page_title: Grace Crunican
section_title: Oregon Department of Transportation (May 1996 – February 2001)
hierarchical_section_title: Grace Crunican / Career / Oregon Department of Transportation (May 1996 – February 2001)
caption_attribution_description: Grace Crunican, then the director of the Oregon Department of Transporation (and a former Deputy Administrator of the Federal Transit Administration), in Hillsboro, Oregon, in 1998. Crunican was speaking at the opening ceremony of the Westside MAX light rail line (now part of the MAX Blue Line), of TriMet.
context_page_description: Grace Crunican is a mass transportation specialist who most recently served as General Manager of the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District. She had previously worked for the Oregon Department of Transportation, the Federal Transit Administration, and the Seattle Department of Transportation, and also at the mass transit lobbying organization called the Surface Transportation Policy Project.
context_section_description: Crunican began serving as director of the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) in May 1996 under Governor John Kitzhaber, and was the first female to serve in that role.
  In 1999, as ODOT Director, Crunican ordered the formation of "Project Time Team" to cut turnaround time for highway construction projects to 18 months between acceptance of project by city/county and release of advertising for contractor bids.
  Crunican announced her resignation abruptly in January 2001. Her salary at the time of resignation was $118,000. Crunican's resignation came on the heels of two other state agency director resignations, but a spokesman for Governor John Kitzhaber said that the spate of resignations was coincidental and not part of a purge. Crunican's work was praised by Republican state representative Bruce Starr, of Aloha, who expressed surprise at her resignation, as well as by Gary George, the Senate Transportation Committee chairman who had previously been critical of ODOT. Her resignation was effective February 28, 2001.
caption: Crunican at a MAX light rail line opening in Oregon in 1998
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