Headline News

Nominations are currently being sought for the annual America’s Transportation Awards competition. State departments of transportation have until April 14 to get their projects submitted for consideration.

Thanks to all of you who responded to the NOCoE Member Survey in February and March – we received significantly more feedback than in 2016, which will help us to improve our Technical Services Program going forward to maximize its value! NOCoE’s mission is to empower the TSMO community to succeed by enhancing knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs). Part of the value proposition associated with KSA enhancement is constantly being on the search for new ways to connect with our stakeholders at all levels of TSMO programming and plan development.

Visit the TRB Annual Meeting Online (AMOnline) portal to view papers, presentation slides, and posters of more than 5,000 program presentations at the TRB Annual Meeting, January 8-12, 2017, in Washington, D.C. In addition to the 2017 content, the portal also includes the papers, slides, and posters from the 2011-2016 TRB Annual Meetings. 

Via AASHTO Journal

When part of a steep hillside gave way March 13 in southwestern Washington and emptied debris onto part of State Route 503 near Woodland, the Washington State Department of Transportation needed to assess slope conditions before trying to clear the road.

So engineers sent up an aerial drone, which delivered video (below) that helped showed how unstable the hillside might still be.

Every State DOT and locality is trying to improve how they operate their transportation system.  Transportation Systems Management and Operations (TSM&O) has several key building blocks: 

•    Transportation Management Center (TMC), 
•    Freeway Service Patrol (FSP)
•    Maintenance of field ITS devices
•    Advanced Traffic Management System (ATMS)

The National Operations Center of Excellence (NOCoE) organized and facilitated the 2016 Southeast Peer Exchange that included representatives from the I-95 Corridor Coalition, the North Carolina DOT, the South Carolina DOT, the Florida DOT and the Virginia DOT. I was given the opportunity to represent the Florida DOT with a colleague of mine from our Central Office.

The USDOT has released new fact sheets on each of the three pilot deployment sites—New York City; Wyoming; and Tampa, Florida. As part of the USDOT’s Connected Vehicle Pilot Deployment Program, these sites are designing, building, and testing the nation’s most complex and extensive deployment of integrated wireless in-vehicle, mobile device, and roadside technologies. 
                           

FHWA, through the Every Day Counts program, recently posted information on using data to improve traffic incident management. This includes a fact sheet on the topic that recommends collecting data on three TIM performance elements: duration time of lane closure, time responders are on-scene, and number of secondary crashes.

Via ITE Journal

December of 2016, NOCoE held a contest for college students interested in TSMO. The winners were to submit a video explaining why TSMO matters to them as prospective transportation professionals.