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Florida
Department of Transportation (FDOT) |
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Florida Selected to Receive $10 Million Model Deployment Initiative Grant
FDOT was awarded a $10 million grant recently solicited by the U.S. Department of Transportation’s (USDOT’s) Federal Highway Administration (FHWA). The grant, known as the Surface Transportation Security and Reliability Information System Model Deployment (Model Deployment Initiative),will allow the state to expand an innovative transportation information model which will continue to improve Florida’s roadways. This is a four-year cooperative agreement between USDOT and FDOT — two years of design and implementation and two years of operational evaluation.
Governor Bush made the announcement in a press release on April 2, 2003, and stated, “We've made a major commitment to Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) in Florida to improve our transportation network. This advanced use of technology will produce real-time results in moving people and goods quicker, safer, and more efficiently across our state.”
This project is sometimes called the “Infostructure” grant because it will provide an information infrastructure. Florida proposed an aggressive program, called “iFlorida,” which meets the objectives for the Model Deployment Initiative:
- Expand and integrate existing data collection and monitoring systems;
- Collect and share data;
- Use data operationally to improve transportation system security, safety, reliability and performance; and
- Distribute data to the traveling public, where appropriate.
To meet the Model Deployment Initiative ’s objectives, “iFlorida” defines a total of 24 integrated projects that build upon Florida’s institutional, operational, and technical foundations while leveraging the collective experience, commitment, and resources of our participating organizations.
The Governor’s press release may be viewed at http://www11.myflorida.com/intelligenttransportation systems/Gov press release.htm. Additionally, a more detailed summary of the Model Deployment Initiative may be viewed at http://www11.myflorida.com/intelligenttransportationsystems/iFlorida page Overview 4-2-03.pdf.
For more information, please contact Anne Brewer at the FDOT Distirct 5 Office, (386) 943-5319 or email Anne.Brewer@dot.state.fl.us.
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FDOT's ITS America 2003 Exhibit is “Hot! Hot! Hot!”
FDOT, in partnership with ITS Florida, is planning a Florida ITS Pavilion in the Exhibition Hall at ITS America’s 13th Annual Meeting and Exposition in Minneapolis, Minnesota, from May 19-22, 2003. FDOT has established a reputation of providing unique and informative exhibits at meetings such as this; and this year should prove to be no different.
FDOT has procured a 20' by 20' booth and ITS Florida has procured six 10' by 10' booths that will make up the Florida ITS Pavilion. ITS Florida’s booths surround the FDOT booth with three on each side, making FDOT’s booth the centerpiece of the pavilion.
ITS America’s 13th Annual Meeting and Exposition theme is “Real World, Real Results.” And, “Florida ITS is Hot! Hot! Hot!” is the theme FDOT has adopted, signifying that the state of Florida is aggressively pursuing real world projects to get real results. Images of beautiful, sunny Florida will intermingle with ITS deployment pictures creating inviting graphical elements in FDOT’s booth. The scheme for the booth will accentuate FDOT’s theme that “Florida ITS is Hot! Hot! Hot!”
FDOT’s booth will be set up as a presentation theater with ITS Florida’s six booths providing space to private companies and public sector organizations for Florida ITS-related exhibits. All private companies and public sector organizations involved in ITS in Florida are encouraged to participate in this unique opportunity. Private companies and public sector organizations wishing to participate in this opportunity should contact Charles Wallace at (352) 374-6635, or ITSFlorida@itsflorida.org as soon as possible.
The presentation theater will provide public and private exhibitors with the opportunity to share presentation time, thus allowing exhibitors to come together to give live presentations on an array of ITS projects in Florida.
Stop by and visit — FDOT’s booth number is 837.
For more information, please contact Leslie Boatman at the FDOT ITS Office in Tallahassee, (850) 410-5620 or email Leslie.Boatman@dot.state.fl.us.
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March 2003 FDOT ITS Working Group Meeting Wrap-up
FDOT’s ITS Office held its beginning-of-the-year ITS Working Group Meeting on March 19 and 20. The meeting was held at Florida’s Turnpike Enterprise Turkey Lake facility.
On the first day of the meeting, several organizations gave updates on ITS projects. Noreen Hazelton, from the I-95 Corridor Coalition, welcomed Florida as the newest member of the Coalition. Ms. Hazelton will be Florida’s point of contact with the Coalition.
