One week after striking the U.S. east coast as a category 1 hurricane, Irene arrived in Vermont on August 27, 2011. Flooding was devastating for transportation infrastructure, leading the RPCs to assist the Vermont Agency of Transportation (VTrans) in the recovery.

1. National Association of Development Organizations
Lessons Learned
from Irene:
Image courtesy of TRORC
Vermont RPCs Address
Transportation System Recovery
Carrie Kissel
National Association of Development Organizations

2. National Association of Development Organizations
About NADO
 National association for 540 regional
development organizations, including
emerging network of Regional
Transportation Planning Organizations
(RTPOs or RPOs)
 Promote public policies that strengthen
local governments, communities and
economies through the regional strategies,
coordination efforts and program expertise
of the nation’s regional development
organizations

3. National Association of Development Organizations
What
happened in
Vermont?
Photo courtesy of Southern Windsor County RPC

5. Damage across Vermont
National Association of Development Organizations
Maps produced by Pam Brangan at the Irene Local
Roads Response Resource Coordination Center.
9/30/2011. pbrangan@ccrpcvt.org

6. National Association of Development Organizations
Photo courtesy of VTrans

7. National Association of Development Organizations
Photo courtesy of VTrans

8. National Association of Development Organizations
Photo courtesy of VTrans

9. National Association of Development Organizations
Photo courtesy of VTrans

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National Association of Development Organizations
Photo courtesy of Southern Windsor County RPC

11. National Association of Development Organizations
Response Priorities for VTrans
• Reconnect 13 communities shut off from
state system
• Access to utility companies to restore
power
• Re-establish east-west routes
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12. Vermont’s Regional Planning
National Association of Development Organizations
Commissions
• 11 RPCs
• Serve whole state
• 1 MPO
(Chittenden
County RPC)
• 10 RTPOs
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13. Vermont’s Regional Planning
National Association of Development Organizations
Commissions
Typical (blue-sky, non-disaster) RPC tasks:
• Transportation planning
• Land use planning and zoning
• Emergency planning and preparedness
• Natural resource planning
• GIS mapping and analysis
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14. National Association of Development Organizations
RPCs’ Transportation Role
Sample of tasks relevant post-Irene:
• Infrastructure inventories—bridges,
culverts, roads
• Facilitating regional road foreman meetings
• Traffic counts
• Regular involvement in project development
and prioritization
• Project management
• Map making and data management

15. MAP-21: Regional Transportation
National Association of Development Organizations
Planning Organizations
 New entities defined for non-metro:
Regional Transportation Planning Organizations
 RTPOs are an optional designation to assist
states with non-metro planning
 RTPOs must:
 Have a policy committee of majority local officials
 Have a “parent” organization to serve as
administrative and fiscal agent and provide
planning staff

16. National Association of Development Organizations
MAP-21 RTPO Duties
• Regional long-range multimodal
transportation plan
• Regional transportation improvement
program
• Foster coordination of local land use and
economic development plans with
transportation plans and programs
• Technical assistance to local officials
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17. National Association of Development Organizations
MAP-21 RTPO Duties
• Participate in national and state policy and
planning development processes
• Public participation
• Consider and share plans and programs
with neighboring regions and Tribal
organizations
• Other duties to support statewide planning
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18. National Association of Development Organizations
MAP-21 Role in Statewide Planning
• Where RTPOs exist, states must:
– “Cooperate” on long-range plan development
– “Consult” on Interstate, Bridge, NHS, 5310,
5311 projects in STIP
– “Cooperate” on other projects in STIP for areas
with a population under 50,000
– “Consult” on Strategic Highway Safety Plan

19. National Association of Development Organizations
Note: Dark blue states have a range of practices, and only some fulfill all MAP-21-defined duties in late 2012. 19

20. National Association of Development Organizations
Vermont RPCs as RTPOs
• RPCs play key role in Vermont’s
Transportation Planning Initiative
– Process by which VTrans conducts some of its
local official consultation and public outreach
– Established in 1992 in response to ISTEA, state
planning law, recommended actions in 1990
agency evaluation
– Operate under annual contract to VTrans
– Duties codified in state statute in 2007
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21. National Association of Development Organizations
Vermont RPCs: Assets
• Existing relationship with key local actors
• Knowledge of transportation network
• Familiar with disaster funding
• Early 2011, had external evaluation of RPCs
strengthened network and delivery system
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22. National Association of Development Organizations
Vermont RPCs
1 week after Irene’s New England landfall:
RPCs became VTrans’s partners for assessing
damage on local transportation system
• Fieldwork
• Regional Coordination Center
• State Emergency Operations Center
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23. National Association of Development Organizations
RPCs’ Post-Irene Tasks
Responsible for local transportation system:
• Mapping & data collection
• Resource matching
• Communications
• Help with FEMA Public Assistance
• Technical assistance
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24. National Association of Development Organizations
RPC fieldwork
• Detailed inventory of every damaged
road segment
• Inventory damaged bridges
• Inventory damaged culverts where
possible

