New Jersey Turnpike Authority executive director Diane Scaccetti-Gutierrez is planning to retire, Bloomberg News reported last week — giving the Christie administration a chance to extend its transportation shakeup to one of the state’s most hidebound agencies and inject some creative thought into the Garden State Parkway and the New Jersey Turnpike widenings. The controversial  projects broke ground under Scaccetti-Gutierrez and combined will cost the state $3.6 billion.

The retirement announcement came as the Christie administration announced a probe into a financial services contract that appeared to be awarded to a politically connected firm. It’s not the first time the governor and new NJDOT Commissioner Jim Simpson, who serves as the chairman of the authority’s board, have challenged the way the authority does business. At his very first Turnpike Authority board meeting, Simpson grilled board members and staff on contracts and customer service, telling them “you’ve got to spend turnpike money like it’s your own.”

Tri-State has argued that this wasteful approach extends to the giant-scale widenings, which don’t include demand management strategies and are basically designed to fail. Past experience shows that the expansions are likely to trigger sprawl development, quickly re-congesting the roads.

More recently, Simpson has suggested that the Turnpike Authority be brought under the auspices of the NJDOT, which would make the agency more accessible. He’s also said toll revenue should be used for NJ Transit operations and replenishing the Transportation Trust Fund, demanded a cost-benefit analysis for new road projects, and suggested some out-of-the-box ways to generate revenue, such as leasing naming rights for Turnpike rest stops.