia’s Express Lanes system came to fruition? On this episode of Ahead of the Curve, host Natalie Dale along with special co-host Kyle Collins, GDOT State Express Lanes Administrator Tim Matthews, and GDOT Express Lanes Project Manager Cleo Vicks take a deep dive into all things Express Lanes – the history, the planning, the design, and more – as well as the innovative methods t...

Host Natalie Dale celebrates the Transportation Investment Act’s (TIA) 10th birthday with TIA Program Administration Kenneth Franks, and representatives from two of the four TIA regions – executive director of the Heart of Georgia Altamaha Regional Commission Brett Manning and Bill Slaughter who is a member of the Southern Georgia Citizens Review Panel. In this episode, they look at the lessons le...

Host Natalie Dale is joined by two of the leading weather-watchers in the state who are looking out for Georgians' safety whenever snow, ice, sleet or other wintry conditions hit our highways, roads, bridges, and other transportation infrastructure. Georgia DOT emergency operations manager Emily Fish and state meteorologist Will Lanxton of the Georgia Emergency Management office talk about all tha...

Host Natalie Dale interviews Intermodal Division Director Clement Solomon, Transit Program Manager Patricia Smith, and Aviation Program Manager Steve Brian about how Georgia DOT is working to build intermodal partnerships throughout our state, and how these contributions enhance Georgia’s intermodal transportation system.

Welcome to Georgia DOT’s new podcast Ahead of the Curve. In our inaugural episode, Ahead of the Curve host Natalie Dale chats with Georgia DOT Commissioner Russell R. McMurry as he shares stories and anecdotes about his life, his career and his oversight of the agency responsible for building and maintaining the nation’s tenth-largest transportation system – and how the dedication of the people of...