Example Strategies for Building Stronger State Traffic Incident Management Programs National Traffic Incident

Management Coalition

NatioNal UNified Goal (NUG) for traffic iNcideNt MaNaGeMeNt

t raffic Incident Management (TIM) is a key strategy for improving the efficiency and reliability of highway operations. As concerns about traffic congestion have increased, a call for increased institutional support for

highway operations functions, including TIM, has arisen.

One of the major objectives of the National Traffic Incident Management Coali-tion (NTIMC) is to encourage the formation of strong and stable TIM programs and partnerships. But what, exactly, is a TIM program? TIM is a catch-all phrase. Examples of the broad scope of programs and program elements that may fall under the general rubric of “TIM” include development of unified policies, pro-cedures, operations and / or communication systems among TIM responders; the application of Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) technologies to traffic incidents; freeway service patrols; interdisciplinary training in traffic control, uni-fied command and NIMS; improved towing industry procedures and practices, and traveler information.

NTIMC promotes effective and sustainable TIM programs, as distinct from TIM activities that, while beneficial, are vulnerable to administrative personnel changes and annual budgetary fluctuations. Stable and effective public programs require legislative or administrative authorization; strategic missions and goals; written operational policies; and formal organizational structure, including trained and dedicated staff, assigned responsibilities, defined reporting channels, and steady dedicated funding. Most highway operations and TIM programs at the State and regional levels have some of these institutional support elements in place, but none seem to have them all.

Incident Management Plans and Policies

Many state DOTs are starting to recog-nize the need for strategic planning, as well as operational plans and policies, to improve management of traffic inci-dents. Formal strategic plans and writ-ten operational policies are the foun-dation of sustainable TIM programs. Some notable models are described below.

Statewide Clearance Policies and Performance Goals: While perfor-mance measurement is relatively new to transportation operations profes-sionals, other TIM responders (fire, EMS, law enforcement) long have been publicly accountable for their response times. Within DOTs, there is increased consciousness of performance mea-surement, and many DOTs are begin-ning to measure and classify incidents, focusing on quick clearance of major incidents. Currently, the most frequent-ly used performance metric for TIM programs is incident clearance time—either average, or maximum. California, Washington State, and Florida have statewide 90-minute incident clearance goals. Utah’s state performance goals are based on incident severity: 30 min-utes for fender-benders; 60 minutes for injury crashes; 90 minutes for fatalities. Effective performance measurement will require additional supporting re-sources that are not currently available in many States and localities, including capability for continuous collection and analysis of supporting data. Few State Highway Patrols are currently involved in performance measurement related

Continued on next page

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to traffic incidents, and data definition issues are significant.

n Florida's Open Roads Policy com-mits Florida DOT (FDOT) and the Florida Highway Patrol to clearing all incidents within 90 minutes of arrival of the first responding officer.

n Washington DOT (WSDOT) and the Washington State Patrol (WSP) are jointly accountable to the Governor for a 90-minute maximum clearance time performance goal, which is reportable quarterly. Incidents with durations of greater than 90 min-utes are examined carefully to iden-tify opportunities for improvement.

n The California Department of Trans-portation (Caltrans) and the Cali-fornia Highway Patrol (CHP) have agreed to a goal of 90 a minute clearance time. (CHP endorses this policy but it is not a performance measure for CHP field commanders.)

Statewide TIM Strategic Plans: Where they exist, statewide traffic in-cident management plans vary in ap-proach and focus. Kentucky and Ten-nessee have strategic statewide TIM plans, where strategies and an action plan have been developed based on strategic goals and objectives.

n In 2005, the Kentucky Transporta-tion Cabinet (Kentucky's DOT) developed a State Strategic Plan for Highway Incident Management that includes: mission, goals, objectives, and a timeline for implementation of 49 prioritized action strategies. The plan was developed with in-put from the FHWA, State Police, emergency management, and local agencies.

n In 2003, Tennessee developed a

Strategic Plan for Highway Incident Management that represents a co-ordinated effort among TDOT, the Tennessee Dept. of Safety, Tennes-see Dept. of Commerce and Insur-ance, the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency, and other public and private organizations with responsibilities for highway incident management. A four-de-partment resolution adopted the plan, which looks beyond the major cities. The statewide effort includes four regions that each have an In-cident Management Coordinator, statewide service patrol reports, and incident reports.

Statewide Best Practices Guide-lines: Best Practices Guidelines are a good approach to building more stan-dardized practices across disciplines and jurisdictions, while still operating on a voluntary basis.

n Ohio's Quick-Clear Best Practices Guide provides guidance on reduc-ing incident duration, reducing secondary crashes, increasing re-sponder safety, and traffic control at incident sites. The Guide was de-veloped in 2003 by a working group including AAA Ohio, Buckeye State Sheriff’s Assoc., Ohio Association of Chiefs of Police, Ohio Dept. of Public Safety, ODOT, Ohio EPA, Ohio Fire Chief’s Assoc., Ohio Fire Marshall’s Office, Ohio Trucking Assoc., and the Towing & Recovery Assoc. of Ohio.

Regional TIM Operational Plans and Guidelines: Several States have developed regional- or corridor-level TIM programs, where partners jointly developed recommended operational guidelines or response procedures. In some cases these regional plans later form the basis for statewide plans.

