DOT opens ‘Iway October’ with new Podcast series

PROVIDENCE – A series of three-minute Podcasts telling the story of the Iway project was unveiled today by the R.I. Department of Transportation. Each of the six mini-documentaries will be available in both English and Spanish, bringing the total to 12.
“These Podcasts are just the first of many activities planned for ‘Iway October,’” said DOT Director Jerome F. Williams.
Later this month – weather permitting – the department plans to open the first section of the new highway: the new ramp from I-95 North to I-195 East, giving motorists their first opportunity to drive across the new Providence River bridge.
“An event like this hasn’t happened in Providence since the 1960s,” the last time the city saw a major change in the Interstate highway system, Williams said, calling this “an exciting time for RIDOT.”
The Podcasts, comprising a six-part documentary of the project, will include maps, renderings and historical images, as well as video and still footage shot during the Iway’s construction.
The first two episodes in the series – “Iway Project Overview” or “Perspectiva del Proyecto del Iway” and “Building a Better Highway” or “Construyendo una Mejor Autopista” – were released this morning.
They are available for download from the department’s Web site, as large or small files, in either Podcast (MOV) or Windows (WMV) format. They also can be viewed on YouTube, and are due to be posted soon on iTunes and Blinkx.
The second pair of videos will be released Tuesday, Oct. 9, and the final pair on Monday, Oct. 15, “paving the way for the opening of the first Iway ramp,” the department said.
Dana Alexander Nolfe, the DOT’s chief information officer, described the release as an attempt to reach out to the state’s younger residents, who “do not use traditional media for news and information the same way older Rhode Islanders do.
“Teens and 20-somethings embrace technology,” Nolfe said, “and these Podcasts will allow RIDOT to reach out to them with new media and do something no DOT has done before.”
The first two Podcasts in the R.I. Department of Transportation’s Iway series are available in English and Spanish at www.dot.ri.gov and www.YouTube.com, and are coming soon to www.Apple.com/iTunes and www.Blinkx.com.

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