››› Session 21

Why have operational performance of the road network and incident management become so important?

Dennis Walsh - Director (Network Operations and ITS Infrastructure), Main Roads Qld

Gerard  Reardon - Project Manager, Cooperative Road Management Project, Main Roads Qld

Queensland's 34,000 kilometres of state controlled road network represents only 20% of Queensland's total road network but carries 80% of the state's traffic. The State covers 1.7 million square kilometres, yet approximately 80% of the 3.3 million Queenslanders live in the State's south-east region, an area that represents less than 20% of the State. Within densely populated urban areas non-recurrent congestion due to both planned and unplanned incidents has significant adverse economic and environmental impacts. Within Brisbane city alone, adverse impacts due to non-recurrent congestion is estimated to cost approximately $200m pa. In regional areas, misinformation of road closures due to incidents adversely impacts the freight industry, the tourist industry and the economic performance of towns and regional centres. Each financial year, in excess of $1 billion is available to fund Main Roads planning, construction and maintenance responsibilities. Allocation of the funding across the range of Main Roads responsibilities is constantly being challenged from competing various interests. Within this strategic context, this paper outlines the reasons supporting Main Roads increased emphasis on assessing and understanding how the major road network is operating and how both planned and unplanned incidents are managed across the relevant state and local government agencies.

››› Session 22

The NSW Transport Management Centre's Enhanced Incident Management Program

Charles Casuscelli - General Manager, Transport Management Centre, Roads & Traffic Authority of NSW

The NSW Transport Management Centre was commissioned in September 1999, its concept of operations was based on the real time and strategic management of the NSW road network. Its business model titled Transport and Network Operations comprises a number of services that control and co-ordinates the many activities that impact upon the road network. One of these is road incident management, the TMC has managed over 30,000 incidents in year 2000. The TMC's road incident management services comprise a number of elements including: * A command and control centre. * A field response capability including the achievement of emergency worker status in law. * Leadership in the traffic management of incidents in the planning and operational sense. * The use of technology in detection and management. * Unique definition and implementation of roles between the Police and the TMC. Successful road incident management relies on the co-operation of various agencies, the use of technology, unambiguous roles, clear lines of communication and the exploitation of unique capabilities within agencies.

››› Session 23

Incident Management Expert Focus Groups - An Overview

Rebecca Brewster - Project Manager, National Incident Management Coalition

Over the past decade, coordinated incident management efforts in the United States have gained momentum as more and more transportation agencies seek ways to safely and efficiently handle congestion. Incident management, once considered a disjointed activity fraught with turf battles and jurisdictional conflicts, has, in many places around the country, become a showcase of collaborative efforts between the various incident management stakeholders. In recognition of the growing importance of incident management programs and transportation operations in general, there are a number of initiatives currently underway throughout the nation aimed at improving overall transportation operations. Incident management is also being advanced through the efforts of the National Incident Management Coalition (NIMC), which was formed in 1991 in response to the growing congestion on our nation's highways. In addition to its conference program, the NIMC, through its lead organization the American Trucking Associations Foundation (ATAF), conducted incident management best practices research and from this published the report entitled Incident Management - Challenges, Strategies, and Solutions for Advancing Safety and Roadway Efficiency. This research was conducted with the assistance of two Incident Management Expert Focus Groups - tapping the expertise of incident management practitioners from around the country. To assist the FHWA as it plans for future incident management activities, the NIMC was asked to conduct another series of Incident Management Expert Focus Groups, with professionals from over 20 programs across the nation. Represented were state DOTs, local DOTs, fire, police, metropolitan planning organizations and the towing and recovery industry. The purpose of these Focus Groups was to: develop a benchmark of the current state-of-practice in incident management, identify the greatest challenges, document what future state of incident management practice will and should be and identify what performance measures and benchmarks can be used to evaluate incident management programs. Session 2 - Brewster Smart.Traffic - 1-3 May 2001 2