CONNECT: followed the directions to install our DOT workspace files and they look like they loaded but I am unable to select them at the start up, it freezes.

There's a lot to this, and we need a lot more information.

What version of MicroStation are you using? Specific version numbers (10.xx.xx.xxx) are most helpful.
Is this a MicroStation workspace, or an OpenRoads workspace? If it is OpenRoads, are you sure that the version your DOT uses is the same that you use?
Where did you install this workspace?
What DOT is it? Do they have any kind of installation guide, or is it just a file to unzip?
Have you tried to contact the DOT CAD support? While most workspaces are provided "as-is", the CAD people are often kind enough to answer a question or two.

There's a lot to this, and we need a lot more information.

What version of MicroStation are you using? Specific version numbers (10.xx.xx.xxx) are most helpful.
Is this a MicroStation workspace, or an OpenRoads workspace? If it is OpenRoads, are you sure that the version your DOT uses is the same that you use?
Where did you install this workspace?
What DOT is it? Do they have any kind of installation guide, or is it just a file to unzip?
Have you tried to contact the DOT CAD support? While most workspaces are provided "as-is", the CAD people are often kind enough to answer a question or two.

MicroStation Connect Edition 10.10 

NYSDOT And yes we followed the installation guide. 

While I can't see Exactly what your directory structure looks like, I have a suspicion about what is going on. These are OpenRoads standards, which include not only the Workspace, but the Organization-Civil standards. Plain Microstation does not recognize the Organization-Civil directory, so it's possible there is something critical not being found.

My plain Microstation directory structure looks like this:

While my OpenRoads directory looks like:

It's possible that if you just installed the "Organization-Civil" directory into plain MicroStation, that it isn't reading something.

Also, MicroStation Connect Release 10 is fairly old - they are up to Release 17 by this point.

I took a quick spin through NYSDOT's connect standards and Mary is correct.

Generally with an ORD based workspace all or most of the resource files will be placed in the Organization-Civil\DOT_Name folder. The workspace will then load those resources using a variable $(CIVIL_ORGANIZATION_STANDARDS) for the path. That path uses $(CIVIL_ORGANIZATION_ROOT) as the basis for the path.

In ORD the CIVIL_ORGANIZATION_ROOT variable is defined in the WorkSpaceSetup.cfg file. It is not defined in the WorkSpaceSetup.cfg that ships with MicroStation. If you put the Organization-Civil folder in your Microstation folder you should be able to add:

CIVIL_ORGANIZATION_ROOT           = $(_USTN_CONFIGURATION)Organization-Civil/

to MicroStation's WorkSpaceSetup.cfg and have it work

Thank you this worked!

Thanks for the reply, it helped)