Reconstruction of Highway 90 in Mississippi due to Hurricane Katrina, describes the traffic system and ITS devices installed to provide a better and safer traffic route. Presented to the National Rural ITS conference in Anchorage Alaska in 2008 by Acey Roberts.
AWS Community Day CPH - Three problems of Terraform
Highway 90 Reconstruction (MS)
1. A Better & Safer US Highway 90 along the Mississippi Gulf Coast By Acey Roberts Intelligent Transportation Systems Engineer MDOT – Traffic Engineering
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11. ITS Systems Traveler Information Systems Freeway Management Systems Traffic Signal Control Transit Management Systems Toll Collection Electronic Fare Payment Incident Management Highway-Rail Intersections Emergency Management
Pre-Katrina the demand for travel in the Coastal Region along US Highway 90 had exceeded the available capacity. Residents were suffering from excessive travel times, increased crash risks, and diminished air quality. Adding additional lanes to US Highway 90 , Pre & Post Katrina, have proven to be too costly, especially in the more densely populated areas of the parkway. In response to this dilemma, MDOT focused on improved operational strategies and Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS). The goal is to squeeze as much operational efficiency out of the existing system as possible while making the corridor safer for travelers.
It is hard to believe that the 3rd Anniversary of Katrina is this month. I’m sure that all of you saw tons of post-storm pictures and video. Although the purpose of my presentation is to highlight the Rebuilding of US Highway 90, along the Mississippi Gulf Coast, I would like to show you a few post-storm slides of the corridor to show what a monumental task rebuilding US Highway 90 has been.
Attempting an ITS project of this magnitude on any roadway would be a challenge but deploying ITS on a roadway this damaged, or in places, not existent, was monumental.
Deabree cleanup had to be completed before any rebuilding efforts could begin.
MDOT sincerely thanks all of our sister DOT’s for their quick & generous demonstration of support immediately following the storm.
By themselves, these operational systems will not eradicate traffic congestion, however, they are essential to a well-balanced, well operating transportation network. Many times the whole is often better than the sum of the individual parts. MDOT, along with numerous local agencies, launched initiatives such as the Gulf Region ITS Architecture to maximize the potential benefits of a fully regional ITS System.
ER – 100% Funding – State Match – 80% MDOT had just spent 150 million in debris clean-up & wasn’t sure when FEMA would re-imburse the State. Tranportation Commission made the decision to utilize ER Funding as much as possible. Under ER funding some items were considered “enhancements” & were not eligiable for ER Funding. There was NO communications infractructure left after Katrina, including private carriers. MDOT could not have chosen to lease lines even if we had wanted to. MDOT began working on the design while researching technologies that would meet the required system requirements. There was a lot of work. Contractors had reached their bonding limits. Dividing the project into 5 phases allowed contractors to deploy faster.
Broadband access via DSL or cable infrastructure was not immediately available @ many intersection locations. Wireless broadband access is set up like cellular systems, using base stations/distribution repeaters to service a radius of several miles (3-5 miles). Distribution Repeaters do not necessarily have to reside on a tower. The base station antenna could be located on any elevated structure such as, the rooftop of a tall building, a grain silo, or a water tower. A local, NLOS, radio and antenna is all that is needed to connect to the base station. Once the signal is at a base station, the data or video is routed via a standard Ethernet cable to the MDOT MSTraffic Network. QoS refers to the ability of the network to provide better service to selected network traffic. Some real-time and interactive data such as traffic video requires transmission priority to control jitter and latency. Unlicensed radio bands can be subject to QoS issues because deployment is open to anyone.