Typically, DOT efforts to improve highway operations and TIM are not organized as a distinct program or department, but instead consist of activities undertaken by a variety of DOT departments or programs— principally maintenance, traffic engineering, and ITS. Frequently, personnel assigned to TIM duties have other full-time responsibilities in maintenance, traffic engineering, Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) or emergency management.

TIM programs and activities nev-ertheless are rapidly emerging and evolving. Many observers predict that eventually traffic incident management will become a pro-fessional sub-specialty within the transportation profession, practiced by full-time personnel who have clear responsibilities and account-ability through reporting and per-formance measurement for stable and funded TIM programs. It is relevant to recall that 75 years ago, the maintenance engineering and traffic engineering sub-specialties had not yet emerged.

As always, there will be no “one size fits all” solution to development of Traffic Incident Management programs and the TIM professional sub-specialty. Each multi-State Re-gion, State, metropolitan or rural re-gion, or locality will build their TIM program to address their unique needs. This paper is intended to provide some “building blocks” for strong TIM programs. While no State or region currently has all of the desired elements of a fully ma-ture TIM program in place, several have developed program elements that can be useful elsewhere.

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n Colorado's nine corridor-level TIM programs follow the TMC Traffic Incident Response Procedures op-erational manual. Each corridor-level program was developed by a working group that included local and State traffic engineers, main-tenance, law enforcement, fire, EMS and towing.

n The Twin Cities Metro Incident Management Steering Commit-tee's (IMSC's) Incident Manage-ment Recommended Operations Guidelines define the roles and re-sponsibilities of different agencies at incident scenes, and provide guidelines for incident response and clearance. This regional plan is the model for a Minnesota state-wide plan under development.

Statewide Traffic Incident Management Planning and Preparedness within the All-Hazards Emer-gency Planning Context: The “All Hazards” emergency planning concept calls for scalable policies and pro-cedures, based on Unified Command principles, which can be used for all types and sizes of emergency inci-dents, from routine to disas-ter-scale. The Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS’s) National Incident Manage-ment System (NIMS) calls for the “All-Hazards” plan-ning approach. Some States have fully developed emer-gency transportation op-erations plans within the All Hazards context. NIMS re-quirements are only begin-ning to be reflected in State DOT plans because the requirements and related funding flow through State

law enforcement and State and local emergency management agencies.

n Oregon DOT's Emergency Opera-tions Plan is a multi-modal, all-haz-ards plan that is scalable from traf-fic incident management to disaster transportation management, and includes a business continuity plan. The transportation annex to the State's Emergency Operations Plan, it is based on FEMA's Guide for All-Hazard Emergency Operations Plan-ning: State and Local Guide (State and Local Guide 101). The plan in-cludes all statutes and authorities, copies of all emergency response agreements, and information on hazards in the transportation system.

n Idaho DOT officials literally have

a briefcase of emergency plans, including an incident manage-ment plan, hazmat plan, national response plan, Idaho emergency operations plans, business resump-tion plans, internal policies and procedures, emergency response manual, and an employee phone list. The package also is on the In-ternet (with secure access).

Interagency and Inter-disciplinary Relationships

Strong working partnerships among all responding disciplines and agen-cies is a basic underlying principle of effective traffic incident management programs. NTIMC encourages part-nerships that are formalized through written operational agreements, joint, written operational policies and proce-dures, and joint training exercises. Ide-ally, the partnerships include all TIM partners—which, at a minimum, would include transportation, law enforce-ment, fire, emergency medical services (EMS), and towing and recovery. Ad-ditional partners that ideally would be involved include the trucking industry, traffic control industry, insurance in-dustry, and emergency management agencies.

Many State DOT’s work closely with law enforcement, and often, but not always, there is a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) in place be-tween the DOT and SHP defining pro-cedures and responsibilities for traffic incident management. Co-location is increasingly common. In a few cases, emergency dispatch has been inte-grated through integration of the DOT Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) with the law enforcement Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD). Even where MOUs are in place, there is wide variation in the level of formal interac-

4

tions, such as formal debriefings after major incidents.

Much less common are TIM partner-ships that include fire, emergency medical services (EMS), or towing. The typical distant relationship between State DOTs and the fire/EMS com-munities is based on institutional fac-tors, and tradition. First, fire and EMS are largely local functions, whereas law enforcement has a State-level agency that corresponds to the state DOT. Secondly, the first responder and emergency management communities traditionally have considered transpor-tation to be a secondary responder, and a provider of logistical resources. Consequently transportation often is not included in emergency planning and preparedness activities. NIMS requirements are beginning to open doors for transportation agencies. For example, many State DOTs have been involved in NIMs-required Incident Command System (ICS) training for first responders, and some State DOTs also have been involved in hazard-specific training (earthquake, tsunami, bioterrorism). Those exercises have proven especially valuable for the face-to-face contacts made. The tow-ing industry, as a private-sector TIM partner, wages an across-the-board struggle for recognition. For example, the towing industry has pointed out that the MOUs between DOTs and SHPs typically require DOTs to provide

training to all responders who respond on Interstate high-ways, yet towers are not routinely trained.

