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Project Information
Installation of Intelligent Transportation Systems on IH 10 (East Freeway) from Garth Road to Chambers County Line in Harris Co. Texas Department of Transportation 1/12/2015 7:14:56 AMProject Narrative
This project will provide expanded coverage for incident management, congestion management, and traveler information systems infrastructure for the TxDOT Houston District (TranStar) region. This project will also extend communications to SH 99 (Grand Parkway). This will allow tolls collections to be made using State own fiber versus leasing fiber. It also will provide redundancy and communications. IH 10 is a major trucking route for East and West traffic. Even though this is not an official hurricane evacuation route, past history has shown that a large volume of traffic is generated west bound when storms are headed to the Sabine River area of Texas and Louisiana. This area of freeway was extremely congested in 2008 when Hurricane Gustav headed for the Central and Western portions of Louisiana. This project will improve real-time incident detection, responsiveness and notification; and also improve real-time traffic monitoring and reporting capabilities of recurring congestion and provide traveler information through Dynamic Message signs of the freeway along with information be relayed through the Houston TranStar, TxDOT and other websites. It also will provide a means to communicate with Traffic Signals along the IH 10 corridor and could provide a communications backbone to the Harris County The project will involve instrumentation of IH 10, from Garth Road to the Chambers/Harris County Line in Harris County. Specifically, this project will include the installation of five miles of conduit bank and 144-strand fiber trunk line; including 8 closed-circuit cameras, 2 dynamic message signs, 3 radar-based vehicle sensing devices, and 3 travel time (Bluetooth) readers. None. However, since this is an Intelligent Transportation System infrastructure expansion versus conventional roadway capacity expansion, the inherent benefit is to gain more capacity utilization of the existing facility without any environmental impacts or requiring additional right-of-way/heavy construction. This will allow for better operations and management of existing infrastructure to get more through put of the system and manage crashes and congestion.Project Narrative
Yes Categorical Exclusion (CE) (c)(21) Deployment of electronics, photonics, communications, or information processing Yes Railroad agreement/permit has already been executed/approved. 12/01/2015 No Yes No Utility Adjustments will be needed. No No Public Involvement activities are needed. This project is well over 30% design. Job will have to be reviewed for guardrail end treatments and 2014 spec book. Review of quantities.Map/Location
Project Budget
Project Budget TIP Application 300699.xlsx
Yes NoScreening Questions
Yes ITS technology deployment is typically at least 7-10 years before retrofit or total replacement is required.Evalutation Questions - ITS Projects
Benefit /Cost Methodology
H-GAC to conduct analysis based on the GIS/map project location and project scope information provided above.
Congestion Safety
Incident/Event Management
Yes; This ITS project improvement segment will be a fully-integrated extension of TxDOT’s current ITS system operated out of the region’s multi-agency housed Traffic & Emergency Management Center (Houston TranStar). ; Yes; This ITS project improvement segment is both on the National Highway System and a component on H-GAC’s CMP Network. ; Yes; This ITS project improvement segment will include the installation of 2 dynamic message signs and 3 travel time (Bluetooth) readers that provide updated traveler information on TranStar’s speed map and email alert free subscription service. ; No; However, through the extension of ITS instrumentation (i.e., CCTVs, RSVDs, and travel time readers) emergency vehicles can be routed more efficiently during their incident arrival and departure tripmaking. ; No; However, through the extension of ITS instrumentation (i.e., CCTVs, RSVDs, and travel time readers) mobility management for the OVERALL travel corridor will be improved.; Yes; This project will provide the communication and monitoring infrastructure foundation for the future implementation of integrated corridor management applications such as ramp metering, variable speeds, variable pricing, etc. However, immediate benefits of this project will provide for traffic condition monitoring that will enhance travel time reporting and tripmaking reliability. ;Coordination
System Migration/Expandability
Yes; The system will expand/extend the regional communications network from Garth Road (SH 146, Hosuton District boundary line) to the Chambers County Line for a distance of 5 miles along Interstate 10 East Freeway in Harris County.; Yes; This ITS project improvement will be fully-integrated into the region’s Traffic and Emergency Operations Center (Houston TranStar). This will allow all real-time traffic and incident information to be viewed and shared among the principal transportation and emergency management agencies in Harris County (TxDOT, Harris County, City of Houston, and METRO).;Integration and Information Sharing
AND, System ties into another agency’s systems to allow for the sharing of data; All information and data captured by this ITS improvement project will be transmitted to the region’s Traffic and Emergency Management (Houston TranStar). Since all information and data will be coming into TranStar, the capability for sharing among the primary TranStar partners is inherent.; Yes; The system will provide data to the Houston TranStar website, TxDOT website, Dynamic Message Signs via TranStar operators, local media outlets, and free individual subscription service for customized email alerts.; Yes; The system will collect segment speed and travel time data that can be used for mobility performance measures. Additionally, the system will assist in the real-time monitoring of incidents providing the necessary time increments to define total clearance timelines by various types of incidents to report incident clearance performance.;Asset Mgmt/Efficient Operations
Continuity Operations
Yes; The project will extend the ITS communications network along IH 10 towards SH 99 Grand Parkway. When the next segment of the project is completed between the Harris/Chambers County line and SH 99 it will provide another communication path to the SH 99 Grand Parkway ITS communications network to IH 45, US 59/IH 69, SH 249, US 290 IH 10. ; Yes; This project is an important leg in the connection to Chambers County, SH 99, and the TxDOT Beaumont District. This project extension will continue a path along Interstate 10 East Freeway eastward. This project will open the Houston TranStar ITS network up to Baytown and allow for backbone communications for the Regional LTE wireless network being built by Harris County.; Yes; This project improvement will provide expanded monitoring and communication for the region, thereby allowing more mobility benefits to be available to a greater number of travelers.;