by Jerry Cornfield, Washington State Standard
January 8, 2025
Gov.-elect Bob Ferguson on Wednesday named Julie Meredith, who manages massive road and highway projects like the replacement of the Alaskan Way Viaduct and State Route 520 floating bridge, as Washington’s next transportation secretary.
Meredith is a 36-year veteran with the Washington State Department of Transportation where she now serves as assistant secretary for urban mobility, access and megaprograms.
She brings “deep experience and leadership and a strong commitment to public service to this role,” Ferguson said in a statement. The appointment takes effect Jan. 15. Julie Meredith
Since 2020, Meredith has steered the office responsible for overseeing megaprojects, including replacing the viaduct in Seattle and State Route 520 bridge across Lake Washington, and improving travel on Interstate 405, State Route 167 and State Route 509 corridors.
Her portfolio also includes safety, preservation, fish passage, and tolling — including planning for future tolling to help pay for a new Interstate 5 bridge over the Columbia River between Washington and Oregon.
In a statement, Meredith called the appointment an honor and said she has “been proud to be part of an agency committed to creating the reliable and safe transportation network that Washington’s economy and people rely on.”
Meredith will succeed Roger Millar, the agency leader since October 2015 and the person who put her in charge of the agency division working on some of its most complicated, costly and controversial undertakings.
The viaduct replacement involved construction of the Highway 99 tunnel in Seattle, which ran into trouble when the boring machine known as Bertha stalled in 2013. It took more than two years to get it going again and the department and project contractor brawled in court over what was to blame for the stoppage. The state eventually won that fight.
Problems emerged around 2012 for the State Route 520 floating bridge when cracks were detected in the span’s pontoons. An investigation held the state responsible for design flaws and the state’s top bridge engineer lost their job as a result.
As secretary, Meredith will be relied on by Ferguson and state legislators to find the best route to erase a projected multi-billion dollar gap in the coming decade between revenues and the rising costs of preserving existing highways, building new infrastructure and replacing culverts that block salmon and other fish from traveling in streams.
She’ll also need to get new boats built to boost the reliability of Washington State Ferries amid the ongoing threat of cancellations when existing vessels break down.
Sen. Marko Liias, D-Edmonds, chair of the Senate Transportation Committee, hailed the selection, calling Meredith a “forward-thinking leader.”
“Julie has played a pivotal role in transformative projects that are critical to our economic competitiveness and mobility,” he said in a statement.
Doug MacDonald, a former Washington secretary of transportation, said Meredith’s appointment is “the best possible selection the new governor could make” because she’s managed the hardest projects and knows the department’s strengths and weaknesses from top to bottom.
“No one could jump start WSDOT any quicker or better than Julie,” said MacDonald, who led the agency from 2001 to 2007. “Ferguson has picked the tiger waiting in the wings. She might seem quiet for a tiger, but she’s a tiger. A very savvy and eager tiger, too, Just watch.”
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