managing travel for planned special events - FHWA Operations ...

special events. This checklist includesthe risk scenarios presented in the previouschapter. An emergency managementagency may maintain a separateemergency response plan that, if put intoeffect, supercedes the traffic managementplan. Yet, the emergency managementagency and other public safetyagencies work as part of the event planningteam to ensure adequate emergencyaccess routes, pedestrian access routes,and evacuation destination areas exist tomeet emergency management plan requirements.Table 6-4Contingency Plan ChecklistCONTINGENCY• Weathero Severe weather outbreako Flooding on event site access routeso Flooding in event parking areaso Parking during wet weather• Security threat• Major traffic incident• Delayed event• Event cancellation• Absence of trained personnel and volunteerson the day-of-event• Equipment breakdown• Demonstration or protest• Unruly spectator behavior• Overcrowding• Event patron violence• Determine changes in operation due tounplanned scenarios. Aside fromevacuation, the occurrence of a majortraffic incident or security threat createsa multi-faceted problem for a trafficmanagement team. This includes potentialreallocation of personnel, from fieldcrews to supervisors who must managethe unexpected event, and equipment resources.In addition, intra- and interagencyradio communications may becomedeficient in servicing the unplannedevent and planned special eventif agencies failed to assign a dedicatedchannel for planned special event onlycommunications.Consider the level of response to a securitythreat, involving a suspicious truck stoppedon a freeway, that occurred during the 2002Winter Olympics: (1)Early in the Games, a semi-trailer truck wasstopped on the I-15 freeway, just south ofdowntown Salt Lake City. Because the truckdid not have the legally required markingsand other reasons, the Utah Highway Patrol(UHP) considered the situation to be a potentialsafety threat. Additional lawenforcementresources were summoned tothe scene. During the entire time, the staffin transportation management center Room230 (regional transportation managementstakeholders) monitored the situationclosely, viewing it with a nearby CCTVcamera as well as monitoring radio reportsfrom the UHP officers at the scene. Afteralmost an hour passed without a resolution,staff in Room 125 (senior Utah DOT trafficengineers) began preparing to invoke thecontingency plan for closing the freeway inboth directions. This Action Set would havediverted all freeway traffic to parallel arterials,with the appropriate traffic managementactions (new signal timing on the surfacestreets, changeable message sign messageson the freeway), plus travelerinformation actions (issuing aCommuterLink Alert, media bulletin, etc.).Fortunately, it was soon determined that thecargo in the truck was benign and the“issue” was closed in Room 230.ANALYSIS ANDMODELINGOverviewNo planned special event transportationmanagement plan, not even for a repeated6EVENT PROFILE POST-EVENT ACTIVITIES DAY-OF-EVENT ACTIVITIES ADVANCE PLANNINGOVERVIEW6-9