Let the good times-and the trafic-roll

Bonnaroo” is a Creole word meaning “good time,” but the first Bonnaroo music festival held in June 2002 was anything but a good time for area transportation officials. The festival, which is now an annual event, is a four-day camping and music celebration held the second week in June on a 700-acre farm in Manchester, Tenn.

Manchester is a small city (population 9,442) located in Coffee County halfway between Nashville and Chattanooga. I-24 passes east and west through Coffee County, and the S.R. 55 exit at mile marker 111 is the main Manchester exit. The interstate in this area is two lanes in each direction with an average daily traffic count of nearly 37,000 vehicles.

Before the first Bonnaroo festival, officials with the Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) and the Tennessee Highway Patrol (THP) knew that an event was occurring in Manchester, but not much else. Local Manchester officials had informed TDOT and THP that there was going to be a music festival in the area. Local officials planned on using several variable message boards to manage traffic on I-24 during the festival, but other than that there was no traffic plan in place.

There had been no advertising campaign promoting Bonnaroo, so no one anticipated the magnitude of the event. On the Thursday before the festival was slated to begin, festival attendees began entering the Manchester area in large numbers. The festival attracted more than 90,000 music lovers, which is almost twice the population of the entire Coffee County area (population 49,643). The farm on which the event was held became a small city for several days.

The S.R. 55 exit at mile marker 111 on I-24 was the only exit used to enter the 2002 festival. Festival officials searched each vehicle before allowing it to proceed into the site, so vehicles waiting to enter were at a standstill. Traffic started backing up very quickly on I-24, and on S.R. 55 and U.S. 41, both main thoroughfares in Manchester. Festival attendees were using both lanes of I-24 to enter the gate, so interstate through traffic also was stopped. In addition, there was a TDOT construction project under way on I-24 near Manchester, and this added to the congestion. Traffic backed up for several miles on the interstate.

Hard lessons learned

When TDOT officials realized there was a problem, they immediately dispatched several of their HELP incident-management and congestion-mitigation trucks to Manchester to assist with traffic management. The operators of these specialized vehicles can push or tow disabled vehicles from travel lanes, and the directional arrow boards on top of the trucks can be raised from inside the truck to aid in traffic control. The trucks are equipped with a variety of tools and other equipment to assist with incident management.

The THP dispatched several law-enforcement units to the area as well to manage traffic. The contractor on the I-24 construction project was asked to cease work immediately and reopen all lanes to traffic for the duration of the festival. Unfortunately, despite these efforts, traffic remained extremely congested for more than 12 hours.

When TDOT and THP found out that the Bonnaroo festival was going to be an annual event, they knew they needed a plan of action. This would take all agencies and entities working together. Shortly after the first Bonnaroo festival ended, TDOT officials met with representatives from the THP, Manchester and Coffee County law-enforcement agencies, state and local emergency managers and festival promoters to come up with a traffic plan for the next Bonnaroo festival. One of the first actions taken was the construction of a short exit ramp off of I-24 West at mile marker 112. This ramp was paid for by the festival promoters. This unmarked ramp is paved and gated, but it is not represented on Tennessee’s official road map. The gates are opened only once a year during the Bonnaroo festival to give traffic planners another option for moving traffic off of the interstate and into the festival site. The rest of the year the gate is closed and the ramp is further blocked off using concrete barrier rail.

TDOT’s headquarters construction office began including a special note on construction contract plans that would prohibit any contractor from closing lanes in or around the Manchester area during Bonnaroo week.

Everyone involved in the festival knew that better communication among state and local agencies, transportation-based organizations and the general public was crucial to the plan’s success. Bonnaroo promoters notified trucking companies well before the 2003 festival was scheduled to start so that they would have an option to reroute their truck traffic around the Manchester area during the festival. The TDOT communications offices in Nashville got involved in the planning process and released media advisories to all television stations, radio stations and newspapers throughout Tennessee and into neighboring states. After examining traffic patterns from the first festival, planners realized that the heaviest traffic volume occurred on the Thursday before the festival began. They scheduled extra personnel to work this day. The next-heaviest traffic volume occurred on Monday after the festival ended, so it was determined to have extra personnel on the scene that day, too.