Examples where State DOTs are building more

inclusive interagency and interdisci-plinary partnerships are:

n Arizona's Statewide Incident Man-agement Plan was developed in 2000 with input obtained from legislative, transportation, law en-forcement, fire, medical, towing industry, and other stakeholders in eight regional workshops. The plan includes statewide alternate route plans and Traffic Operations Center (TOC) Incident Management Op-erations guidelines. In implement-ing the plan, ADOT has developed traffic control agreements with the towing industry.

n Minnesota DOT's Responder Safety Committee assists with devel-opment of statewide TIM policy and TIM training classes that include all responders. Members include MnDOT, the State Patrol, the State Fire Marshall's Office, law enforce-ment, EMS, fire service and towing companies.

n Oregon DOT has a local outreach program, focusing on responder safety, that offers TIM training to local fire and law enforcement

responders.

n The Ohio Lane Closure Protocol Committee is a working group comprised of AAA Ohio, Buckeye State Sheriff's Assoc., Ohio Associ-

ation of Chiefs of Police, Ohio Dept. of Public Safety, ODOT, Ohio EPA, Ohio Fire Chief's Assoc., Ohio Fire Marshall's Office, Ohio Trucking Assoc., and the Towing & Recovery Assoc. of Ohio. They developed the Quick-Clear Guide.

n The Traffic Incident Management Enhancement (TIME) Program in Wisconsin developed and entered into a multi-agency, multi-discipline partnering agreement early in the implementation of the program. The Program Steering Committee is co-chaired by the Department of Transportation and Department of State Patrol.

Organizational Structure

Organizational structures for TIM programs vary widely.

n Arizona's TIM program includes co-ordination between ADOT and the Department of Public Safety, but there is no formal traffic incident management committee.

n Colorado's nine TIM corridors were developed by working groups that include local and state engineers, maintenance, law enforcement, fire, EMS, and towing. Statewide or regional working groups are under consideration.

n Connecticut's Statewide Incident Management Task Force includes fire and regional planning repre-sentatives. A subcommittee of this Task Force, together with the Department of Emergency Manage-ment & Homeland Security, is devel-oping a Unified Command System (UCS)-NIMS program manual.

n Florida's TIM Executive Panel is

5

comprised of DOT, FHP, and the De-partment of Environmental Protec-tion. A formal process for this panel is being developed; it has operated informally for many years. The statewide TIM team is made up of members of local TIM teams. Local TIM teams implement programs.

n Maryland's Coordinated Highways Action Response Team (CHART) Board includes representatives from the Maryland State Highway Administration (SHA), the Maryland Transportation Authority, the Mary-land State Police, the University of Maryland, and local government. The Chair is the chief engineer of the SHA.

n The Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) Office of Incident Management coordinates traffic incident management, with direction from the Highway Incident Management Policy Committee, which includes representatives from the State's agencies for transporta-tion, safety, commerce and insur-ance, and emergency management.

n The Wisconsin Department of Trans-portation leads the TIME Program in southeastern Wisconsin. The high-level organizational structure for the TIME Program includes a Steering Committee (policy and direction), Freeway Incident Management (technical) Team, and several sub-regional committees and task forces.

TIM Programs

There are very few formal statewide or regional traffic incident management programs, and those that exist are generally limited to a few very specific tactical and operational applications. Freeway Service Patrols are by far the

most common type of incident man-agement activity or program conducted by State DOTs. The most common mod-el is a State-operated service patrol, with the missions of helping motorists with minor vehicle problems, such as tire changes or gasoline, as well as pro-viding traffic control at traffic incident scenes. Private sector freeway service patrol models also are emerging.

Ideally, DOT Traffic Management Center (TMC) assets are operationally coor-dinated with incident communications and management, so that changeable message signs, traffic signals, video cameras, and other technology can be used to assist with incident notification, scene traffic control and with motorist information and diversion.

n Maryland's CHART program is one of the more comprehensive state-wide traffic incident management programs. Maryland's Statewide Operations Center (SOC) provides 24/7 statewide command & control. Satellite Traffic Operations Centers handle peak-period traffic. The CHART freeway service patrol re-duced average incident duration by 23 percent in 2005. CHART assisted in 20,515 lane blockage incidents where average incident dura-tion in 2005 was approximately 22 minutes, compared to 29 minutes for similar incidents responded to by other agencies. Using a traffic simulation program, analysts de-termined that MDOT TIM program reduced travel delay on major Maryland corridors by 38 million vehicle-hours in 2005.

n Florida DOT (FDOT) provides Road Rangers service patrol on all In-terstates. In 2005, the overall ben-efit/cost ratio for the Florida Road Ranger program was 26:1. FDOT's

photogrammetry program helps the Florida Highway Patrol automate crash investigation. The Florida Turnpike provides a combination of financial incentives for quick clear-ance, and pricing disincentives for slow performance, to improve tower performance and reduce clearance times. On a 320-mile-long turnpike in Florida where this approach

is in place, average clearance time to achieve all lanes open is 56 minutes.

n The City of Houston's SAFEclear program, implemented in 2005, is a private sector freeway service patrol model. Qualified towing companies contract with the City to be respon-sible for responding within an

average of 6 minutes to incidents on a designated section of the state-owned freeways in the Houston metro area. In order to meet the required response times, the tow companies continually patrol the freeways. The towing companies are charged with rap-idly removing disabled or crashed vehicles from the highway lanes or the shoulders to a location off the freeway. The private sector ar-rangement dramatically enhances the previous Motorists Assistance Program (MAP) coordinated by the Transtar Transportation Manage-ment Center. Where MAP used 9 trucks to provide services, the private sector fields about 60 tow trucks to patrol the 190 miles of freeway in Houston.

n San Antonio's TransGuide ITS sys-tem combines a communications network, CCTV, and loop detectors to improve incident detection. In the first year of deployment, Trans-Guide reduced incident response times by 20 percent.

