The scenarios are frighteningly easy to imagine. A hurricane slams the Virginia coast, causing massive flooding and the need to evacuate more than a million people using roads that can be quickly overwhelmed by rising waters and storm damage.
A few degree dips in predicted wintry temperatures creates a surprise Mid-Atlantic ice storm that makes roads as slick as hockey rinks and grinds commerce along the Eastern Seaboard to a halt.
A truck carrying diesel fuel swerves to avoid a car during Friday afternoon rush hour near Washington, D.C., and slams into a bridge pier. It leaves I-95 shut down for 17 hours as crews clean up the mess, repair the bridge and restore traffic flow.
Emergencies like these are real on Virginia’s highways. For the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT), dealing with those incidents has been part of its 100-year tradition managing the nation’s third-largest state-maintained highway system. For most of that history, the techniques used to combat disruptions have been essentially unchanged—until now.
In today’s high-tech world of just-in-time delivery, travels as likely to stretch across three counties as to the corner store, and travelers’ increasing demands for efficient, safe, free-flowing highways, VDOT is embarking on an unprecedented effort to refocus its core mission.
No longer is VDOT just about construction and maintenance. VDOT’s goal is to meet its 21st century emergency response mission while planning, building, operating and maintaining a complex 58,000-mile road network including everything from rural byways to massive 20-plus-lane interstate interchanges and soaring bridges.
“We’ve been talking about our core mission for some time,” said David S. Ekern, VDOT’s commissioner and a veteran of the Minnesota and Idaho departments of transportation. “We recognize that our core mission is changing with a shift in customer expectations.”
A surprise ice storm last Feb. 12 illustrated the fragility of Virginia’s highway network. The National Weather Service and private weather forecasters used by VDOT predicted a cold rain that weekday, with temperatures hovering in the mid-30s. That day’s hotly contested presidential primary was the dominant conversation subject, not the cold, damp weather.
A scale-tipping storm
As rush hour began in the second-most-congested area in the nation, temperatures dipped a few degrees below the anticipated low and a cold rain began to fall. In just a few minutes, VDOT’s newly completed Springfield Interchange “Mixing Bowl”—where I-95, I-395 and I-495 weave together in a series of intricate high-altitude, high-speed overpasses—froze. Traffic quickly gridlocked as tractor-trailers and commuter cars skidded and crashed on unexpected ice. It took more than nine hours for the Virginia State Police, VDOT and its contractors to treat roadways covered with standing traffic and reopen the interstates.
“It was the kind of a nightmare scenario that keeps transportation professionals up at night,” Ekern said. “It was a perfect storm of precipitation, temperature and timing. It was also a wake-up call for the way VDOT approached our role as an emergency responder.”
Within days of the northern Virginia storm, VDOT mobilized to refocus on the importance of emergency response. Like many DOTs, VDOT considered its role in responding to crashes or Mother Nature as “just a part of maintenance.” The challenge was to recognize that this philosophy was too conservative in light of rising customer expectations.
Two years earlier, VDOT had consolidated 345 maintenance facilities into 248 locations and held a series of public meetings to collect comments. Citizens resoundingly told the agency that they considered their local VDOT offices to be key emergency responders.
“Their message was clear,” Ekern said. “Like fire and police departments and the National Guard, citizens viewed VDOT as core emergency responders that must be there when emergencies affect their lives. We recognized the importance of this statement, but we had not institutionalized the lesson learned until the Feb. 12 storm.”
On May 15, 2008, Commissioner Ekern issued a report called “A Commitment to Focus” outlining steps to refocus VDOT on its vital role as an emergency-response agency. The action plan was developed with input from transportation professionals, law enforcement, EMS agencies, neighboring jurisdictions and the public.
Refocusing
“We put on paper our commitment that we will live up to citizens’ expectations that VDOT will provide uninterrupted emergency services during all unforeseen events, just like other emergency-response agencies,” Ekern said. “Our core mission includes keeping Virginians safe during inclement weather and other emergency events, and we will deliver on that responsibility.”
VDOT reviewed its entire emergency-response program to identify organizational hurdles, policy roadblocks, equipment needs and training challenges hindering its ability to swiftly respond to emergencies.
Now six months into its new focus, VDOT is restructuring its operations and applying National Incident Management System (NIMS) practices to all hazards that impede traffic flow.
VDOT’s new approach focuses on core-area improvements including:
- Improving communication within VDOT and between emergency-response agencies;
- Remodeling, renewing and relocating emergency-response equipment to be more effective;
- Establishing a first-of-its-kind emergency response institute to train transportation crews in emergency procedures;
- Adopting industry best practices for emergency response and snow-and-ice removal;
- Expanding VDOT’s five regional traffic management centers into transportation operations centers that function as emergency-response hubs;
- Breaking down geographic barriers to emergency response with consistent statewide efforts focused on 23,000 miles of critical highways;
- Improving technology and traveler information to keep motorists informed about changing traffic conditions and emergency events wherever they are; and
- Overcoming administrative barriers that hinder field operations and emergency response.
Coordinating culture change
Ekern assembled a multidisciplinary team of industry professionals to focus on the many policy, procedure and staff changes needed to successfully implement this approach. Eighteen teams are working to identify and institutionalize emergency-response techniques, best practices and tools to speed incident response and clearance times.
“Some are clearly things we should have been doing all along,” said Jimmy White, a 42-year VDOT veteran and residency administrator handpicked to lead the emergency-response-plan implementation. “For example, VDOT adopted anti-icing as an up-and-coming winter weather tool almost 10 years ago, but we used it inconsistently and only in selected parts of the state.”
