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Project Information
Installation of Arterial Intelligent Transportation Systems on FM 1960 from SH 249 to US 290 in Harris Co. Texas Department of Transportation 1/12/2015 9:05:56 AMProject Narrative
This project will provide necessary expanded coverage of existing incident management, congestion management, and traveler information systems infrastructure for the TxDOT Houston District (TranStar) region. This improvement project will allow TranStar to move closer to achieving the goal of DISTRICT-WIDE integrated coverage. The project will interconnect 12 signals along the corridor and allow for redundancy between SH 249 and US 290. It will also give the City of Houston and Harris County a redundant path for their communications networks. This project will improve real-time incident detection, responsiveness and notification; and also improve real-time traffic monitoring and reporting capabilities of recurring congestion. The project will involve instrumentation of principal arterial, FM 1960, from SH 249 to US 290 (Northwest Freeway) in Harris County. Specifically, this project will include the installation of 16.7 miles of conduit bank and 144-strand fiber trunkline; including 25 closed-circuit cameras, 4 dynamic message signs, and 25 travel time readers. This project will improve real-time incident detection, responsiveness and notification; and also improve real-time traffic monitoring and reporting capabilities of recurring congestion. This project will also interconnect the signals along FM 1960. This will provide the synchronization, real time monitoring and remote access capability to the signal system along the corridor, thus maximizing the throughput of traffic. The project will interconnect 12 signals along the corridor and allow for redundancy between SH 249 and US 290. It will also give the City of Houston and Harris County a redundant path for their communications networks. Additionally, this ITS segment improvement provides for fiber-optic communication redundancy. None. However, since this is an ITS 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.Project Narrative
Yes Categorical Exclusion (CE) (c)(21) Deployment of electronics, photonics, communications, or information processing No 03/10/2016 No Yes No Utility Adjustments will be needed. No No Public Involvement activities are needed. The project design can be at 30% complete within 30 days after notice to proceed.Map/Location
Project Budget
Project Budget TIP Application 300720.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 4 dynamic message signs and 25 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. ; Yes; 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 SH 249 (Tomball Highway) to US 290 Northwest Freeway for a distance of 16.7 miles along FM 1960 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 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. Vehicle Detection from the traffic signals can also be collected and used for performance measures.;Asset Mgmt/Efficient Operations
Continuity Operations
Yes; This ITS improvement project will expand the general area of real-time coverage/monitoring of traffic and traffic incidents, thereby providing a greater capability to minimize any disruption due to recurring or non-recurring congestion. ; Yes; This project is an important segment between SH 249 and US 290 for redundancy. It also will provide redundant communications for the City of Houston and 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. This system will also provide another redundant communication paths for SH 249, and US 290. It will provide anther communication path for the City of Houston and Harris County thus improve reliability. ;