6

n In Wisconsin, efforts are currently underway to establish templates, standards, and consistency for statewide alternate route plans, freeway service patrols, crash re-construction tools, on-scene traffic control guidelines, evacuation plan-ning, education/training, and several other TIM-related tools and tactics. This is being accomplished in-part by leveraging the successes from the individual regions in the State.

Chain of Command and Reporting Channels

Strong and stable public programs re-quire accountability. Personnel must be responsible for reporting performance results up a chain of command. Except where reporting of performance mea-sures is required, DOTs generally do not have established chains of command and reporting channels for traffic inci-dent management functions. Whereas law enforcement and fire agencies have centralized command and control, DOTs typically are decentralized. As a result, chain of command and report-ing requirements for traffic incident management functions vary widely. As previously noted, most States do not have separate traffic incident manage-ment programs. Instead, traffic incident management functions are conducted by DOT personnel who are housed in main-tenance, traffic, and ITS sections. Typi-cally, field operations are conducted by maintenance personnel as a secondary function, and the ITS and traffic control personnel handle communications func-tions at the TMCs. Further, most States treat transportation emergency and di-saster management as a different activity from major traffic incident management in organizational and reporting terms, although within the DOT these activities are most often carried out by the same people at the field operational level.

The NIMS planning framework pro-vides an opportunity to identify a for-mal DOT chain of incident command, and reporting requirements.

Budget

In order to build stronger traffic in-cident management programs, TIM responder agencies need dedicated resources. Gaining resources within DOTs is especially difficult for traffic incident management, because inci-dent management functions generally are secondary personnel duties, and spread across so many departments within a DOT. It can be very difficult to isolate how much money currently is being spent on traffic incident man-agement personnel and equipment, agency-wide, which impedes the ability to make a solid argument for spending more.

Freeway service patrols are again the exception. Dedicated vehicles and staff may be line-item budget items, and States may track the number and du-ration of incidents that their personnel respond to.

While ITS is an important element of effective traffic incident management, the ITS budget typically is not integrat-ed with traffic incident management budgets. Many States have developed Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) plans in order to qualify for federal ITS funds. These plans generally list equipment that the DOT hopes to acquire during various time frames should funds become available. How-ever, these plans generally are not put within a strategic functional framework and are not consolidated as programs with separate line item budgets and business plans, so program status is difficult to track.

Summary

This paper has introduced the building blocks of the institutional framework for traffic incident management pro-grams—Plans and Policies; Interagency and Interdisciplinary Relationships; Organizational Structure, Formalized TIM Programs; Chain of Command and Reporting Channels; and Budget. We have highlighted some examples of strategies various States are us-ing. The table on the following pages presents additional information on current state DOT practices. While these organizational elements are very important to building stronger, more stable TIM Programs, in the end a culture change is required. Only when all of the responder disciplines train their professionals, from the outset, to operate in a multidisciplinary context; to follow coordinated procedures; and to address common goals for safe, quick clearance of roadway incidents will TIM programs become completely embedded in the fabric of public safety and transportation operations.

technical contributors & reviewers

Steve cyraHNTB / Institute of Transportation

Engineers

david HelmanFederal Highway Administration

Pat NoyesPat Noyes and Associates

Paul SullivanFederal Highway Administration

editorKaren HaasManifest Inc.

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exec

uted

by

the

DO

T an

d th

e H

ighw

ay P

atro

l as

a fo

rmal

doc

umen

t.

FDO

T pr

ovid

es

Road

Ran

gers

se

rvic

e pa

trol

on

all

Inte

r-st

ates

and

on

I-75

from

St.

Pete

rsbu

rg to

N

aple

s.

FDO

T ph

oto-

gram

met

ry

prog

ram

hel

ps

FHP

auto

mat

e cr

ash

inve

sti-

gatio

n. (

RIS

C)

prog

ram

on

the

Flor

ida

Turn

pike

pa

ys to

wer

s in

cent

ive

for q

uick

cl

eara

nce.

Idah

o D

OT

offic

ials

lite

r-al

ly h

ave

a br

iefc

ase

of

emer

genc

y pl

ans,

incl

udin

g an

inci

dent

man

agem

ent

plan

, haz

mat

pla

n, n

atio

nal

resp

onse

pla

n, Id

aho

emer

-ge

ncy

oper

atio

ns p

lans

, bu

sine

ss r

esum

ptio

n pl

ans,

in

tern

al p

olic

ies

& p

ro-

cedu

res,

ER

man

ual,

and

empl

oyee

pho

ne li

st. A

lso

on In

tran

et.

Stat

e “M

ove

It’ la

w.

Emer

genc

y tr

ansp

orta

-tio

n pl

an is

ann

ex to

st

ate

emer

genc

y pl

an,

and

adop

ted

thro

ugh

the

Gov

erno

rs’ e

xecu

-tiv

e pl

an. C

ount

ies

can

refle

ct it

in th

eir

pro-

gram

s an

d pl

ans.