Following the I-95 Corridor Coalition welcome, members of the private sector and academia delivered presentations on a broad range of topics, such as:
- Wireless Research;
- Unmanned Aerial Vehicles;
- Road Weather Information Systems;
- Smart Beacons;
- ITS and Roadway Construction;
- Center-to-Center Network;
- Traffic Video Sharing; and
- Advanced Video Management Systems.
The first day was wrapped up by an interesting tour of the Turkey Lake Transportation Management Center. The ITS Office would like to thank the staff of Florida's Turnpike Enterprise for facilitating this tour.
On the second day of the meeting, FDOT’s ITS Office and Districts gave presentations updating various ITS deployments and projects. Finally, the Federal Highway Administration reported its ITS highlights.
The beginning-of-the-year FDOT ITS Working Group Meeting was very well attended with over 120 attendees. The next FDOT ITS Working Group Meeting, typically held in July, has been moved to the week of August 11, to join the 2003 National Rural ITS (NRITS) Conference (formerly known as RATTS), which will be held at the Westin Innisbrook Resort in Palm Harbor, Florida.
FDOT’s ITS Office is seeking input to develop an agenda for the mid-year ITS Working Group Meeting. For more information or to submit any agenda items, please contact Leslie Boatman at the FDOT ITS Office in Tallahassee, (850) 410-5620 or email Leslie.Boatman@dot.state.fl.us.
Presentations from all ITS Working Group Meetings may be viewed on FDOT’s ITS Web site.
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FDOT's ITS Office recently began work on an ITS Standards Implementation project, which primarily entails developing and/or updating a set of specifications formatted as an ITS Standard Specifications and Drawings Handbook. Some aspects of, or elements necessary for, a successful ITS project may be better suited for inclusion in existing FDOT design manuals, in which case, they will be. However, FDOT’s ITS Office would like to have these guidelines available to the FDOT Districts and Turnpike Enterprise as soon as possible. Therefore, the development of an ITS Standard Specifications and Drawings Handbook (Handbook) will provide the most direct solution possible in the shortest amount of time.
Additional goals of this project are the creation of an ITS standards “test bed” within FDOT’s ITS Office and continued support in reviewing and commenting on ITS standards and project specifications developed by other states, together with those employed by the FDOT Districts.
A Standards Review and Acceptance Steering Committee (Steering Committee) was formed during the “project specific” portion of FDOT’s beginning-of-the-year ITS Working Group Meeting in March. The Steering Committee will guide the development of ITS standards implementation. The Steering Committee will meet approximately six times over the course of the project to review and comment on the findings and progress of the project. In this way, an outcome that is amenable to the FDOT is assured as the project progresses.
A Project Team was formed and is reaching out to the Districts and other agencies and states to collect and categorize ITS standards, specifications, and drawings that have been successfully used in the past. These items will be used as source material, models, and references for those being developed for FDOT. Once this is completed, the project team will develop the “strawman requirements for specifications” to determine exactly how the material will be formatted and presented.
The ITS Office's Telecommunications
General Consultant (PB Farradyne) is working on a “parallel”
project to produce ITS telecommunications standards. Sometimes this simply
means identifying the appropriate National Transportation Communications
for ITS Protocol (NTCIP) standards. This “parallel” project
creates the necessity for much coordination. A determination has been
made that the Handbook will feature a type of “matrix”
to assist the ITS project design engineers in choosing the best devices
based on the circumstances under which they will be used. The “matrix”
was selected because the performance of any one ITS device is entirely
dependent on the conditions under which it is deployed. Each type of device
has certain conditions under which its use is optimal, and the project
team intends to illustrate how to choose devices according to these conditions.
For more information, please contact Gene Glotzbach at the FDOT ITS Office in Tallahassee, (850) 410-5616 or email Gene.Glotzbach@dot.state.fl.us.
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The Florida CVISN Task Team Attends VACIS Demonstration
The Florida Commercial Vehicle Information Systems and Networks (CVISN) Task Team attended a demonstration of the Vehicle and Cargo Inspection System (VACIS) gamma ray technology on February 18, 2003, at the Ellaville Agricultural Interdiction site on I-10. The Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services facilitated the demonstration. Participants were allowed to observe inspections of several commercial vehicles as the gamma ray equipment created interior views of vehicles’ trailers. The gamma ray equipment alerts the VACIS operators of any potential problems in commercial vehicles.
