{"id":2845,"date":"2015-12-28T13:52:43","date_gmt":"2015-12-28T21:52:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/pactrans\/?p=2845"},"modified":"2015-12-28T14:01:27","modified_gmt":"2015-12-28T22:01:27","slug":"tmcs-nerve-centers-of-the-operation-activities-of-the-washington-state-department-of-transportation-wsdot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/pactrans\/tmcs-nerve-centers-of-the-operation-activities-of-the-washington-state-department-of-transportation-wsdot\/","title":{"rendered":"TMCs – Nerve Centers of the Operation Activities of the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT)"},"content":{"rendered":"

A site visit last December 7 by 23 UW transportation engineering students to the Northwest Region Transportation Management Center in Shoreline, one of the six regional Traffic Management Centers (TMCs) of WSDOT, paved the way to better understand a 24-hour, 7 days a week complex operation. The TMC is the operation center of the many Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) used to make the system run more safely and efficiently. ITS devices include roadside cameras, ramp meters, variable message signs, speed and lane control signs, and radios.\u00a0<\/p>\n

With increasing traffic and challenges in managing resulting congestion, the Northwest Region TMC has grown to a team of approximately 30 engineers, technicians, and UW interns managed by Chris Thomas, coupled with the expertise of Maan Sidhu and Tim McCall. The TMC has grown with the expansion of ITS technologies such as variable speed limits and lane control with Active Traffic Management (ATM), tolling of SR 167 HOT Lanes and I-405 Express Toll Lanes, and the new SR 99 bored tunnel and retrofitted I-90 tunnels.<\/p>\n

The TMC facility in Shoreline, being a data bank, has its own massive server room, ninety 46-inch screens, radio dispatched system, uninterrupted power supply and generator that can keep the facility operating for up to 7 days. The center can be activated as an Emergency Operations Center (EOC) during a major, long-term closure that will impact the transportation system. For the future, TMC is moving towards practical design, improved metering and tolling, and shoulder use lanes on congested corridors.<\/p>\n

\"1\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Chris Thomas, Manager of the Northwest Region TMC\u00a0in Shoreline, shares information about the new facility.<\/p>\n

\"2\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Timothy McCall shares the center\u2019s hub of ninety 46-inch TV screens and\u00a0the center\u2019s Traffic Buster System.<\/p>\n

\"3\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The Northwest Region Transportation Management Center (TMC) at City of Shoreline.<\/p>\n

\"4\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Maan Sidhu explains that the center can be activated as an Emergency Operations Center (EOC) during real-time crisis that will impact the transportation system. He also provided a brief tour of the massive server room of the center.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A site visit last December 7 by 23 UW transportation engineering students to the Northwest Region Transportation Management Center in Shoreline, one of the six regional Traffic Management Centers (TMCs) […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69,37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2845","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-education-and-workforce-development","category-student-activities"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/pactrans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2845","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/pactrans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/pactrans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/pactrans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/pactrans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2845"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/pactrans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2845\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2856,"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/pactrans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2845\/revisions\/2856"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/pactrans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2845"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/pactrans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2845"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/pactrans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2845"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}