Gresham Smith is excited to announce that the firm will continue to serve the Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) by providing program management services for GDOT’s Statewide Traffic Operations & Safety Program.
The program was created in 2016 after the Transportation Funding Act became law and increased the GDOT funding and program projects by 50%. As a result, the state Legislature tasked GDOT with using the increased funding to deliver more projects and faster while maintaining current state employee levels.
To address this challenge, GDOT selected Gresham Smith to manage its inaugural Traffic Operations & Safety program, and the firm’s work will continue under a new five-year program management contract beginning in 2025. Under the program, the firm has delivered more than $1 billion in combined projects that focus on reducing crash frequency and severity, and reduce travel delays at intersections and on corridors, while also achieving a more efficient delivery long term for these programs and projects.
With the new contract, the firm is announcing a new leadership team for the program. Randy Blair will oversee the team as the program manager, and Consultancy Services Leader Jeremy Busby will step into a strategic advisory role.
Blair has transitioned into the role of program manager as of August 2024. Under his leadership, the team has maintained the standard of success that characterizes Gresham Smith’s tenure as program managers. In 2024, annual metric compliance, which includes benchmarks such as cost estimate compliance and schedule compliance, hit a new high of 95%, and milestone delivery also peaked at 85%. Since joining the contract in 2018, Blair has led the delivery of multiple projects on behalf of GDOT and local governments within Georgia by motivating and guiding inter-disciplinary teams: planning and programming, environmental compliance, public engagement, roadway design, utility coordination, and right-of-way acquisition.
Alongside Blair are five deputy program managers, each responsible for different aspects of the program, including:
- NaKeeta Batson, deputy program manager overseeing delivery. Specializing in critical, public-facing projects that require innovative public involvement and cross-functional collaboration, Batson excels in meeting GDOT’s expectations that secure GDOT’s reputation in the communities of Georgia for reliability and commitment to safer infrastructure.
- Marshall Troup, deputy program manager overseeing delivery. Troup recently joined Gresham Smith after a nearly three-decade-long career with GDOT earlier this year to also assist with delivery of the program.
- Lindsay Traylor, deputy program manager overseeing project controls. Traylor specializes in project integration: gathering data from a project manager, analyzing it for schedule and budget risks, and using that data to ensure milestones are met on time, on budget, and communicated appropriately to all stakeholders.
- Heidi Schneider, deputy program manager overseeing training and development. Schneider leads training and development programs, including onboarding to empower the next generation of project managers and department leadership.
- Sonja Thompson, deputy program manager overseeing the capital program. Thompson is a proven leader that applies her extensive GDOT experience and know-how to enable the effective delivery of projects, both within the safety and operations programs, but also the capital program. She is also an industry-renowned subject matter expert in GDOT delivery and how communities can pursue federal funding.
“We’re thrilled with the opportunity to continue to serve GDOT on this critically important program, and we’re proud of the metrics we’ve achieved since taking over the contract,” Blair said. “As our work continues, we remain committed to using data and our insights to deliver projects more effectively and efficiently with the ultimate goal of making Georgia roadways safer.”