The
mobile VACIS is a truck-mounted, gamma ray imaging system designed to
inspect the contents of commercial vehicle containers and passenger vehicles
for illegal imports, including agricultural, aquaculture and horticultural
products, and/or explosive devices without entering the vehicle. The VACIS
produces radiographic images of the scanned cargo and can identify hidden
compartments associated with the transportation of explosives, weapons,
and other threatening cargo. The gamma rays produced from the source pass
through the scanned target and into a detector tower. The information
received from the detector tower is fed into a computer, which produces
an image of the scanned target. The image can then be manipulated by means
of increasing or decreasing the image contrast to allow very sharp detail
of the contents to be recognized.
The VACIS offers a quick set-up time of approximately 10 minutes. Each scan takes about 30 to 60 seconds. Its design allows for easy maintenance and fast cycle times as well as maximum operational flexibility. The technology is functional in both fixed and mobile capacities. The benefits of using VACIS gamma rays over x-rays are that gamma rays cost less, require less operating space, and are operate safer. Additionally, gamma rays can penetrate up to 6 inches of steel.
Along with the Florida CVISN Task Team, participants in the demonstration included FDOT's ITS Office, Permits, and Motor Carrier Compliance Offices, the Department of Revenue and the Office of Agricultural Law Enforcement. Demonstrations of this nature allow attendees to be kept informed of the latest technologies available in the areas of commercial vehicle enforcement and Homeland Security.
For more information, please contact Mike Akridge at the FDOT ITS Office in Tallahassee, (850) 410-5607 or email Mike.Akridge@dot.state.fl.us.
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ITS
— From a Contractor's Point of View
About a month ago I was asked by Chester Chandler, the ITS Office Manager,
to write an editorial for the SunGuideSM Disseminator’s
April edition. At this point in my career, I was most honored to have
the opportunity to write this editorial. I asked Chester what type of
article he would like me to write and he suggested that I write an editorial
on my opinion of ITS from a contractor’s point of view.
I would like to start by providing some history. In 1974, I started in the specialty contracting industry working for Mike Hunter, Inc. — installing highway signs and structures, traffic signal systems, and highway lighting and guardrails. I have spent most of my career working in Florida, with some time spent in Georgia, the Carolinas, and Virginia. I have two important milestones coming up. This month I will be celebrating my 50th birthday and next year I will have spent 30 years of my life working in this industry.
I have been known to have very strong opinions about what I believe to be the correct and incorrect ways to construct a project. I have had the opportunity to see an enormous amount of change develop over the years. I have worked on projects that have widened the same roadways — two and three times over the years. Still, the traffic worsened every year. I’ve worked through the addition of high occupancy vehicle lanes to Florida’s interstates. At the time, this was going to be the best way to alleviate rush hour traffic congestion, until a Florida Highway Patrol trooper pulls over a car that only has one person in it, then traffic comes to a stand-still. After 30 some years in the same industry, projects become routine, and the same situations and problems keep coming up.
Just when it was getting a little boring, along came ITS!
At first I was intimidated by this new specialized industry and was not really sure what to make of it. Everything had an acronym, such as ITS, ATIS, VMS, DMS, RTMS, ITMS, etc. And then there was “fiber cable” which, at first, was a very risky product for a contractor to install. So much to learn and not a lot of places to go to get the knowledge. I needed to survive in this new industry. The first couple of projects in Florida were not very successful and the outlook didn’t look good for this new industry. In fact, a lot of the specialty contractors stayed away from the first ITS projects altogether!
In 1998, I was fortunate enough to go back to my roots and rejoin the people that I started with in this industry. I was hired by Mike Hunter, III, the grandson of the man I started with. The Hunter family business had been purchased by MasTec (one of the largest telecommunications companies in the country) and he wanted me to manage Florida for him. Mr. Hunter had years of experience working on ITS that the Georgia Department of Transportation had installed prior to the Olympic Games in Atlanta. My ITS career had begun and I had my mentor in place.
