The I-35 Project - ‘The Smart Corridor’ by Jason Marshall REDNews
The Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI) is a state agency and part of the Texas A&M University system. They have about seven hundred employees, which includes about three hundred students and do research in all areas and all modes of transportation. Ginger Goodin has been with TTI for seventeen years, and most of her research has been in the area of transportation planning and operations. Traffic Congestion, Proposed Solutions and Funding I-35 was ranked fourth in the state for being the most congested and the Austin region was the number one most congested corridor. I-35 has now become the most congested highway in Texas, and the Austin region remains the most congested corridor.
Ginger Goodin
The good news is there are many proposed solutions to help with traffic congestion along Interstate 35. Unfortunately, the scenarios that are possibly financially viable wouldn’t solve the problem and the solutions that would solve the problem are too expensive. With a gas tax that hasn’t been raised in over 20 years and continued concerns over where the funding for new The Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI) was asked by the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) to assist in the application and refinement of prior research to help ensure the successful completion of the reconstruction of the IH-35 corridor from Hillsboro to Salado (90 miles total). TTI will implement the project during the five years of the overall IH-35 construction project (2011-2015) for $16.8 million.
TTI will lead the following three efforts: IH-35 Mobility Coordinator The IH-35 project, which will result in the completion of eight lanes through Waco and Belton and six lanes through the remainder of the corridor, is actually made up of 14 individual projects with multiple contractors. The Mobility Coordinator’s role will include: • Facilitate open lines of communication among key stakeholders. • Coordinate and facilitate an expert traffic management team. • Support an ongoing public information campaign to educate property owners, businesses and the general public about the project and its impact.
IH-35 Traveler Information System Developer and Implementer The economic and mobility importance of the IH-35 corridor requires an unprecedented real-time
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highways will come from, many who have to deal with traffic congestion on highways are left to wonder when proposed solutions will be implemented. However, Senior Researcher, Ginger Goodin, believes technology now and moving forward will play a vital role in relieving Traffic Congestion on IH-35 near Austin traffic congestion on our highways. “One of the things that we have been doing is [creating] some technology that helps us monitor conditions and provide information to motorists if there’s a closure because of construction or if there’s some kind of incidents that have occurred. We’ve been working very closely with TxDot on this and see it as the start of what you might call a ‘smart corridor’, “ she said. -A Smart Corridor is a corridor in which multiple transportation networks are operationally coordinated, including intermodal connections and collaboration between organizations that participate in the operation of the corridor. Below is an excerpt from the I-35 Corridor Project initiative by Christopher M. Poe and the research teams at Texas A&M Transportation Institute.
travel information system to inform travelers, freight operators and businesses of the potential impacts of travel delay and other travel challenges during construction. Implementations include: • Implement proven Bluetooth® travel time monitoring research developed by TTI, which can be done at a fraction of the cost of traditional monitoring approaches. • Develop a first-of-its-kind, multi-contractor construction activity clearinghouse. • Integrate a private sector-developed and deployed lane closure monitoring system. • Based on user-defined needs, develop an innovative travel information dissemination tool using social media, in-vehicle devices and smart phones. This effort will include guidance from TTI’s distracted driver research team to ensure maximum traveler safety.
IH-35 Intelligent Corridor Development Plan With the expertise gained through this project, TTI will create a plan to support the deployment of the first intelligent transportation corridor in Texas, and provide the data needed to replicate these “smart” corridors in the future. Also: • Incorporate technologies developed through the U.S. Department of Transportation’s IntelliDrive® project (in which TTI is involved) to enable wireless, networked communications among vehicles, transportation infrastructure and passengers’ personal communications devices. • Determine the long-term needs for the IH-35
corridor through stakeholder meetings and input. • Create an advisory panel to provide input to TxDOT on creating intelligent corridors in Texas. Please visit http://tti.tamu.edu/projects/initiatives/i-35mobility for information regarding the complete project. If you would like to find out more about Ginger Goodin and the research that her and other researchers are doing at TTI, please visit www.tti.tamu.edu.