25. National Association of Development Organizations
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Photo courtesy of Southern Windsor County RPC

26. National Association of Development Organizations
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27. RPC work at the Regional
National Association of Development Organizations
Coordination Center
• Established at Chittenden County RPC (MPO)
• Daily/weekly status reports
• Damage Assessment Collection
– Create forms
– Base maps to record damage
– Compile all damage reports
• Disseminate the damage report information
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National Association of Development Organizations

29. Daily Status Report
Irene Flood Damage Town Highway Regional Status Report
Daily Summary by Town
To be submitted BY NOON daily to mboomhower@ccmpo.org Preliminary assessment
Date 9/9/2011
FIRST SET RPC CODE IN YELLOW PULLDOWN CELL BELOW - this will then only show towns in the RPC region in the town name column pulldown
Regional Planning Commission SWCRPC Southern Windsor County RPC
Road Status Bridge Status Culvert Status
# Partially
# Open but Open # Emergency Total # Open but # Partially Open # Emergency Total # Open but # Partially Open # Emergency Total
Town Name Damaged (e.g. 1 lane) Only # Closed Damaged Damaged (e.g. 1 lane) Only # Closed Damaged Damaged (e.g. 1 lane) Only # Closed Damaged
Andover 28 5 3 36 1 1 0
Baltimore 1 1 0 0
Cavendish 2 67 5 74 1 1 0
Chester 123 1 124 9 9 0
Ludlow 110 14 124 1 2 3 0
Reading 25 14 1 40 1 1 0
Springfield 4 4 0 0
Weathersfield 9 4 1 14 0 0
West Windsor 38 1 2 41 1 1 0
Windsor 3 2 5 1 1 2 0
• Example report from September 9, 2011
• Courtesy Chittenden County RPC

30. National Association of Development Organizations
Daily Status Report

31. National Association of Development Organizations
RPC work at the SEOC
SEOC—State Emergency Operation Center
• Incident Command System’s Planning and
Logistics Sections role
• Assisted FEMA
• Incident Command System structure was
set up for the RPCs to report to VTrans with
status updates to the SEOC
• Staffed multiple positions at State Support
Function 1

32. National Association of Development Organizations
Lessons Learned
• Problems not generalizable across
neighboring towns
• Data collection was overwhelming
• Need to develop and refine processes
during blue-sky periods
• Damage assessment form revised 4 times
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33. National Association of Development Organizations
Next Steps for Vermont
• More disaster planning, including incident
command response training for all RPCs
• Full understanding of emergency operation
center functions by all public officials
• Defining roles and funding sources by
agreements during blue-sky periods
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34. National Association of Development Organizations
Next Steps for Vermont
• Fluvial erosion studies, climate discussions
influencing local and state system planning
• Switch to Fluvial Erosion Hazard mapping,
beyond basic floodplain mapping
• Assist localities with identifying vulnerable
parcels and infrastructure, alternatives
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35. National Association of Development Organizations
Where are they now?
• Many roads and bridges re-opened by Dec
2011
• Largest transportation budget in state’s
history signed May 2012
• 2012 construction season saw more
recovery, more resiliency improvements
• Ongoing resiliency, funding discussions at
state and local levels
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36. National Association of Development Organizations
Photo courtesy of Southern Windsor County RPC
Special thanks:
Kate Humphrey, Cooley LLP; Tom Kennedy and Katharine Otto,
SWCRPC; Pam Brangan and Michele Boomhower, CCRPC; Peter
Gregory and Rita Seto, TRORC; Catherine Dimitruk and Shawn
Coleman, NWRPC; Greg Riley, VTrans; Kevin Adderly, FHWA 36

37. National Association of Development Organizations
Additional Resources
Carrie Kissel
ckissel@nado.org | 202.624.8829
www.NADO.org
www.RuralTransportation.org
www.Facebook.com/RPOAmerica
Twitter @RPOAmerica