Program Description

  Transportation Management, Operations and Emergency/Storm Response

This program supports the department's mission to provide an effective and efficient transportation system to ensure the safe and convenient movement of persons, bicycles, and vehicles throughout the County through daily traffic management operations, as well as its response to emergency events such as winter snow storms, severe wind/rain storms, natural disasters, and man-made emergency incidents.

This program focuses on the general elements associated with daily traffic management, including general engineering and maintenance activities relative to the design, construction, and maintenance of traffic signals, the Advanced Transportation Management System (ATMS), and communication infrastructure that includes the County's fiber optic network. For real-time management of the traffic signal infrastructure, this program also operates the County's Transportation Management Center (TMC) to monitor the computerized traffic signal system, assist with multi-agency incident management response activities, and coordinate special event traffic management. Daily operations relative to the traffic signal system management account for approximately 50 percent of the program's proposed budget.

In addition to the daily traffic management of signal functionality, this program is an integral part of coordinating the response to emergencies and severe weather events through the preparation, active response, and post-storm/emergency cleanup. Tasks performed during these operations include snow pretreatment, roadway snow removal, sidewalk snow removal, salt application, post-snow storm street sweeping, wind and rain storm debris removal, and immediate emergency repairs to damaged and unsafe infrastructure. Emergency operations often require rapid deployment of resources to clear debris/snow to ensure all transportation systems are passable for emergency first responders and the traveling public. During emergency events, this program operates the Storm Operations Center which monitors and coordinates real-time activities Countywide with the Fire and Rescue Service, Police, Emergency Management and Homeland Security, local utility companies, and other County agencies and local jurisdictions as needed. The primary goal for the emergency response component of this program is to keep County residents and the traveling public safe, while providing reliable access to the extensive transportation network. Emergency operations under this program are funded by approximately 50 percent of the program's proposed budget. Actual annual costs associated with the emergency response activities can exceed the approved budget by over 900 percent, therefore expenditures over the budgeted program amount are covered by the Weather Response Non-Departmental Account.