Jason Zang, who played a key role in leading the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation’s recovery from two emergency collapses in the past five years, is the agency’s new district executive for Allegheny, Beaver and Lawrence counties.
PennDOT Secretary Mike Carroll announced Tuesday that Zang will oversee all the department’s construction, maintenance and rehabilitation activities in the three-county area. PennDOT is responsible for 2,549 miles of highway, 1,794 bridges and four tunnels in District 11.
“Jason’s extensive experience in maintenance and engineering roles will serve the agency and public well,” Carroll said in a news release. “Our partners and customers in the region will continue benefiting from Jason’s leadership and PennDOT’s work in their communities.”
Zang has been among a team of managers in the district who have served as acting district executive since Cheryl Moon-Sirianni was named Carroll’s top assistant shortly after he took office in January. Zang had served as assistant district executive for construction since 2018 after starting with the state as a civil engineer trainee in 1999 and moving up through the ranks in a variety of construction and maintenance positions.
Zang helped to lead the department through the reconstruction of a section of Route 30 in East Pittsburgh and North Braddock in 2018 after it collapsed and the Fern Hollow Bridge after it fell into Pittsburgh’s Frick Park early last year. The department received praise and professional awards for completing both projects much faster than expected.
In an interview Wednesday with Pittsburgh Union Progress, Zang said the biggest challenge facing the district is the ability to recruit and maintain a high-quality staff in a tight job market.
“If you don’t have a strong team working here, it affects everything — the contractors, the designers, everybody -— if we don’t have really good people,” said Zang, 49. “That will be one of my priorities, recruiting good people.”
The district also is looking forward to a series of major projects over the next five to eight years, including repaving the Parkway East from the Squirrel Hill Tunnel to Monroeville, replacing the Commercial Street Bridge above Frick Park on the outbound side of the tunnel, addressing flooding in the bathtub area beside the Mon Wharf and upgrading the Fort Duquesne and West End bridges.
Commercial Street will be a particularly challenging project because contractors will build the new bridge beside the existing one, then shut down the Parkway East for three weeks in the summer of 2026 to demolish the old bridge and slide the new one into place. It will be one of the largest structures to ever be built that way and the preparation will have to follow a tight schedule to make it all work.
The first contract will be issued next spring.
Zang said it will be particularly tough navigating those projects during a period of high inflation.
“Inflation is affecting our construction projects and our maintenance program just like it affects everything everyone else buys at home for their family,” he said. “We have to spend every dollar as efficiently as possible.”
Zang grew up in Brookline and earned his engineering degree at the University of Pittsburgh, taking two buses to get to class. Working for PennDOT seemed like the ideal situation.
“I wanted to stay here and work here, and PennDOT gave me the chance to do that,” he said.
Ed covers transportation at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, but he's currently on strike. Email him at eblazina@unionprogress.com.