Co-

loca

ted

disp

atch

ing

w/

stat

e po

lice

in s

ome

loca

tions

.

Boi

se a

rea

free

way

ser

-vi

ce p

atro

l.

Mai

nten

ance

Se

ctio

n st

affs

in

cide

nt r

e-sp

onse

, and

ar

e tr

aine

d in

inci

dent

re

spon

se.

idah

o

Exec

utiv

e Pa

nel c

ompr

ised

of

DO

T, F

HP,

Dep

t. of

En

viro

nmen

tal P

rote

ctio

n.

A fo

rmal

pro

cess

for

this

pa

nel i

s be

ing

deve

lope

d (h

as b

een

info

rmal

for

man

y ye

ars)

.

Stat

ewid

e TI

M te

am is

mad

e up

of m

embe

rs o

f loc

al T

IM

team

s.

Loca

l TIM

team

s im

plem

ent

prog

ram

s, e

.g. t

he R

apid

In

cide

nt S

cene

Cle

aran

ce

(RIS

C)

prog

ram

on

the

Flor

ida

Turn

pike

.

Mai

nten

ance

Se

ctio

n ha

s au

thor

ity to

co

ordi

nate

an

d m

an-

age

inci

dent

re

spon

se

thro

ugho

ut

the

depa

rt-

men

t.

Stat

e le

gisl

a-tu

re m

anda

tes

stra

tegi

c pl

anni

ng

& p

erf.

mea

sure

s.

Cur

rent

ly w

orki

ng

on d

evel

opm

ent

of n

ew p

erf.

mea

sure

men

ts

for

hwy

syst

em

oper

atio

ns.

9

iM P

lans

&

Pol

icie

sin

tera

genc

y r

elat

ions

hips

org

aniz

atio

nal

Str

uctu

reti

M

Pro

gram

sS

taffi

ng &

tr

aini

ngP

erfo

rman

ce

Goa

lsr

epor

ting

c

hann

els

2005

Sta

te S

trat

egic

Pl

an fo

r H

ighw

ay

Inci

dent

Man

agem

ent:

mis

sion

, goa

ls,

obje

ctiv

es &

49

actio

n st

rate

gies

(pr

iorit

ized

w/

impl

emen

tatio

n tim

elin

e).

Plan

dev

elop

ed fo

r Ke

ntuc

ky T

rans

port

atio

n C

abin

et w

/ in

put

from

Sta

te P

olic

e,

Kent

ucky

Em

erge

ncy

Man

agem

ent,

FHW

A

& L

exin

gton

-Fay

ette

U

rban

Cou

nty

Gov

’t..

Ken

tuck

y

Mar

ylan

dSt

atew

ide

Ope

ratio

ns

Cen

ter

(SO

C)

prov

ides

24

X 7

sta

tew

ide

com

man

d &

con

trol

. Sa

telli

te T

OC

s ha

ndle

pea

k-pe

riod

traf

fic.

Reg

iona

l TIM

pla

ns

have

bee

n de

velo

ped

by

loca

l offi

ces

or lo

cal l

aw

enfo

rcem

ent.

“Ste

er It

Cle

ar”

(Mov

e O

ver)

legi

slat

ion

is b

eing

pr

omot

ed s

tate

wid

e.

Det

roit’

s TI

M w

orki

ng

grou

p is

mul

ti-di

scip

linar

y. G

rand

R

apid

s is

mor

e tr

ansp

orta

tion-

orie

nted

.

Gra

nd R

apid

s an

d D

etro

it m

etro

are

as h

ave

wor

king

gr

oups

on

TIM

.

Cou

rtes

y Va

n Fr

eew

ay

Serv

ice

Patr

ol.

(30

units

)

Mic

higa

n

CH

AR

T B

oard

incl

udes

re

ps fr

om M

d SH

A, M

d.

Tran

spor

tatio

n A

uth.

, MD

St

ate

Polic

e, F

HW

A, U

niv.

of

MD

and

loca

l gov

’t. C

hair

is

chie

f eng

inee

r of

SH

A.

illin

ois

Gar

y-C

hica

go-M

ilwau

kee

Inte

llige

nt T

rans

port

atio

n Sy

stem

(IT

S) P

riorit

y C

orrid

or

3 st

ate

DO

Ts, 1

6 co

untie

s,

num

erou

s lo

cal a

genc

ies

& FW

HA

Wor

k gr

oup

focu

ses

on tr

affic

inci

dent

m

anag

emen

t.

Publ

ic in

fo w

eb

site

incl

udes

re

al-t

ime

info

on

trav

el ti

mes

, co

nges

tion,

ro

ad c

losu

res,

an

d tr

affic

vi

deo

links

.

10

iM P

lans

&

Pol

icie

sin

tera

genc

y r

elat

ions

hips

org

aniz

atio

nal

Str

uctu

reti

M

Pro

gram

sS

taffi

ng &

tr

aini

ngP

erfo

rman

ce

Goa

lsr

epor

ting

c

hann

els

Hig

hway

Inci

dent

Man

-ag

emen

t and

Em

erge

ncy

Traf

fic C

ontr

ol E

quip

men

t G

uide

lines

out

lines

gen

-er

al tr

affic

con

trol

req

uire

-m

ents

for

high

way

inci

-de

nts.

