Transportation Commission tours TMC

By Mark Horan

On June 14, members of the Transportation Commission took a tour of the Transportation Management Center in Cheyenne.

The TMC building is located a mile away from the WYDOT campus and is the central location for TMC and Wyoming Highway Patrol dispatchers.

It was an opportunity for the Commission to get a first-hand look at the technology used for emergency communications and the Wyoming Department of Transportation’s Intelligent Transportation System, which includes the dynamic messaging signs and variable speed limit signs around the state.

During the tour, the Commission met with WYDOT Chief Technology Officer Nate Smolinski, Global Information Systems/ITS program manager Vince Garcia and several TMC/WHP supervisors and dispatch personnel.

The Commission asked many questions during their two-hour visit, focusing on topics such as winter road closures, staffing levels, facility conditions and WYDOT’s travel information website.

The following day at their regu- lar monthly Commission meeting, Commission Chair Susan Holmes thanked members of executive staff for the opportunity to tour the TMC.

“It was a wonderful tour and very enlightening to get a view of the comprehensive nature of what goes on [there] to make this organization work,” Hughes said. “What those people are doing down there is pretty phenomenal.”