Commissioner Bruce Van Note will retire next month after six years at the helm of the Maine Department of Transportation.

Gov. Janet Mills, who nominated Van Note for the role in 2019, said he earned a reputation as a pragmatic and effective leader who led the department through new initiatives and major projects to maintain Maine’s transportation network. He will retire Aug. 15.

Van Note spent more than 30 years working in transportation in Maine, including a dozen years as deputy commissioner of the department. He was the director of policy and planning for the Maine Turnpike Authority from 2014 to 2019.

Mills said Van Note “set a high standard for practicality and productivity” and has been an invaluable member of her cabinet.

“As an engineer and attorney, Bruce is at home working both in the field and in the State House, engineering ways to adapt our highways to alternative modes of transportation, to make travel as safe as possible, to enact policy in nonpartisan manner, and, very simply, to fix the potholes,” she said in a statement.

During Van Note’s tenure, MaineDOT delivered on its largest capital programs to date, totaling $2.5 billion, and regularly exceeds industry standards for project completion, according to Mills. This included 350 bridge projects, 362 miles of major highway improvements, more than 6,000 miles of paving, nearly 250 safety related improvements and over $500 million in multimodal capital investments.

Van Note said that serving as commissioner “has been the honor and privilege of my life.”

“We have made a real difference in safety, economic opportunity and quality of life in Maine,” he said in a statement. “There have been many challenges to overcome including the pandemic, significant increases in construction costs, workforce shortages, extreme storms, and more. They made this one of the toughest jobs you’ll ever love, but finding solutions is what we do, and throughout it all, I’m proud of the smart and steady progress we’ve made for the people of Maine.”

After Van Note leaves next month, Mills plans to appoint MDOT Deputy Commissioner Dale Doughty as acting commissioner.

The commissioner’s position is a Cabinet-level appointment, subject to a hearing before the Legislature’s transportation committee and confirmation by the Maine Senate.