Ohio Turnpike's Gary Suhadolnik stepping down
Posted Tue, 2008-02-12 13:53
Gary Suhadolnik executive director of the Ohio Turnpike Commission since January 2003 told his board of directors yesterday he is stepping down June 30. The move is a surprise - to us anyway. Turnpike Commission chair Joseph Balog says Suhadolnik, 57, will be working to ensure a smooth transition to a new exec-director.
An official statement lists his accomplishments as overseeing the addition of 20km (12 miles) of extra third laning, construction of a new set of service plazas, opening a new interchange, and negotiating terms with the state for attracting more trucks with lower truck tolls, and beginning conversion to electronic tolling.
Suhadolnik is quoted: "The Ohio Turnpike Commission continues to be an excellent, well managed state asset thanks to the planning and forethought put into programs and policies established by my predecessors. As Executive Director I have been fortunate to have a dedicated, knowledgeable and hard working staff. These folks all
take pride in their work and that made it easier to do my job. I look forward to assisting my successor in making a smooth transition."
Sam Staley of Reason Foundation says: "Gary Suhadolnik did a yoeman's job as head of the turnpike authority. He took over an agency crippled and demoralized by corruption and turned it around through administrative leadership and sound business practices. He also entertained limited forms of private sector involvement to upgrade facilities although he always believed in the turnpike as a public agency and resisted attempts to lease it to private companies. If all turnpikes were run the way Gary ran the Ohio turnpike, we privatizers would have a much tougher row to hoe."
OUR COMMENT: Despite being a former politician (state senate, Republican) Suhadolnik always struck us as being smart and capable, as well as open and affable. He managed the Turnpike for five years without scandal - so did his predecessor Gino Zomparelli although it seemed to us Zomparelli was driven out by penny ante trumped-up trivia.
Suhadolnik's most notable accomplishment, we thought, was executing a graceful U-turn on electronic tolling.
The Ohio Turnpike Commission like King Ludd was the maverick toll authority holding out against electronic tolling for years, while every other toller in the country and beyond was going to transponders. When he came in in 2003 Suhadolnik took up the Luddite torch of his predecessors with similar zeal spinning the story that they were different - no commuters, long trips, no congestion, not cost-effective etc.
By 2006 close to a third of their customers had E-ZPass or I-Pass transponders on their windshields making it a no brainer to go electronic and join E-ZPass.
Suhadolnik came around, hiring Vollmer, now Carter & Burgess to help them make the move to modernity - albeit with dignified deliberation and no undue speed. ET is due to come on line in 2009.
The Ohio Turnpike, 388km (241 miles) long, 137k toll transactions and trips per day, is a vital link between the east coast and the midwest connecting PA/I-80 plus the Pennsylvania Turnpike and the extension of the New York State Thruway to Detroit, and to Chicago via the Indiana Toll Road, as well as providing important east-west mobility across the north of the state. Skirting the south of the Cleveland metro area and Toledo it provides for some local traffic but is mostly a long distance and trucking facility.
TOLLROADSnews 2008-02-12
Gary Suhadolnik executive director of the Ohio Turnpike Commission since January 2003 told his board of directors yesterday he is stepping down June 30. The move is a surprise - to us anyway. Turnpike Commission chair Joseph Balog says Suhadolnik, 57, will be working to ensure a smooth transition to a new exec-director.An official statement lists his accomplishments as overseeing the addition of 20km (12 miles) of extra third laning, construction of a new set of service plazas, opening a new interchange, and negotiating terms with the state for attracting more trucks with lower truck tolls, and beginning conversion to electronic tolling.
Suhadolnik is quoted: "The Ohio Turnpike Commission continues to be an excellent, well managed state asset thanks to the planning and forethought put into programs and policies established by my predecessors. As Executive Director I have been fortunate to have a dedicated, knowledgeable and hard working staff. These folks all
take pride in their work and that made it easier to do my job. I look forward to assisting my successor in making a smooth transition."Sam Staley of Reason Foundation says: "Gary Suhadolnik did a yoeman's job as head of the turnpike authority. He took over an agency crippled and demoralized by corruption and turned it around through administrative leadership and sound business practices. He also entertained limited forms of private sector involvement to upgrade facilities although he always believed in the turnpike as a public agency and resisted attempts to lease it to private companies. If all turnpikes were run the way Gary ran the Ohio turnpike, we privatizers would have a much tougher row to hoe."
OUR COMMENT: Despite being a former politician (state senate, Republican) Suhadolnik always struck us as being smart and capable, as well as open and affable. He managed the Turnpike for five years without scandal - so did his predecessor Gino Zomparelli although it seemed to us Zomparelli was driven out by penny ante trumped-up trivia. Suhadolnik's most notable accomplishment, we thought, was executing a graceful U-turn on electronic tolling.
The Ohio Turnpike Commission like King Ludd was the maverick toll authority holding out against electronic tolling for years, while every other toller in the country and beyond was going to transponders. When he came in in 2003 Suhadolnik took up the Luddite torch of his predecessors with similar zeal spinning the story that they were different - no commuters, long trips, no congestion, not cost-effective etc.
By 2006 close to a third of their customers had E-ZPass or I-Pass transponders on their windshields making it a no brainer to go electronic and join E-ZPass.
Suhadolnik came around, hiring Vollmer, now Carter & Burgess to help them make the move to modernity - albeit with dignified deliberation and no undue speed. ET is due to come on line in 2009.
The Ohio Turnpike, 388km (241 miles) long, 137k toll transactions and trips per day, is a vital link between the east coast and the midwest connecting PA/I-80 plus the Pennsylvania Turnpike and the extension of the New York State Thruway to Detroit, and to Chicago via the Indiana Toll Road, as well as providing important east-west mobility across the north of the state. Skirting the south of the Cleveland metro area and Toledo it provides for some local traffic but is mostly a long distance and trucking facility.
TOLLROADSnews 2008-02-12