Statewide traffic hub in works; cameras, automated bridge de-icing systems in plan

The Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department is establishing a statewide traffic management center, which agency officials see as the next step in using technology to help manage and ease disruptions to traffic.

The department has already amassed a network of 42 closed-circuit television cameras, 54 dynamic message signs and 11 highway advisory radio stations.

It has plans to add more than 200 cameras; double the number of radio stations; deploy 100 weather information systems that can monitor pavement temperatures and collect other data; and add up to 200 bridge de-icing systems, which can monitor temperature and spray de-icing material when needed.

Most of the equipment the department has is stationed in Blytheville, central Arkansas, Northwest Arkansas, Pine Bluff, Texarkana and West Memphis, all urban centers on the state's 700-mile freeway system.

Future construction projects, such as the I-30 corridor through downtown Little Rock and North Little Rock, also will require contractors to deploy cameras and other equipment that the agency can use to monitor and manage traffic in the work zone.

"We actually have quite a bit of equipment," said Scott Bennett, the department's director. "More than anyone realizes."

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The traffic management center will gather all the information from that equipment together in one place for the first time, agency officials said.

"It is ... a central location to collect and disseminate traffic information, monitor a lot of our devices, coordinate with other agencies, which will be law enforcement, emergency management and places like that," Bennett told the Arkansas Highway Commission last week. "It could even be our statewide emergency operations management center if it needed to be."

It won't have all the bells and whistles people might imagine in what will be the nerve center for managing traffic when crashes, bad weather or even earthquakes occur.

"You may have seen pictures of some in big urban areas where they have a roomful of people and walls full of cameras," Bennett said. "That's not exactly what we're talking about right now."

For now, the $1.9 million initiative will be housed in the department's radio room, which is in the basement of the agency headquarters at Interstate 30 and Base Line Road in Little Rock.

The radio room is staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week for the department's Arkansas Highway Police and for other communication responsibilities.

The department plans to remove part of its cafeteria, which also is in the basement, to build out the radio room. It also plans to overhaul the workstations with new furnishings, lighting and equipment. All of that work carries an estimated cost of $600,000.

The 1,900-square-foot center would include a supervisor's office, five radio operator workstations, two traffic management center workstations, a conference room, a server room and a video wall.

"We really think we've got the money in the budget to be able to expand the operations down there to really get this kicked off," Bennett said.

The software needed to integrate the department's monitoring and communication systems is the most expensive -- and challenging -- aspect of the program.

A study by Kimley Horn of Austin, Texas, an engineering consulting firm, said the purchase of commercially available software is a less expensive alternative to developing customized software. Still, the software is estimated to cost $1.3 million and take up to two years to procure, implement, test and accept, according to the study.

The funding will come from federal money the department gets for safety improvements, not for construction, Bennett said.

The traffic management center is part of a broader effort across the nation to deploy technology -- intelligent transportation systems, in the industry parlance -- to better manage traffic with the existing roadway systems to save money or delay the expense of building more roads.

Little Rock has a traffic management center. Unlike the statewide management center, the Little Rock center's staff can change the sequence on traffic signals, as traffic warrants, from either the center or from apps on their smartphones.

Metroplan, the long-range transportation planning agency for central Arkansas, has long advocated deploying technology.

It has helped pay for a project on Arkansas 100 in Maumelle, locally known as Maumelle Boulevard, that will install a traffic signal system that can adjust the timing of the lights to help move traffic in the most efficient manner based on traffic volume and other data.

The department says the traffic management center is only part of a larger, long-range plan to better manage traffic with better information.

"The overall purpose is to help improve the safety for the traveling public and get information out to first responders, trying to do the best you can to reduce nonrecurring types of congestion. That means when you have accidents in work zones and things like that," Bennett said. "A lot of it's about communication and making sure you're getting information out as much as you can."

A Section on 05/01/2017

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