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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 

North Carolina Department of Transportation Announced as NOCoE TSMO Awards Overall Winner

 

Agency’s work during Hurricane Florence illustrates the best aspects of TSMO.

 

WASHINGTON, D.C., January 14, 2019 – The National Operations Center of Excellence (NOCoE), announced today that the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) is the overall winner of its first annual Transportation Systems Management and Operations (TSMO) Awards. The award was presented this morning at the 2019 Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting being held in Washington, D.C.

North Carolina’s entry beat out more than 60 other submissions from all over the nation to win the prestigious award. In their entry, NCDOT described how last September, creative TSMO strategies allowed for the safe evacuation of more than a million people in advance of the massive storm while continuing critical, public communications detailing road closures and collapses long after the hurricane left the state.

NOCoE Managing Director, Patrick Son said North Carolina’s work defines TSMO’s potential. “There’s no doubt, lives were saved because of the crucial work done by our colleagues at NCDOT,” he said. “Their preparation and response were amazing, coordinating, moving and informing millions of people. This is a case where things could have gone horribly wrong and instead, the coalition of TSMO practitioners, traffic managers, first responders and partners had an incredibly positive outcome.” Click here to download the case study.

Jennifer Portanova, P.E., C.P.M., the NCDOT State Systems Operations Engineer who traveled to Washington D.C. to accept the award expressed gratitude to NOCoE for the recognition. “We at the NCDOT are absolutely honored to be recognized among the 60 plus other submissions as the Overall Winner for our Hurricane Florence response. Day in and day out, we work hard to keep traffic moving and people safe. Hurricane Florence showcased our relationships with other public agencies, the private sector and the emergency responder community. We are most proud of the amazing work our NCDOT team did during a stressful and demanding event. The innovative TSMO solutions and hard work made me proud to be part of the award-winning team.”

NCDOT’s entry was selected as Overall Winner from among four category winners, each celebrating the best in a specific aspect of TSMO. Those winners and runners up were:

Major incident or special event planning and response – Recognizing an agency or organization’s response to a specific incident or special event utilizing TSMO.

• Winner – North Carolina Department of Transportation - NCDOT Hurricane Florence Preparation and Response
• Runner Up – Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT), Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission (PTC), Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency (PEMA) and Information Logistics, Inc. (ILOG) - 511PAConnect (two-way direct emergency communication between the agency and a stranded traveler’s smartphone)

 

Improving your agency’s TSMO capabilities – Recognizing an agency or organization that has successfully integrated CMM/CMF into its structure and the TSMO benefit that came from it.

• Winner – ITS Heartland Chapter of ITS America and HDR - ITS Heartland’s TSMO University Educational Program
• Runner Up – Florida Department of Transportation - Florida’s Truck Parking Availability System (TPAS)

 

Best TSMO project (creative solution) – Recognizing a successful “on the ground” project that demonstrates the solution(s) of improved system management and operations compared with traditional capacity-based approaches.

• Winner – Arizona Department of Transportation - US-60 Restripe Project: ArizonaDOT Transforms Road Safety Using Full Suite of TSMO Capabilities (reducing crashes by 70% at an interstate merge)
• Runner Up – Arizona Department of Transportation - ArizonaDOT’s Wrong-Way Vehicle Detection System & State Trooper Co-Location

 

Public Communications – Recognizing an agency for successfully increasing public or specific audience awareness of TSMO solutions and benefits.

• Winner – Oregon Department of Transportation - @OregonTIMResponders: Use of Social Media to Engage Oregon Responders Across Disciplines and Promote Responder Safety Laws and Practices
• Runner Up – Michigan Department of Transportation - Development and Maintenance of the MDOT TSMO Implementation and Strategic Plan

 

NOCoE’s Patrick Son said the quality of submissions highlights the growing understanding and influence of TSMO as a saver of lives, time and money. “This inaugural year was an overwhelming success. We were thrilled by the exciting strategies and we plan to share case studies on most of the entries with the TSMO community,” he said. “If the excitement around our first awards year is a guide, we can’t wait to see what next year brings.”

 

About the National Operations Center of Excellence (NOCoE)

The mission of NOCoE is to empower the TSMO community to succeed by building its knowledge, skills and abilities. NOCoE supports practitioners who operate the nation’s transportation management systems, by connecting them with best-practices and experts to save lives, time and money. Born of a partnership of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO), the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) and the Intelligent Transportation Society of America (ITS America) with support from the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), we serve those in state departments of transportation, regional planning organizations, municipalities, local agencies as well as private sector organizations. For more information, please visit www.transportationops.org.

 

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