Agencies from three states discuss incident management

What happens in Idaho doesn’t always stay in Idaho. The same holds true for Utah and Oregon. Highway incidents in one state can have a direct impact on transportation systems and emergency responses in neighboring states.

Representatives from a dozen agencies and organizations in Idaho, Washington and Utah met in Boise to discuss common Traffic Incident Management (TIM) concerns for the Interstate 84 corridor that passes through the three Northwest states.

The Federal Highway Administration delivered a one-day workshop to more than 40 people to help foster better collaboration, communication and emergency responses. FHWA has delivered the program to states along other interstate corridors, but this was the first for the three-state Pacific Northwest region, said Bryan Smith, ITD’s emergency program manager.

The intent was to bring together mid-level managers of the three states to focus on incidents along the corridor, Smith explains. The result will produce better management, response and recovery from incident that affect states that share the interstate corridor.

Among the jurisdictions represented at the meeting were: ITD, ISP, Utah Highway Patrol, Idaho State Communications, FHWA’s Idaho office, Caribou County, the Idaho Fire Chiefs Association, Idaho Towing and Recovery Association, the Oregon DOT and the Utah DOT.

“We are hopeful that the relationships we established at the workshop can be developed and improved,” Smith said. “It was very successful and has given us a lot of ideas for improvement. Some of the benefit was just being able to talk offline with people from the other states."

Discussion generally focused on:

  • The status of TIM activities
  • Ways to potentially improve TIM operations locally in each state along the corridor
  • Best practices and lessons learned from participants
  • Information on the latest national FHWA-endorsed processes, and
  • Communication and TIM activities that impact bordering states

Smith said similar meetings could apply to interstates 15 (Idaho, Utah and Montana) and 90 (Idaho, Montana and Washington). Agencies and organizations in more populated areas along interstate corridors already share TIM strategies and coordinated responses.

See Best Practices

Published 2-10-2012