These officials met several times during the year to fine-tune the traffic plan. In June 2003, they were ready to put the plan into action.

A week before the 2003 Bonnaroo festival, TDOT placed warning signs on roadways surrounding the Manchester area to further prepare motorists for the dramatic increase in traffic expected because of the festival. Eleven advance warning signs were placed on highways in the region, some as far as 45 miles away. TDOT officials gave early notice to motorists by distributing news releases and putting information on the website. A map with diversion routes around the festival area was available for downloading.

Bracing for impact

Shortly before the festival, TDOT crews began laying out barrels and cones on I-24 to direct festival traffic to the right lane and the shoulder, leaving the left lane open for through traffic. THP law-enforcement units and TDOT HELP trucks worked the area, assisting with incidents and keeping traffic moving. TDOT maintenance units were posted throughout the festival region, and maintenance personnel were on call throughout the weekend. The district garage was kept open in the event that repairs needed to be made to a THP patrol unit or a TDOT HELP truck. Variable message signs were provided to warn drivers of delays. In addition to the main festival exit 111, exits 105, 117 and the newly opened exit 112 were used as optional exits when congestion built up on the interstate. Extra efforts also were concentrated on keeping S.R. 55 and U.S. 41 flowing. Some of the largest traffic snarls occurred there during the first festival. Median crossovers were guarded to keep motorists from parking there and blocking emergency vehicles as they did the first year. (Emergency vehicles used the county roads, which were kept at low volume, when possible.)

Temporary communication towers were put in place to improve emergency communications. Media outlets were very helpful in distributing information about the Bonnaroo festival, so travelers were prepared.

With the exception of a few glitches, the 2003 traffic plan worked well. Shortly after the 2003 festival was over, planners began coordinating the 2004 master plan.

Back on the horse

This year’s Bonnaroo festival was the smoothest of all. The 2005 traffic plan worked extremely well. As usual, the prime efforts were concentrated on keeping the interstate traffic flowing through the area. This was accomplished by keeping festival traffic in the right lane or on the shoulder of the interstate, letting through traffic have the left lane unimpeded. Although through traffic moved slowly at times, it never stopped moving throughout the entire festival. Transportation and emergency officials were very proud of this.

As in previous years, exit 111 (S.R. 55) was used as the main festival exit, and exits 105, 112 and 117 were used as optional exits to alleviate interstate congestion. This year, however, the TDOT and THP personnel even made use of exits 110 and 127 to keep festival traffic from backing up too far on the interstate. If the traffic managers saw that traffic was backing up more on one side of the interstate than the other, they had the option of routing festival traffic to the less congested side. They might route traffic off a westbound exit and make it turn around and approach the festival gates from the east.

The best thing about the traffic plan was its flexibility. The personnel in the field could make the call when they saw the need to divert traffic. Bonnaroo promoters made changes this year to help with internal traffic flow, and those changes also reduced backups. Festival promoters consolidated tollbooths at the festival periphery, reorganized their parking staff and separated recreational vehicles from cars.

Communication about the festival was better than ever. The usual TDOT news releases were distributed to media outlets, and Bonnaroo traffic updates and alternative routes were posted on the TDOT website. This year representatives from the TDOT communications office did many radio and television interviews with media outlets across the state concerning Bonnaroo traffic. As customary, Bonnaroo promoters issued their early news releases to the trucking industry and other sources, and the regular temporary communication towers were in place. This year, for the first time, festival promoters teamed with a local Manchester radio station before and during the festival to create Radio Bonnaroo. Radio Bonnaroo broadcast regular traffic updates to persons near the festival area.

Each year after the festival is over, the transportation planners meet and discuss what went well with the traffic plan and what needs improvement. The goal every year is to improve on the previous year’s performance. Since its inception in 2002, the Bonnaroo festival has become increasingly popular, and it shows no signs of ending anytime in the near future. As long as the Bonnaroo festival endures, transportation planners will be there every step of the way—keeping traffic moving. TME