Montana Department of Transportation Director Chris Dorrington is stepping down October 1, the governor's office announced Monday, leaving one of the state's largest agencies without a permanent leader heading into fall construction season. Dorrington is departing for a job in the private sector, though the announcement did not identify his new employer.
Gov. Greg Gianforte's office said a replacement will be named in the coming weeks. MDT manages more than 5,000 miles of state highways and employs roughly 2,100 people statewide, making the director's chair one of the more consequential appointments a Montana governor makes. For Helena, where MDT headquarters sits on Prospect Avenue, the leadership transition lands close to home.
Dorrington's tenure at MDT included navigating a period of significant federal infrastructure funding, with Montana receiving hundreds of millions in dollars through the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act for highway, bridge, and transit projects. Who Gianforte picks to succeed him will signal how the administration intends to manage that pipeline of federal money going forward.
No interim director was named in Monday's announcement. The governor's office did not provide a timeline more specific than "coming weeks" for when a permanent appointment would be made.