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Jed Boal ReportingYesterday we showed you a semi crash on I-15 that snarled traffic at about the worst possible time of day. It could have been a lot worse, if not for the commuter technology we've come to take for granted in recent years.
When we get stuck in traffic jams, frustration builds. A crash like yesterday's could have shut down the interstate three or four hours, but crash management tools added during I-15 reconstruction get us rolling again quicker.
Yesterday, at the beginning of rush hour, traffic stacked up behind a semi that rolled and dumped metal across the roadway near downtown, around 900 South. When a crash like this happens, an Incident Management Team starts to tackle problems at the Traffic Operations Center, the brain center for our Interstate system.
Chris Siavrakas, TOC Control Room Manager: "The responders in the field can only see so far, but we see miles beyond the incident. We can help plan several layers out."
The TOC hears about the crash from Highway Patrol, sees it on one of their cameras, or gets data of slowing traffic from sensors in the road. When they know where it is and how bad it is, managers put alerts on message boards and online, and they tell Highway Patrol what response is needed.
Chris Siavrakas, TOC Control Room Manager: "Our goal to is to inform everybody else that is on their way to that area to stay away, use alternate routes."
If you called 5-1-1, a recorded message would have told you what was going on. Meantime, Incident Management trucks directed traffic in the immediate area. Distant traffic was diverted.
A couple of lanes were opened shortly after the crash and it was cleared in less than two hours. It's a coordinated effort of cameras, roadway sensors, message boards and computer and phone alerts -- all new tools in the last five years.
Chris Siavrakas, TOC Control Room Manager: "None of that existed prior to the reconstruction. So those are all tools."
If you were at work, you might have received an e-mail or cell phone alert to tell you about the trouble on the road. We've come a long way with metro traffic in the last five to ten years.
