The board of the new Massachusetts Department of Transportation includes two Central Massachusetts residents: John R. Jenkins and Andrew Whittle.
The state officially consolidated four state transportation agencies into MassDOT on Nov. 1. The new department is responsible for maintaining and improving roads, bridges, tunnels, transit systems and private-use airports.
Jenkins, the chairman of the new five-member board, is a Natick resident and president of Boston-based West Insurance Agency Inc. He was a former member of the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority Board.
Whittle lives in Boxborough and is the head of the Massachusetts Institute for Technology’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. He is a geotechnical engineer.
The board’s other three members are Elizabeth Levin, president of Liz Levin & Co.; Ferdinand Alvaro, partner-in-charge of the Adorno & Yoss LLP Boston office and Janice Loux, president of hotel and food service union Unite Here! Local 26.
