ITD wins national communication award for Eclipse Prep work

The Great American Eclipse hit the country on Aug. 21, 2017, but preparations by the Idaho Transportation Department began much earlier. In fact, knowing that Idaho would be one of the prime viewing sites in the entire nation, ITD started making preparations for this day early on, and the efforts helped defuse a potentially catastrophic effect.

APEX, the contest arm of the Communications Concepts group out of Alexandria, Virginia, took notice. ITD was given an Award of Excellence from the group in early July.

Estimates of increased traffic volumes for this once-in-several-lifetimes event ranged from 500,000 more vehicles on Idaho roads to 2 million more. Considering Idaho normally has only 1.1 million licensed drivers statewide, those estimates were alarming.

So rather than waiting for that increase, ITD took proactive steps to inform the public and also ease the potential impact.

First, we added an Eclipse page to our website in the spring. The page featured eclipse news, links to news stories about the event, answers to frequently asked questions, and a list of contacts for further information on the eclipse.

ITD also began pulling together specific plans from each regional office, and talking points to be used statewide.  In the month before the eclipse, ITD also ramped up communications to employees and externally, posting a series of eclipse-related informational topics on the public-facing website.

In the week leading up to the event, ITD began tracking traffic coming into the state and the routes being used, so that we could anticipate the exit routes that were probable immediately after the event, as the mass exodus began. ITD also used a live website to update traffic volumes on routes so that other drivers could adjust their travel times and locations to avoid the crush.

In addition, ITD took the following steps:

- Suspended construction statewide from August 18-21
- Returned to four lanes on I-15 by halting a major southeastern Idaho construction project
- Mowed highway shoulders so cars with extremely hot tailpipes would not spark fires
- Used flaggers and traffic control at the busiest intersections
- Instituted load restrictions on heavy loads that weekends so big rigs would not compete with small cars

In the end, ITD reached a quarter million people via Facebook, hosted 80,000 visits to the department’s eclipse webpage, had 160,000 visits to the state’s traveler information system at 5-1-1, and saw 4,400 downloads for an Interstate 15 app that listed travel times in the corridor, which served as a preview of bottlenecks. I-15 was specifically targeted because it would be the heaviest entry point for vehicles coming into Idaho during the event.

All of this preparation and planning helped ITD accommodate the increase in traffic. No media outlet reported delays of more than a few hours after the event – a huge success given the nightmarish possibilities.  

Several department groups played a big role — notably our Office of Communications and the Roadway Data groups. 

The winning entry was one of 1,400 national and international entries, from all over the U.S., plus Canada, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, India, the United Kingdom, and South Africa.

Editor's Note: I also won an Award of Excellence for Editorial & Advocacy Writing.

Published 07-20-18