VDOT Southwestern Region

Description: The VDOT Southwestern Region operates and manages the VDOT roadways and facilities in the Southwestern Regional Operations area defined by the VDOT Bristol District, VDOT Salem District and VDOT Lynchburg District. The VDOT Southwestern Region operates the Traffic Operations Center and the Traffic Signal System, operates snow plows and the safety service patrol.

Inventory Elements:

• VDOT Big Walker Mountain Tunnel
• VDOT Big Walker Mountain Tunnel Field Equipment
• VDOT East River Mountain Tunnel
• VDOT East River Mountain Tunnel Field Equipment
• VDOT Lynchburg District Field Equipment
• VDOT Lynchburg District Maintenance Residencies
• VDOT Lynchburg District Maintenance Vehicles
• VDOT Lynchburg District SSP Vehicles
• VDOT Southwestern TOC/ATMS
• VDOT SWR VDS
• VDOT SWR VDS Sensor Stations (ESS)

Projects:

• none

Roles and Responsibilities:

Archived Data Systems for Virginia Lynchburg District ITS Architecture
• Perform quality checks, error notification, and archive coordination.
• Collect and maintain data and data catalogs from one or more data sources.

Commercial Vehicle Operations for Virginia Lynchburg District ITS Architecture
• None defined

Emergency Management for Virginia Lynchburg District ITS Architecture
• Plan strategically for emergency response.
• Share information with other public safety agencies via the Emergency Operations Centers to support large-scale incidents and disasters.
• Support coordinated response to incidents.
• Share incident notifications, manage incident response resources and coordinate overall incident situation and response among allied response organizations.
• Manage and support routine maintenance on the roadway or right-of-way including landscape maintenance, hazard removal (roadway debris, dead animals), routine maintenance activities (roadway cleaning, grass cutting), and repair and maintenance of both ITS and non-ITS equipment.
• Gather dispatch and routing information from an emergency vehicle using on-board equipment for vehicle tracking and communications with care facilities.
• Request signal preemption via short range communication directly from the emergency vehicle to the traffic control equipment on the roadside.
• Provide incident information to dispatched public safety personnel via on-board vehicle systems.
• Transmit incident information from on-scene public safety to the public safety center via on-board vehicle systems.
• Collect current and forecast road and weather information that is used to more effectively manage incidents.
• Operate and maintain security surveillance devices and analysis of that data to detect potential threats such as at transit stops, transit stations, rest areas, park and ride lots, modal interchange facilities, on-board a transit vehicle, etc.
• Route public safety vehicles to facilitate the quickest/safest arrival either based on real-time traffic information and road conditions or request routes from the traffic management center.
• Provide tactical decision support, resource coordination, and communications integration among public safety agencies for Incident Commands that are established by first responders to support local management of an incident.
• Plan and coordinate evacuation and reentry of a population in the vicinity of a disaster or other emergency that poses a risk to public safety.
• Distribute emergency information to the traveling public, including evacuation information and wide-area alerts.
• Monitors alerting and advisory systems, information collected by ITS surveillance and sensors, and reports from other agencies in order to identify potential, imminent, or in-progress major incidents or disasters.
• Provide incident notification to other ITS centers to notify the traveling public.
• Analyze security sensor data and correlate with surveillance data and alerts from other agencies to detect potential threats.
• Disseminate threat information to other agencies.
• Provide enroute travel information to drivers (via dynamic message signs and highway advisory radio).
• Monitor traffic sensor and surveillance systems remotely to detect and verify incidents.
• Monitor external advisory and incident reporting systems, intermodal freight depots, and border crossings for incident information.
• Report identified incidents to operations personnel and other centers.
• Formulate an incident response that takes into account the incident potential, incident impacts, and/or resources required for incident management including proposing and facilitating the dispatch of emergency response and service vehicles.
• Coordinate incident response with all appropriate cooperating agencies.
• Control traffic signal controllers remotely to implement traffic management strategies at signalized intersections based on traffic conditions, incidents, emergency vehicle preemptions, pedestrian crossings, etc.
• Disseminate traffic-related data to other centers, the media, and travelers via the driver information systems (DMS, HAR).

Freeway Management for Virginia Lynchburg District ITS Architecture
• Monitor traffic sensors and surveillance (CCTV) equipment.
• Collect current traffic conditions from sensors and surveillance equipment.
• Distribute current traffic conditions to other centers.
• Operate and maintain field equipment that controls and sends data to other field equipment (such as environmental sensors that send data to a DMS or coordination between traffic controllers on adjacent intersections), without being controlled from a center.
• Monitor traffic conditions using field equipment (i.e. loop detectors and CCTV cameras).
• Operate and maintain freeway control equipment including ramp meters, mainline metering, and lane control equipment which controls traffic on freeways, including indicators to drivers.
• Provide enroute travel information to drivers (via dynamic message signs and highway advisory radio).
• Control ramp meters, interchange connector meters, lane control signals, mainline meters, and variable speed control systems remotely.
• Share traffic information with other traffic management centers.
• Allow control of field equipment by other traffic management centers.
• Control traffic signal controllers remotely to implement traffic management strategies at signalized intersections based on traffic conditions, incidents, emergency vehicle preemptions, pedestrian crossings, etc.
• Disseminate traffic-related data to other centers, the media, and travelers via the driver information systems (DMS, HAR).