(M

nDO

T do

cum

ent)

Dev

elop

ed b

y Tw

in

Citi

es M

etro

IMC

T:

Inci

dent

Man

agem

ent

Rec

omm

ende

d O

pera

tions

G

uide

lines

defi

nes

the

role

s an

d re

spon

sibi

litie

s of

diff

eren

t age

ncie

s at

inci

dent

sce

nes,

and

pr

ovid

es g

uide

lines

for

inci

dent

res

pons

e an

d cl

eara

nce.

Stat

ewid

e po

licy

on

TIM

und

er d

evel

opm

ent,

base

d on

Tw

in C

ities

M

etro

Rec

omm

ende

d O

pera

tions

Gui

delin

es.

Twin

Citi

es IM

SC h

as

deve

lope

d le

gisl

ativ

e pr

opos

als

for

Qui

ck

Cle

aran

ce le

gisl

atio

n an

d pr

opos

al to

allo

w F

reew

ay

Serv

ice

Patr

ol to

tow

ab

ando

ned

vehi

cles

.

MnD

OT

Stat

e Tr

affic

En

gine

er, M

N S

tate

Fire

M

arsh

all,

& M

N S

tate

Pa

trol

hav

e si

gned

off

on E

mer

genc

y Tr

affic

C

ontr

ol E

quip

men

t G

uide

lines

.

Res

pond

er S

afet

y C

omm

ittee

incl

udes

re

ps fr

om M

n/D

OT,

St

ate

Patr

ol, S

tate

Fire

M

arsh

all’s

Offi

ce, l

aw

enfo

rcem

ent,

EMS,

fir

e se

rvic

e &

tow

ing

com

pani

es s

erve

on

Res

pond

er S

afet

y C

omm

ittee

.

Twin

Citi

es IM

SC

polic

y bo

dy in

clud

es

MnD

OT

Traf

fic

Ope

ratio

ns, M

nDO

T M

etro

Mai

nten

ance

, an

d M

SP. T

he w

orki

ng

grou

p (I

MC

T) in

clud

es

MnD

OT

Mai

nten

ance

, Fr

eew

ay S

ervi

ce P

atro

l D

river

s, S

tate

Pat

rol,

Fire

, EM

S, a

nd p

rivat

e to

win

g co

mpa

nies

.

Res

pond

er S

afet

y C

omm

ittee

as

sist

s w

/ de

velo

pmen

t of

stat

ewid

e TI

M p

olic

y an

d tr

aini

ng c

lass

.

Two

inci

dent

man

agem

ent

com

mitt

ees

in T

win

Citi

es

Met

ro A

rea:

Inci

dent

M

anag

emen

t Ste

erin

g C

omm

ittee

(IM

SC)

and

Inci

dent

Man

agem

ent

Coo

rdin

atio

n Te

am, (

IMC

T)

a w

orki

ng g

roup

. Prim

ary

purp

ose

of IM

CT

is to

de

brie

f maj

or in

cide

nt

and

deve

lop

new

idea

s to

impr

ove

inci

dent

m

anag

emen

t. IM

CT

deve

lope

d gu

idel

ines

do

cum

ent.

MnD

OT

inci

dent

m

anag

emen

t tr

aini

ng

cour

se fo

r al

l em

erge

ncy

resp

onde

rs.

Min

neso

ta

ohi

o20

03 O

hio

Qui

ck-C

lear

B

est P

ract

ices

Gui

de

prov

ides

gui

danc

e on

re

duci

ng in

cide

nt d

urat

ion,

re

duci

ng s

econ

dary

cr

ashe

s an

d in

crea

sing

re

spon

der

safe

ty, a

nd

traf

fic c

ontr

ol a

t inc

iden

t sc

enes

.

Cur

rent

TIM

pr

ogra

m

focu

ses

on

Twin

Citi

es

Met

ro A

rea.

Incl

udes

Fr

eew

ay

Serv

ice

Patr

ol.

Ohi

o La

ne C

losu

re P

roto

col

Com

mitt

ee is

a w

orki

ng

grou

p co

mpr

ised

of A

AA

O

hio,

Buc

keye

Sta

te S

herif

f’s

Ass

oc.,

Ohi

o A

ssoc

iatio

n of

C

hief

s of

Pol

ice,

Ohi

o D

ept.

of P

ublic

Saf

ety,

OD

OT,

O

hio

EPA

, Ohi

o Fi

re C

hief

’s

Ass

oc.,

Ohi

o Fi

re M

arsh

all’s

O

ffice

, Ohi

o Tr

ucki

ng A

ssoc

., an

d th

e To

win

g &

Rec

over

y A

ssoc

. of O

hio.

The

y de

velo

ped

the

Qui

ck-C

lear

gu

ide.

11

iM P

lans

&

Pol

icie

sin

tera

genc

y r

elat

ions

hips

org

aniz

atio

nal

Str

uctu

reti

M

Pro

gram

sS

taffi

ng &

tr

aini

ngP

erfo

rman

ce

Goa

lsr

epor

ting

c

hann

els

Emer

genc

y O

pera

tions

Pl

an is

mul

ti-m

odal

, all

haza

rds,

and

incl

udes

a

busi

ness

con

tinui

ty p

lan.

