PROVIDENCE – The R.I. Department of Transportation Thursday announced that Director James R. Capaldi will be retiring at the end of the month, after 36 years of state service and 3 as the department’s director.
“Jim Capaldi has been an outstanding director,” Governor Donald L. Carcieri said in a statement today. “Rhode Island’s transportation system has never looked better. The roads are cleaner [and] better maintained, and the improvements continue every day.”
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“Being able to make real changes within the Department – and on the roads and bridges, highways and bike paths – [is] something that I am very proud of,” Capaldi said today. “Of all the positions I have held, being Director has been the most rewarding.”
Capaldi has been the department’s director since 2003. His career began in 1965, when he joined RIDOT as a summer intern. That, he says, is when he caught the “transportation virus.”
He began working with the department full time in 1969, in the Road Design section, and eventually worked his way up to chief design engineer, chief of construction operations, chief engineer, and finally, director.
“This year has been an outstanding one at RIDOT,” he noted, “with the demolition of the old Jamestown Bridge, construction of the Iway and the floating of its signature bridge up Narragansett Bay, completing the Freight Rail Improvement Project, and making improvements to the Cliffwalk.
“I can’t think of a better capstone year than the one we all just experienced,” he said. “But now it is time for me to attempt new challenges, and I look forward to what might lie ahead in the private sector. I am eager for new responsibilities and change.”
Capaldi’s last day on the job will be Friday, Dec. 22. State officials said the search for a new director would begin shortly.
“Jim has been a true public servant,” Carcieri said. “No one could have asked for a better Director of Transportation. I thank him for his service and wish him and his family well as he embarks on a new chapter in his life.”
