Civil Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Table 15.2
Examples of institutional best practices in operational activities
An increasing number of states have quick clearance laws to support the removal of stopped
vehicles from obstructing the road. Florida DOT (FDOT), for example, carried out an aggressive
statewide campaign of signage, radio spots, billboards, and brochures to inform the public about
the law and its bene
ts
Both the FDOT Rapid Incident Scene Clearance (RISC) program and Georgia DOT Towing
and Recovery Incentive Program (TRIP) are public
-
private partnerships that use both incentive
payments and disincentive liquidated damages to ensure shortened clearance times for heavy
vehicle wrecks; these programs have reduced the average clearance times by 100 %
Oregon DOT has used a set of unique contractor requirements (staged tow trucks, traf
c
supervision, and public advisories) as part of effective work zone traf
c control
Detroit metropolitan area transportation agencies are part of a regional multiagency coalition
that tracks and manages weather problems and treatment strategies, including
fl
flexible
interjurisdictional boundaries for ef
cient operations
The 16-state I-95 Corridor Coalition has supported an operations academy, which is a 2-week
residential program designed to provide middle and upper managers in state DOTs with a
thorough grounding in various aspects of SO&M state of the practice
The Maryland DOT Coordinated Highways Action Response Team (CHART) is a formal,
multiyear budgeted ITS and operations program with an advisory board that provides oversight
and strategic direction. It is chaired by the deputy administrator/chief engineer for operations and
includes district engineers, the director of the Office of Traffic and Safety, the director of the
Office of Maintenance, the Maryland State Police, the Maryland Transportation Authority, the
Federal Highway Administration, the University of Maryland Center for Advanced
Transportation Technology, and various local governments
Washington State DOT (WSDOT) has formalized interactions among units and managers
involved in its SO&M program. TMC managers from around the state meet every 6 weeks to
coordinate with regional Incident Response Program managers, who in turn meet quarterly for
operations coordination with the state patrol. TMC managers and incident response managers
coordinate activities and issues by meeting with the statewide traffic engineers group and the
maintenance engineers group
The Oregon Transportation Commission moved some capacity funding to the operations
program to create an Operations Innovation Program that awards funding to projects selected on
a competitive basis for their potential to demonstrate innovative operations concepts related to
congestion mitigation and freight mobility
Virginia DOT has reorganized its senior management to include a deputy director for
operations and maintenance responsible for all SO&M activities, as well as maintenance
resources
WSDOT has made a strong and transparent commitment to performance measurement as
evidenced by the quarterly Gray Notebook, which tracks performance based on five WSDOT
legislative goals, including mobility/congestion, and includes regular updates on progress in the
application of operations strategies such as incident management and HOT lanes
Source
Reference [
4
], p 14, Table ES.7
15.7.2 Regional Cooperation in Managing Nonrecurring
Events
Examples of regional operational collaboration are given in Table
15.3
.