It

is b

ased

on

FEM

A’s

Gui

de

for

All-

Haz

ard

Emer

genc

y O

pera

tions

Pla

nnin

g: S

tate

an

d Lo

cal G

uide

( S

tate

an

d Lo

cal G

uide

101

)

This

is a

con

trol

led

dist

ribut

ion

docu

men

t. In

clud

es a

ll st

atut

es a

nd

auth

oriti

es, c

opie

s of

all

Emer

genc

y R

espo

nse

agre

emen

ts, a

nd in

fo

on h

azar

ds o

n th

e tr

ansp

orta

tion

syst

em.

Part

ners

hip

with

st

ate

patr

ol, i

nclu

ding

TM

C c

o-lo

catio

n an

d in

tegr

ated

dis

patc

h.

Out

reac

h pr

ogra

m fo

r de

velo

ping

trai

ning

for

emer

genc

y re

spon

se

part

ners

, foc

usin

g on

re

spon

der

safe

ty.

OD

OT

com

mitt

ee w

rote

Em

erge

ncy

Ope

ratio

ns P

lan,

w

hich

was

pro

mul

gate

d by

th

e D

irect

or.

Shor

tage

of

stat

e pa

trol

.10

00 h

ighw

ay

mai

nten

ance

D

OT

empl

oy-

ees

all c

on-

side

red

first

re

spon

ders

.

Als

o ha

ve

corr

idor

m

anag

emen

t te

ams

devo

ted

to in

cide

nt

resp

onse

. 24

X7

in

oper

atio

ns

cent

er s

ince

19

96.

ore

gon

tenn

esse

e20

03 S

trat

egic

Pla

n fo

r H

ighw

ay In

cide

nt

Man

agem

ent

Plan

ado

pted

by

TDO

T,

Tenn

. Dep

t. of

Saf

ety,

Te

nn. E

mer

genc

y M

anag

emen

t Age

ncy,

&

oth

er p

ublic

& p

rivat

e se

ctor

org

s.

4 re

gion

s ea

. H

ave

Inci

dent

M

anag

emen

t C

oord

inat

or.

Reg

ions

re

spon

sibl

e fo

r re

port

ing

inci

dent

s an

d on

sta

tew

ide

serv

ice

patr

ol

activ

ity.

Ope

ratio

ns M

anua

l upd

ate

com

plet

ed O

ctob

er 2

005.

Part

ners

with

Uta

h H

ighw

ay P

atro

l. T

OC

co

-loc

atio

n w

ith p

atro

l di

spat

cher

s.

Day

to d

ay o

vers

ight

by

Reg

ion

Traf

fic E

ngin

eer.

Pr

ogra

mm

atic

ove

rsig

ht

by T

raffi

c M

anag

emen

t D

ivis

ion

12 fr

eew

ay

serv

ice

patr

ol

vehi

cles

, in

Salt

Lake

m

etro

are

a.

Dis

patc

hed

by S

tate

Hig

h-w

ay P

atro

l di

spat

cher

s.

12 fu

lltim

e in

cide

nt

resp

onde

rs.

Day

time

hour

s pl

us

avai

labl

e on

cal

l ov

erni

ght.

Uta

h

TDO

T O

ffice

of I

ncid

ent

Man

agem

ent c

oord

inat

es,

w/

dire

ctio

n fr

om H

ighw

ay

Inci

dent

Man

agem

ent

Polic

y C

omm

ittee

. In

clud

es S

tate

Dep

ts. o

f Tr

ansp

orta

tion,

Saf

ety,

C

omm

erce

& In

sura

nce,

&

the

Emer

genc

y M

anag

emen

t Age

ncy.

30, 6

0, 9

0 cl

eara

nce

time

base

d on

se

verit

y: fe

nder

be

nder

, inj

ury,

fa

talit

y.

Cle

aran

ce

times

are

re

port

ed a

s a

perf

orm

ance

m

easu

re fo

r “M

ake

the

Syst

em W

ork

Bet

ter,”

one

of

the

“Fin

al F

our”

U

DO

T St

rate

gic

Goa

ls.

Stat

ewid

e TO

C

in P

ortla

nd

and

3 ot

hers

in

tegr

ate

w/

Stat

e Pa

trol

C

AD

sys

tem

.

Ore

gon

Emer

-ge

ncy

Resp

onse

C

ounc

il ke

eps

stat

istic

s on

th

e nu

mbe

r of

em

erge

ncy

inci

-de

nts

and

who

w

as in

volv

ed.

Law

enf

orce

-m

ent C

AD

sys

-te

m c

aptu

res

data

on

traf

fic

inci

dent

s. D

OT

Mai

nten

ance

te

am u

ses

data

to

trac

k le

vel o

f se

rvic

e.

Non

e

iM P

lans

&

Pol

icie

sin

tera

genc

y r

elat

ions

hips

org

aniz

atio

nal

Str

uctu

reti

M

Pro

gram

sS

taffi

ng &

tr

aini

ngP

erfo

rman

ce

Goa

lsr

epor

ting

c

hann

els

Join

t (W

SDO

T/W

SP)

Stra

tegi

c Pl

an fo

r Tr

affic

In

cide

nt M

anag

emen

t ap

prov

ed in

200

6.

WSD

OT/

WSP

Joi

nt

Ope

ratio

ns P

olic

y St

atem

ent (

JOPS

) de

velo

ped

in 2

002,

up

date

d an

nual

ly.

