ATLANTA (AP) — The Georgia Department of Transportation has a new leader.

The 14-member State Transportation Board on Tuesday elected longtime agency employee Russell McMurry to be commissioner, effective immediately. He replaces Keith Golden, who headed the department for nearly three years and is leaving GDOT at the end of the month.

McMurry joined the agency in 1990 as a civil engineering trainee. Gov. Nathan Deal last month tapped him to be the department's next planning director after he had been chief engineer for two years.

The governor will now have to select a new planning director nominee to be confirmed by legislative transportation committees.

The department has a budget of more than $2 billion and more than 4,100 employees.

___

Online:

www.dot.ga.gov