District, Maryland, Virginia and federal officials signed anagreement last week to improve the Washington region's handling oftransportation emergencies in the wake of Sept. 11.
The compact commits signatories to update mass evacuation plans,integrate emergency operating centers, develop a regional data-sharing network and draw together inventories of potential threats,vital installations and resources to preserve road and rail systemsacross the region.
The five-page document creates an executive-level commission, D.C.Transportation Acting Director Dan Tangherlini said, "to worktogether on untying the Gordian knot, if you will, of transportationplanning in an emergency and information sharing every day."
Participants include the state and District transportationdepartments, the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments, theWashington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, the Federal HighwayAdministration and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.
"All the handshake agreements are now captured in a memo ofunderstanding," Maryland Transportation Secretary John D. Porcarisaid at a ceremony hosted by the District at 1 Judiciary Square.
Metro General Manager Richard A. White added, "When you're put tothe test, you don't want to have to hunt down the phone number forsomeone."
The District is already erecting signs on 14 major streetcorridors leading away from the city. There will be about 1,000 "E-route" signs -- short for evacuation- or event-route. Maryland willbegin posting signs along suburban corridors in June, and Virginiawill follow in July or August.
Under the plan, agencies will seek compatible technology, and datalinks will connect Maryland's Statewide Operations Center, nearBaltimore-Washington International Airport, the District'sTransportation Operations Center in the Reeves Center, at 14th and Ustreets NW, and Northern Virginia's traffic management system.
With 70 percent of vehicles on D.C. roads registered to Marylandor Virginia, Tangherlini said, "we would like to make informationabout the state of their roads available to our customers as well."For instance, the District would like each system's motorist-oriented Web site to provide the same regional data or at leastInternet links. The city also wants to revive an old highway advisoryradio channel around the 1600 AM radio band, similar to one that isavailable in Montgomery County and from the National Park Service.
The District also is conducting a $1 million assessment of thethreat posed by trucks, together with the Federal Motor CarrierSafety Administration. The city hopes to combine this assessment withbroader "threat" studies of tour buses and other large vehicles, inlight of concerns over truck bombs.
About 6 percent of the 850,000 daily vehicle trips in and out ofthe District involve heavy vehicles. After last September's terroristattacks, authorities wanted more information about those freightcarriers.
The result of the study and talks with the industry may be thatthe city will publish truck and bus routes and closely monitor anystrays.
"With the potential risks and threats associated with this area,we need to learn more about where they are coming from and where theyare going to and what they do when they are here," Tangherlini said."We'd like to know if there are big truck populations moving throughthe District and ways to minimize that."
The agreement also seeks to identify vital roads, bridges andtunnels across the region and to train transportation workers toprevent the confusion that gripped the city on Sept. 11. The Districtis surveying threats to facilities such as its 200 bridges, andwhether it should take countermeasures such as welding shut doors tomechanical rooms inside critical facilities or setting up 24-hourmonitoring.
Finally, a computerized map of the region is being developed,including potential staging areas, public facilities and equipment,and other key information such as places where large numbers ofpeople can take shelter.
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