Mike Hunter had vast experience with ITS products that worked, and ITS products that did not. MasTec was also a family-owned business, founded by Jorge Mas Canosa, and the largest minority-owned business in the United States. MasTec, a leading end-to-end voice, data and energy infrastructure solution provider, specializing in the telecommunications industry, consists of thousands of highly-trained men and women serving multi-national communications, broadband, and energy companies. We quickly positioned ourselves as an ITS contractor with many years of experience in highway specialty work and telecommunications projects in a state that had really just started to develop a statewide ITS.
My career was revitalized overnight and I was learning something new everyday. I had the opportunity to visit other states with fully-developed ITS and learn from their success stories. To this day, I am very excited to be a part of an industry that is developing systems that are making a difference in the traffic congestion that we all have to deal with on a daily basis.
Mike Hunter and I attended some of FDOT’s first ITS Working Group Meetings and had the opportunity to meet and interact with other leaders of this new and exciting industry. We shared ideas, listened to ideas, and learned about the future plans for developing a statewide ITS in Florida. Over the past five years we have been able to participate in many successful projects in Florida, and also in some projects that never got off the ground. We have successfully completed over $25 million worth of ITS contracts in the state of Florida.
I believe the key to successful ITS in Florida is communication. FDOT and ITS consultants and contractors must be willing to share success stories as well as failures. I believe FDOT should continue to look outside of their boundaries and go to other states that have had more experience installing and maintaining ITS. By doing this, they can learn what has been successful and what has not.
From this contractor’s
point of view, I am very excited over what the next ten years will bring.
Florida deserves to have the best transportation system available to
meet the needs of our growing tourism industry as well as our increasing
population. It is our collective challenge to build and develop a
statewide, fully-integrated ITS that will be the best in the nation. I
am very proud and committed to being a part of this challenge.
This editorial was provided by John P. Coyne of MasTec. Mr. Coyne may be reached at John.Coyne@MasTec.com.
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Wherein a compendium of various random facts and snippets of humor is presented on an irregular basis for purposes of cerebral edification and mental diversion!
In The Year Of —
| 1899 — | A New York City taxi driver becomes the first driver arrested for speeding. He was allegedly traveling 12 mph. |
| 1900 — | The state of Connecticut becomes the first state to enact speed limits — set at 12 mph in rural areas and 8 mph in cities. Some localities had already adopted local speed limits. |
| 1933 — | The township of Eastchester in New York becomes the first jurisdiction to install two-way radios in police cars (all two of them)! |
A duck's quack doesn't echo anywhere — |
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No
one knows why!
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Make headlines — |
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Use
a corduroy pillow!
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Change
your mind!
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If
you would like to contribute some interesting trivia,
email Nick Adams
All submittals
welcome!
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SunGuideSM Disseminator Word Challenge Answers
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ITS
Awareness Day
Don't forget to mark your calendars for the ITS Awareness Day, hosted
by ITS Florida, on April 22, 2003, in the second floor Rotundra of the
State Capitol from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. This event will present the ITS community
with an opportunity to reach out and inform our State’s elected officials
about the benefits of ITS during their 2003 Legislative Session. Public
agencies, manufacturers, academia, and consultants will exhibit ITS projects,
products, and services that highlight the successful track record already
being experienced in Florida.
For more information, please check the ITS Florida Web site at www.itsflorida.org or contact either Terry Griffith at TDGriffith@mmm.com or Erika Ridlehoover at Erika.Ridlehoover@transcore.com.
We look forward to seeing you in the Capitol on April 22!
Hurricane
Evacuation Workshop Announcement
The FDOT
ITS Office, along with the FDOT Safety Office and the Department of Emergency
Management (DEM), has tentatively scheduled a Hurricane Evacuation Workshop
to be held over two days on Tuesday, June 3, 2003, from 1:00 p.m. to 5:00
p.m. and Wednesday, June 4, 2003, from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. The dates
will be finalized after April 24 and may be verified through Leslie Boatman
at the FDOT ITS Office in Tallahassee, (850) 410-5620. The
workshop will be held in Jacksonville, Florida; however, the exact location
is to be determined.
The workshop will bring together several hurricane-prone states in the Southeast to discuss hurricane evacuation and emergency management related issues.
For more information, please
contact Leslie Boatman at the FDOT ITS Office in Tallahassee, (850) 410-5620
or email Leslie.Boatman@dot.state.fl.us.
