DDOT Budget Under Scrutiny
A new federal report revealed that DDOT fails to maintain records of contracts that add up to millions of dollars.
Crain’s Detroit Business Enterprise Editor Bill Shea joins Stephen to talk about a new federal report containing information about the Detroit Department of Transportation’s internal organization failures and how the news fits into to the ever-evolving discussion about the state of mass transit in Detroit. According to Shea, the report revealed that DDOT has not been writing or maintaining records for contracts totaling to tens of millions of dollars.Shea also tells Stephen that the struggling department has enlisted the help of a Washington DC-based analytics startup, Transit Labs, to create a series of reports about busing in the city of Detroit, and what can be done to improve DDOT services.
“In the next two years, we are going to see basically what is empty gravel lots rise up into this eight-story, 20,000 seat, state of the art arena,” Shea says about the plans for the new hockey arena downtown.
Shea and Stephen also talk about the ongoing construction of the new Red Wings arena, which is part of Olympia Entertainment’s future 45-block entertainment district in Detroit’s downtown. Shea says in the next two weeks, construction crews will begin digging out the big hole where the bowl for the new stadium will be, which is set to open in 2017. While the undertaking is massive, Shea says it could be a significant game-changer for Detroit.
