The DOT POD

Before a snowplow or snowblower can move a mountain of snow, there's a team of people working behind the scenes to make sure everything runs right. And if equipment breaks down during a storm, they're the ones who go out and fix it.

This episode of the DOT POD focuses on the employees who work year round to inspect maintain, and repair everything from heavy trucks and plows, to loaders and snowblowers.

Josh and Anya welcome in Gene Hatton, who runs the DOT Fleet Shop in Binghamton, and Mike Cardillo, a service and repair mechanic who is based out of the Delhi Sub-Residency.

When you think about transportation, you may picture the projects that are happening today. But behind every project is years of planning. And one of the biggest planners of them all is the New York Metropolitan Transportation Council, or NYMTC.

On this episode, Josh and Anya welcome in two people who spend every day looking decades into the future: Executive Director Adam Levine, and Rossana Weitekamp, Public Information Officer.

This episode of the DOT POD talks about something every single employee experiences at some point in their career - learning.

The New York State Department of Transportation's Learning & Development Bureau is the driving force behind this learning from leadership and professional development, to organizational improvement, mentoring, and educational partnerships.

Josh and Anya welcome Assistant Bureau Director Kiersten Hall to the show to talk about what DOT is doing now, and what they plan on doing in the future.

In this episode of the DOT POD, we are looking at a project that is literally reshaping the heart of Syracuse and transforming how people are traveling through and around Central New York for generations to come...the I81 Viaduct Project.

Construction has been underway for about three years now, with the project recently embarking on its second and final phase.

Josh and Anya traveled to the Great New York State Fair to see the I-81 Viaduct Project display, and to meet with Betsy Parmley, the Regional Director for Central New York, including Syracuse.

This episode was recorded in the Science and Industry Building at the Great New York State Fair where the New York State Department of Transportation was giving visitors a chance to experience something they may or may not think about every day: what it's like to navigate an intersection from someone else's perspective.

One of DOT's displays is all about empathy at intersections and it invites people to step outside their own experiences and see transportation as someone with different abilities or needs. With vision goggles, a wheelchair, and other interactive elements, visitors can get a better understanding of the challenges people may face while simply getting across the street.

Joining Josh and Anya were Lynn Godek, Landscape Architect 1 with DOT's Office of Environment, Landscape Architecture Bureau, and Karen Lorf, Landscape Architect 2 with the Department's Office of Policy, Planning, and Performance.

Every summer, hundreds of thousands of people make their way to the Great New York State Fair. They come for the food, music, and rides, and if you've ever walked through the Science and Industry building, you've probably noticed one of the Fair's most interactive exhibits: the New York State Department of Transportation display.

But what visitors don't see is the incredible amount of planning that goes into creating an experience that's fun, educational, and maybe even life saving. Our DOT exhibit gives visitors a behind-the-scenes look at the work that keeps New York moving every day.

Josh and Anya are joined by two of the multitude of people who help create these displays, DOT's Director of Marketing and Multimedia Operations, Carol Breen, and Communications Specialist for DOT's Syracuse region and the I-81 Viaduct Project, Sabrina Betts.

New York's transportation network is one of the largest and most complex in the nation, connecting communities, supporting businesses, and helping millions of New Yorkers get where they need to go.

And the investments we make today determine how that system will look tomorrow. From historic infrastructure funding, to workforce investments that keep our roads, and the people who build and maintain them, safe, Governor Kathy Hochul's Fiscal Year 2027 budget is helping DOT shape the future of transportation across New York.

In this episode, Josh and Anya are breaking it all down with someone who knows this work inside and out, New York State Department of Transportation Commissioner Marie Therese Dominguez.

Every day at DOT, thousands of employees are solving problems. Maintaining our roads and bridges, responding to emergencies, designing projects, and keeping New Yorkers moving.

But as a new generation of employees steps forward, and many longtime employees prepare for retirement, how do we make sure all their knowledge doesn't leave with them? The answer is mentorship.

Today we're talking about DOT's Mentorship Program, an effort that's connecting employees across the department to build an even stronger future.

Josh and Anya welcome in Melissa Hardiman with DOT's Learning and Development Team, and Lee Gottfried, Assistant Director with the Office of Fleet Administration and Support to discuss the program.

Current employees interested in being a part of the community can find out more information here.

The world's biggest sporting event is going on right now - the World Cup. Behind the scenes, months and years of planning have gone into making sure fans can get to where they need to go safely and efficiently...and DOT has played a major role in making that happen.

In this episode of the DOT POD, Josh and Anya are joined by Ken Bibbins, DOT's Assistant Commissioner for Operations, and Matt Vasilow, Director of the department's Emergency Transportation Operations and Security Programs Bureau, to give us an insiders look into how DOT helped plan for this historic event, how we coordinated with various agencies, and what we learned from previous large scale events.

For a lot of people, DOT is not just a job - it's part of their family story. From watching their parents suit up to respond to storms, or hearing about projects at the dinner table, these are people who learned at a very young age that public service isn't glamorous, but it truly matters, and that's why they are proud to carry forward that tradition of service.

In this episode, Josh and Anya spoke with one of these families as they welcomed in Dick Anger and his granddaughter Brittany Dudek who are a part of three generations here at the New York State Department of Transportation .