VDOT is now expanding its coordinated use of the anti-icing chemicals calcium chloride and magnesium chloride to hundreds of key roads in the state’s highway network. It also is expanding the use of more cost-effective anti-icing techniques, such as salt-brine manufacturing.
“We recognize that a focused investment in the training and equipment needed to adopt universal anti-icing practices will save us time, money and may save lives in the long run,” White said. “It is an investment that is necessary to meet customers’ expectations of clear pavement when snow falls.”
Other initiatives require more significant policy changes. The agency is narrowing its focus to the roadways key to keeping Virginia moving during emergencies. Rather than attack all 58,000 miles of Virginia’s state-maintained roads and bridges with a universal approach, VDOT is focusing on approximately 23,000 miles of key, high-priority arteries that support commerce and allow mobility. These roads must be kept open or recovered quickly after an emergency event to ensure the vitality of the entire state.
Tackling technology
Technology plays a key role in getting the right information into responders’ and citizens’ hands at the right time so they can make educated decisions.
Maintenance and emergency-response vehicles are being outfitted with improved communications gear so they can be dispatched quicker to emergencies. VDOT also is installing weather sensors and pavement thermometers on the vehicles, giving front-line professionals every tool needed to react to changing conditions. The equipment will be staged and tracked using technology to better facilitate response, rather than requiring that it be parked at VDOT facilities to be inventoried daily.
VDOT is upgrading its network of roadway weather information systems used to augment air temperature data provided by the National Weather Service with real-time pavement temperatures and surface weather conditions. Outdated sensors are being replaced, and additional equipment is being installed in strategic locations throughout Virginia.
VDOT is improving traveler information to motorists in their vehicles before they leave home or work. Communicating with the public is a huge part of the NIMS protocols. If VDOT can get information to motorists quickly when traffic snarls or weather events cause the transportation system to break down, they can adjust their travel behaviors and avoid unsafe areas and will likely be more patient and cooperative with emergency responders. For DOTs, additional opportunities and tools are available to reach out to motorists.
“Electronic message signs, highway advisory radio networks and websites have been in place for some time,” White said. “But we now recognize that these are not just tools of a traffic-management engineer, they are powerful communications vehicles through which we can have a major influence on our customers.”
VDOT recently completed a major upgrade to provide more information to the public through its 5-1-1 telephone line and 5-1-1Virginia.org website. It is developing tools to push traveler information directly to motorists in their vehicles, sending more timely notifications and more frequent updates. Virginia’s new 5-1-1 system, launched in August, includes a mobile alert system where motorists can sign up for personalized traffic and incident reports sent to their BlackBerry, computer, pager or other device.
Institutionalizing change
At the heart of this culture shift is refocusing staff on their important roles in emergency response. VDOT’s front-line staff people have traditionally considered themselves maintenance or construction employees. With a new emergency-response focus, employees need extensive training to change the way they see their roles. They must recognize the importance of incident command, break down day-to-day management structures that conflict with NIMS-compliant emergency-response structures and streamline the historical protocols of an 8,500-person agency.
VDOT launched in August an innovative training program to help front-line emergency responders make confident, competent decisions and understand their roles in handling emergencies. The Transportation Emergency Response Institute is a first-of-its-kind program using industry experts and VDOT subject-matter professionals to empower front-line emergency responders. Participants in the intensive, week-long program are trained to understand available tools, distinguish between emergency organizational structures and day-to-day reporting relationships and know ways to speed successful decision making when dealing with complex emergencies.
“Those selected for this program were not picked for their titles or job descriptions,” said Meredith Baker, VDOT’s chief of organizational development. “This institute pulls together key front-line staff with the skills to make quick decisions in times of crisis. Our goal is to give these employees extra tools and confidence needed to serve as the ‘duty officer’ for their particular region—shifting from their day-to-day duties as engineers or maintenance-crew supervisors and becoming incident commanders for VDOT.”
The ripple effect
As VDOT continues to delve further into the culture change essential to supporting this focus, it must address policy, practice and tradition that inadvertently work against employees’ ability to make sound emergency decisions.
In a recent example, an overturned tractor-trailer spilled hazardous materials, shutting down I-81 near Roanoke. Multiple emergency-response agencies arrived at the scene. However, confusion over which agency would be financially responsible for moving the hazardous material and funding the removal of the truck slowed response and kept the road closed for more than 11 hours. Ultimately, the decisions were made by executives hundreds of miles away because agency protocols set field workers’ spending limits below the necessary funds to clear the crash.
“These types of administrative barriers can be catastrophic in emergency situations,” Ekern said. “Although no one intended this when we set our policies, we’ve set up barriers in procurement, overtime, human resources and administration that hinder our ability to conduct our core emergency-response duties. This has to change.”
VDOT is streamlining policies to ensure the appropriate decisions can be made at the incident scene by those accountable for clearing the incident.
Investing in success
A shift this significant does not come cheaply. By the time VDOT completely implements its plan in four to five years, VDOT will have made an investment between $240 million and $360 million to modernize equipment, conduct training and update practices.
“In a time of tight funding for transportation, this is a difficult number to sell,” Ekern said. “The reality is that emergency response is our business, not just a nice thing to have. Like the 82nd Airborne, we must have the right equipment and right people in the right place at the right time to ensure that we can keep Virginia safe and moving during a natural or man-made disaster.
“In the end, this initiative is not about VDOT or how much money we spend. It is about living up to our commitment to provide a safe, efficient, dependable transportation network for all 7.7 million Virginians who depend upon our roads to connect them with the important things in their lives.”
To find out more about VDOT’s emergency response focus, visit www.virginiadot.org/about/emer_response.asp.
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