ITS
Florida Board of Directors Meeting
The ITS Florida Board of Directors Meeting will be held on Monday, April
21, from 10:00 a.m.to 3:00 p.m. at the Betty Easley Conference Center,
Tallahassee, Florida.
For more information, visit ITS Florida's Web site at www.ITSFlorida.org.
C2C
Network Design Workshops
In order to determine bandwidth needs and identify requirements for communications
among Florida's Regional Transportation Management Centers, the ITS Office,
working through its Telecommunications General Consultant (TGC), is conducting
a statewide study. As part of the statewide study, a Center-to-Center
(C2C) Network Design Workshop will be conducted at each District and at
the Turnpike Enterprise. A Workshop Information Package is being developed
for the participants prior to the workshop to identify specific information
needs, and to allow the Districts adequate preparation time. Also prior
to the workshop, participants will be asked to identify current C2C plans,
or requirements, and further expansions.
The typical workshop will start with a brief presentation of the C2C Network. The workshop format will provide the participants the opportunity to identify their specific C2C needs, and develop a better understanding of the C2C Network. The TGC will review and incorporate baseline information previously provided by the Districts and the Turnpike Enterprise relating to C2C requirements. Information will also be obtained from the Statewide ITS Architecture (SITSA), the Statewide Transportation Management Center Software Library System Requirements Ranking, the TMC Software Study, and other documents. This information will be reviewed and confirmed with the Districts and the Turnpike Enterprise. As an outreach effort, the Districts and the Turnpike Enterprise may invite any regional participants desired. If necessary, a follow-up meeting will be conducted with the participants’ technical staff and consultants to identify the specific capabilities of their existing ITS for sharing data and video images.
The schedule for the one-day workshops is:
- April 16, 2003 — District 2 (completed);
- April 23, 2003 — District 4;
- April 30, 2003 — District 6;
- May 7, 2003 — District 5;
- May 15, 2003 — District 1;
- May 28, 2003 — District 7;
- June 3, 2003 — District 3; and
- June 5, 2003 — Turnpike Enterprise.
For more information, please
contact Nick Adams at the FDOT ITS Office in Tallahassee, (850) 410-5608
or email Nick.Adams@dot.state.fl.us.
ITS
Florida's Member of the Month
ITS Florida is publishing monthly
articles on ITS professionals on their Web site at ITSFlorida.org.
Check to see who is in the spotlight this month!
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District
1
Chris Birosak FDOT District 1 Traffic Operations PO Box 1249 Bartow, FL 33831 (863) 519-2507 District 2 Peter Vega FDOT District 2 Traffic Operations 2250 Irene Street, MS 2815 Jacksonville, FL 32204-2619 (904) 360-5463 District 3 Elizabeth McCrary FDOT District 3 Traffic Operations 1074 Highway 90 East Chipley, FL 32428-0607 (850) 638-0250 ext. 210 District 4 Tahira Faquir FDOT District 4 Traffic Operations 3400 W. Commercial Blvd. Ft. Lauderdale, FL 33309 (954) 777-4370 |
District
5
Fred Ferrell FDOT District 5 Traffic Operations 719 S. Woodland Blvd., MS 3-562 Deland, FL 32720-6834 (386) 943-5309 District 6 Jesus Martinez FDOT District 6 1000 NW 111th Avenue, MS 6203 Miami, FL 33172 (305) 499-2446 District 7 Bill Wilshire FDOT District 7 Traffic Operations 11201 N. McKinley Drive Tampa, FL 33612 (813) 975-6612 ext. 7869 Florida's Turnpike Enterprise Ingrid Birenbaum Florida's Turnpike Enterprise PO Box 9828 Ft. Lauderdale, FL 33310-9828 (954) 975-4855 ext. 1290 |
Chester
Chandler |
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| Physical
Address Rhyne Building 2740 Centerview Dr. Suite 3-B Tallahassee, FL 32301 |
Mailing
Address Burns Building 605 Suwannee St. MS 90 Tallahassee, FL 32399 |
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SunGuideSM Disseminator April 2003
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PBS&J
QCAP Document Control Panel
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| Created by: | England |
| Reviewed by: | England, Blanton, Chandler |
| Date: | April 14, 2003 |