Incident Management for Virginia Lynchburg District ITS Architecture
• Plan strategically for emergency response.
• Share information with other public safety agencies via the Emergency Operations Centers to support large-scale incidents and disasters.
• Operate and maintain field equipment that controls and sends data to other field equipment (such as environmental sensors that send data to a DMS or coordination between traffic controllers on adjacent intersections), without being controlled from a center.
• Support coordinated response to incidents.
• Share incident notifications, manage incident response resources and coordinate overall incident situation and response among allied response organizations.
• Provide incident information to dispatched public safety personnel via on-board vehicle systems.
• Transmit incident information from on-scene public safety to the public safety center via on-board vehicle systems.
• Provide tactical decision support, resource coordination, and communications integration among public safety agencies for Incident Commands that are established by first responders to support local management of an incident.
• Monitor traffic conditions to identify incidents.
• Monitor traffic sensor and surveillance systems remotely to detect and verify incidents.
• Monitor external advisory and incident reporting systems, intermodal freight depots, and border crossings for incident information.
• Report identified incidents to operations personnel and other centers.
• Formulate an incident response that takes into account the incident potential, incident impacts, and/or resources required for incident management including proposing and facilitating the dispatch of emergency response and service vehicles.
• Coordinate incident response with all appropriate cooperating agencies.

Maintenance and Construction for Virginia Lynchburg District ITS Architecture
• Plan strategically for emergency response.
• Share information with other public safety agencies via the Emergency Operations Centers to support large-scale incidents and disasters.
• Operate and maintain field equipment that controls and sends data to other field equipment (such as environmental sensors that send data to a DMS or coordination between traffic controllers on adjacent intersections), without being controlled from a center.
• Recommend courses of action including dispatch instructions based on current and forecast environmental and road conditions (filtered and fused for specific time horizons) and additional application specific information using Maintenance Decision Support Systems.
• Process current and forecast weather data, road condition information and local environmental data, and use internal models to develop specialized detailed forecasts of local weather and surface conditions.
• Disseminate road weather information to other agencies and centers.
• Manage and support routine maintenance on the roadway or right-of-way including landscape maintenance, hazard removal (roadway debris, dead animals), routine maintenance activities (roadway cleaning, grass cutting), and repair and maintenance of both ITS and non-ITS equipment.
• Monitor vehicle and equipment condition.
• Tracks vehicle maintenance history.
• Schedules routine and corrective maintenance.
• Tracks the location of maintenance and construction vehicles and other equipment remotely.
• Send the location of the maintenance and construction vehicles and other equipment to the maintenance center operator.
• Manage winter road maintenance, tracking and controlling snow plow operations, roadway treatment (e.g., salt spraying and other material applications) based on weather information.
• Disseminate work activity schedules and current asset restrictions to other agencies.
• Coordinate work schedules, factoring in the needs and activities of other agencies and adjacent jurisdictions.
• Monitor and support work zone activities remotely, controlling traffic through dynamic message signs (DMS), highway advisory radio, gates and barriers, and informing other groups of activity (e.g., traveler information systems, traffic management centers, other maintenance and construction centers).
• Monitor and control traffic and provide information directly to drivers in maintenance and construction areas using field equipment including CCTV cameras, driver information systems (such as DMS), and gates/barriers.
• Coordinate with maintenance systems using work zone images and traveler information systems (such as DMS).
• Distribute work plans so that work zones are established that have minimum traffic impact.
• Collect current and forecast road and weather information that is used to more effectively manage incidents.
• Collect weather information including temperature, wind, humidity, precipitation, and visibility from environmental sensors, surface and sub-surface.
• Collect road surface information including road surface temperature, moisture, ice formation, and salinity from environmental sensors, surface and sub-surface.
• Provide enroute travel information to drivers (via dynamic message signs and highway advisory radio).
• Formulate an incident response that takes into account the incident potential, incident impacts, and/or resources required for incident management including proposing and facilitating the dispatch of emergency response and service vehicles.
• Coordinate incident response with all appropriate cooperating agencies.
• Operate and maintain environmental sensors.
• Assimilate collected environmental data with other current and forecast road conditions and surface weather information from weather service providers and roadway maintenance operations.

Parking Management for Virginia Lynchburg District ITS Architecture
• None defined

Surface Street Management for Virginia Lynchburg District ITS Architecture
• Monitor traffic sensors and surveillance (CCTV) equipment.
• Collect current traffic conditions from sensors and surveillance equipment.
• Distribute current traffic conditions to other centers.
• Operate and maintain field equipment that controls and sends data to other field equipment (such as environmental sensors that send data to a DMS or coordination between traffic controllers on adjacent intersections), without being controlled from a center.
• Monitor traffic conditions using field equipment (i.e. loop detectors and CCTV cameras).
• Provide enroute travel information to drivers (via dynamic message signs and highway advisory radio).
• Control ramp meters, interchange connector meters, lane control signals, mainline meters, and variable speed control systems remotely.
• Share traffic information with other traffic management centers.
• Allow control of field equipment by other traffic management centers.
• Control traffic signal controllers remotely to implement traffic management strategies at signalized intersections based on traffic conditions, incidents, emergency vehicle preemptions, pedestrian crossings, etc.
• Disseminate traffic-related data to other centers, the media, and travelers via the driver information systems (DMS, HAR).

Transit Services for Virginia Lynchburg District ITS Architecture
• Plan strategically for emergency response.
• Share information with other public safety agencies via the Emergency Operations Centers to support large-scale incidents and disasters.
• Operate and maintain security surveillance devices and analysis of that data to detect potential threats such as at transit stops, transit stations, rest areas, park and ride lots, modal interchange facilities, on-board a transit vehicle, etc.
• Operate and maintain security sensors in areas such as transit stops, transit stations, rest areas, park and ride lots, modal interchange facilities, on-board a transit vehicle, etc.
• Analyze security sensor data and correlate with surveillance data and alerts from other agencies to detect potential threats.
• Disseminate threat information to other agencies.

Traveler Information for Virginia Lynchburg District ITS Architecture
• Disseminate traffic, transit, maintenance and construction, event, and weather information to travelers.