Mor

e ag

gres

sive

pol

icy

to in

crea

se e

stab

lishm

ent

of to

w-a

way

zon

es to

re

duce

cap

acity

loss

and

co

llisi

ons

resu

lting

from

ab

ando

ned

vehi

cles

.

2006

JO

PS a

gree

men

t co

vers

traf

fic in

cide

nt

man

agem

ent

& o

ther

is

sues

of m

utua

l in

tere

st. T

IM T

rain

ing

prov

ides

out

reac

h to

fir

e &

EM

S.

Wor

king

with

Cor

oner

s/M

edic

al E

xam

iner

s to

de

velo

p ag

reem

ents

for

expe

ditin

g re

mov

al o

f de

ceas

ed.

Wor

ked

with

tow

in

dust

ry to

pilo

t tes

t “i

nsta

nt d

ispa

tch”

to

bloc

king

inci

dent

s in

Se

attle

.

Fund

ing

prop

osal

de

velo

ped

to im

plem

ent

a To

w In

cent

ive

Prog

ram

to e

xped

ite

clea

ranc

e of

hea

vy

truc

k in

cide

nts.

Hea

dqua

rter

s IM

pro

gram

m

anag

er p

rovi

des

func

tiona

l an

d ad

min

istr

ativ

e su

ppor

t an

d ov

ersi

ght.

Fiel

d op

erat

ions

are

m

anag

ed b

y R

egio

nal

Offi

ces

in p

artn

ersh

ip w

ith

loca

l res

pond

ing

agen

cies

.

Full-

and

pa

rt-t

ime

WSD

OT

IM

staf

f per

form

ro

ving

se

rvic

e pa

trol

s an

d m

ajor

in

cide

nt

resp

onse

. C

ontr

act

with

Sta

te

patr

ol fo

r 3

serv

ice

patr

ol

cade

ts.

Con

trac

t w

ith t

ow

vend

or fo

r ro

ving

tow

se

rvic

e pa

trol

s.

Con

trac

t w

ith lo

cal

radi

o st

atio

n fo

r “

Free

way

H

ero”

mob

ile

assi

stan

ce

van.

Was

hing

ton

IM p

rogr

am

conc

entr

ated

in

Pug

et

Soun

d/In

ters

tate

5

Cor

ridor

w

ith s

atel

lite

prog

ram

s on

mou

ntai

n pa

sses

, in

Spok

ane

and

Vanc

ouve

r.

55 IM

ve

hicl

es.

Res

pond

ed

to 5

8,00

0 in

cide

nts

in

2005

, 930

se

rious

.

90-m

in.

clea

ranc

e go

al fo

r m

ajor

in

cide

nts

—W

SDO

T an

d St

ate

Patr

ol jo

intly

ac

coun

tabl

e to

rep

ort

clea

ranc

e tim

e to

Gov

erno

r, qu

arte

rly.

—Ex

amin

e in

cide

nts

> 9

0 m

in to

det

erm

ine

caus

e.

Perf

orm

ance

da

ta p

rovi

ded

by W

SDO

T W

ashi

ngto

n In

cide

nt

Trac

king

Sy

stem

&

Stat

e Pa

trol

C

AD

dat

a ar

e us

ed in

qu

arte

rly

repo

rt to

G

over

nor,

Legi

slat

ure,

Com

mis

sion

, M

edia

and

Pu

blic

.

12

Rep

orte

d th

roug

h

Stat

ewid

e TO

C

Wis

cons

inG

ener

al T

IM P

lans

ty

pica

lly o

n a

regi

onal

ba

sis

(e.g

. TIM

E Pr

ogra

m

Blu

eprin

t)

Alte

rnat

e R

oute

Pla

ns

Mov

e O

ver

Law

s

Qui

ck C

lear

ance

/Hol

d H

arm

less

Law

s

Evac

uatio

n Pl

ans

Out

reac

h Pl

ans

and

initi

ativ

es

Spec

ial e

vent

pla

ns

TIM

E Pr

ogra

m

Part

nerin

g A

gree

men

t

Rel

atio

nshi

ps fo

ster

ed

thro

ugh

regu

lar

mee

t-in

gs in

reg

ions

and

su

b-re

gion

s.

Stro

ng r

elat

ions

hip

with

W

isco

nsin

Sta

te P

atro

l as

wel

l as

othe

r la

w

enfo

rcem

ent a

nd p

ublic

sa

fety

age

ncie

s.

TIM

cha

mpi

on is

typi

cally

W

isD

OT.

TIM

E Pr

ogra

m (

SE W

I) in

clud

es P

rogr

am S

teer

ing

Com

mitt

ee, F

reew

ay In

cide

nt

Man

agem

ent T

eam

and

se

vera

l com

mitt

ees

and

task

fo

rces

.

Sim

ilar

stru

ctur

es in

oth

er

regi

ons.

Form

al

regi

onal

pr

ogra

ms

(e

.g. T

IME)

Emer

ging

St

atew

ide

Pr

ogra

m

Reg

iona

l In

cide

nt

Man

age-

men

t C

oord

ina-

tors

(W

isD

OT

RIM

Cs)

Und

er

Dev

elop

men

t th

roug

h

Stat

ewid

e

TIM

initi

ativ

es