The Rhode Island Department of Transportation (RIDOT) is pleased to announce that its newly redesigned website, www.dot.ri.gov, was named 'Best DOT Website, Without Consultant' by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials Communications Subcommittee (Transcomm); Transcomm is comprised of representatives from DOTs across the country. The department also announced today that its website now features an interactive performance dashboard which provides insight into RIDOT's performance across several key areas.
"We are honored to have been selected by our peers across the country for this award," RIDOT Director Michael P. Lewis said. "This new website, coupled with our social media pages, is part of a much broader effort on our part to transform how we engage with the public and transparently share information in today's digital age. It is also a key part of our evolution as a department into one that is customer and performance focused."
Launched last May, the new site – which offers a first-of-its-kind web experience among state agency sites in Rhode Island – includes timely updates on travel conditions, live news and social media feeds, safety resources, bid announcements, enhanced traffic camera access, and in-depth information on construction projects around the state. It replaced a site that was weighted down by a dated design, dense content, and a maze of links.
"With this site, we set out to deliver compelling content that would inspire conversation around local transportation issues and innovations – and that would be accessible across any preferred mobile device," Lewis added. "As we move forward, we will continue to explore ways to build upon recent successes such as live camera feeds of our projects and our new dashboard to make this the most useful site possible for our customers."
This past summer, more than 100,000 people logged on over the course of 10 days to watch live coverage of the new Barton Corner Bridges being moved into place along I-95. It was the first time RIDOT was able to provide this type of access. Earlier this month, a time-lapse video of the project was added to the site.
A performance dashboard is the latest feature to be added. Its design mimics a car's dashboard – with gauge displays that offer statistics on highway congestion levels, seat belt usage, the condition of RIDOT's bridges, status of construction projects, and salt usage during winter operations. To access the dashboard, click on the "Performance" button on the website's main menu. The dashboard runs on Microsoft Silverlight; as such, it is not available on all mobile devices. A free download of the Silverlight plugin is available at www.microsoft.com/getsilverlight.
The website was developed by RIDOT in partnership with the Rhode Island Department of Administration, the Division of Information Technology, the Rhode Island Office of Digital Excellence, and RI.gov - Rhode Island's web development partner.
Contact: Rose Amoros (O):401-222-1362 x4450; (C):401-261-2159; Rose.Amoros@dot.ri.gov