TxDOT Pharr District TMC Equipment Packages

 

The following equipment packages are associated with the "TxDOT Pharr District TMC" element.   Select the "Details" icon to see the detailed process specifications that support each equipment package, or consult the National ITS Architecture web site for more information.

 

Collect Traffic Surveillance

This Equipment package collects, stores, and provides electronic access to the traffic surveillance data.

 

HRI Traffic Management

This equipment package monitors highway-rail intersection (HRI) equipment at the roadside which manages highway traffic. Various levels of roadside equipment may be interfaced to, and supported by, this equipment package to include standard speed active warning systems and high speed systems which provide additional information on approaching trains and detect and report on obstructions in the HRI. This equipment package remotely monitors and reports the status of this roadside equipment. A two way interface supports explicitly status requests or remote control plan updates to be generated by this equipment package. Status may also be received periodically in the absence of a request or asynchronously in the event of a detected failure or other unsafe condition at the intersection.

 

MCM Data Collection

This equipment package collects and stores maintenance and construction information that is collected in the course of operations by the Maintenance and Construction Management Subsystem. This data can be used directly by operations personnel or it can be made available to other data users and archives in the region.

 

MCM Environmental Information Collection

This equipment package collects current road and weather conditions using data collected from environmental sensors deployed on and about the roadway. In addition to fixed sensor stations at the roadside, this equipment package also collects environmental information from sensor systems located on Maintenance and Construction Vehicles, and sensor data that is made available by other systems..

 

MCM Environmental Information Processing

This equipment package processes current and forecast weather data, road condition information, local environmental data, and uses internal models to develop specialized detailed forecasts of local weather and surface conditions. The processed environmental information products are presented to the user.

 

MCM Incident Management

This equipment package supports coordinated response to highway incidents. Incident notifications are shared, incident response resources are managed, and the overall incident situation and incident response is coordinated among allied response organizations.

 

MCM Maintenance Decision Support

This equipment package recommends maintenance courses of action based on current and forecast environmental and road conditions and additional application specific information. Decisions are supported through understandable presentation of filtered and fused environmental and road condition information for specific time horizons as well as specific maintenance recommendations that are generated by the system based on this integrated information. The recommended courses of action are supported by information on the anticipated consequences of action or inaction, when available.

 

MCM Roadway Maintenance and Construction

This equipment package provides overall management and support for routine maintenance on a roadway system or right-of-way. Services managed are landscape maintenance, hazard removal (roadway debris, dead animals), routine maintenance activities (roadway cleaning, grass cutting), and repair and maintenance of both ITS and non-ITS equipment on the roadway (e.g., signs, traffic controllers, traffic detectors, dynamic message signs, traffic signals, etc.). Environmental conditions information is also received from various weather sources to aid in scheduling routine maintenance activities.

 

MCM Work Zone Management

This equipment package remotely monitors and supports work zone activities, controlling traffic through portable dynamic message signs (DMS) and informing other groups of activity (e.g., ISP, TM, other maintenance and construction centers) for better coordination management. Work zone speeds and delays are provided to the motorist prior to the work zones.

 

Rail Operations Coordination

This equipment package provides strategic coordination between rail operations and traffic management centers. It receives train schedules, maintenance schedules, and any other forecast events which will result in highway-rail intersection (HRI) closures from Rail Operations. The provided information is used to develop forecast HRI closure times and durations which may be applied in advanced traffic control strategies or delivered as enhanced traveler information. This equipment package includes the processing and algorithms necessary to derive HRI closure times and the communications capabilities necessary to communicate with rail operations and interface to the traffic control and information distribution capabilities included in other Traffic Management Subsystem equipment packages.

 

TMC Environmental Monitoring

This equipment package assimilates current and forecast road conditions and surface weather information using a combination of weather service provider information and an array of environmental sensors deployed on and about the roadway. The collected environmental information is monitored and presented to the operator. This information can be used to more effectively deploy road maintenance resources, issue general traveler advisories, and support location specific warnings to drivers. Other equipment packages process the collected information and provide decision support.

 

TMC Freeway Management

Control system for efficient freeway management including integration of surveillance information with freeway road geometry, vehicle control such as ramp metering, CMS, HAR. Interface to coordinated traffic subsystems for information dissemination to the public.

 

TMC Incident Detection

This Equipment package provides the capability to traffic managers to detect and verify incident. This capability includes analyzing and reducing the collected data from traffic surveillance equipment, including planned incidents and hazardous conditions.

 

TMC Incident Dispatch Coordination/Communication

This Equipment package provides the capability for an incident response formulation function minimizing the incident potential, incident impacts, and/or resources required for incident management including proposing and facilitating the dispatch of emergency response and service vehicles as well as coordinating response with all appropriate cooperating agencies.

 

TMC Probe Information Collection

This Equipment package provides the capability to accept and process probe vehicle information. This capability shall be provided through the use of additional hardware and probe vehicle control and tracking software.

 

TMC Regional Traffic Control

This Equipment package provides capabilities in addition to those provided by the TMC Basic Signal Control Equipment package for analyzing, controlling, and optimizing area-wide traffic flow. These capabilities provide for wide area optimization integrating control of a network signal system with control of freeway, considering current demand as well as expected demand with a goal of providing the capability for real-time traffic adaptive control while balancing inter-jurisdictional control issues to achieve regional solutions. These capabilities are best provided using a Traffic Management Center (TMC) to monitor and manage freeway ramp meters and intersection traffic signals and software to process traffic information and implement traffic management measures (e.g., ramp metering, signalization, and traffic coordination between both local and regional jurisdiction). The TMC shall be able to communicate with other TMCs in order to receive and transmit traffic information on other jurisdictions within the region.

 

TMC Signal Control

This Equipment package provides the capability for traffic managers to monitor and manage the traffic flow at signalized intersections. This capability includes analyzing and reducing the collected data from traffic surveillance equipment and developing and implementing control plans for signalized intersections. Control plans may be developed and implemented that coordinate signals at many intersections under the domain of a single traffic management subsystem. In advanced implementations, this package collects route planning information and integrates and uses this information in predicting future traffic conditions and optimizing the traffic control strategy for these conditions. These capabilities are achieved through real-time communication of logged routes from an Information Service Provider. The planned control strategies can be passed back to the Information Service Provider so that the intended strategies can be reflected in future route planning.

 

TMC Traffic Information Dissemination

This Equipment package provides the capability to disseminate incident related information to travelers, potential travelers, and private information service providers. These capabilities shall be provided using a workstation type processor within a facility connected to traveler information providers by utilizing existing wireline links.

 

TMC Work Zone Traffic Management

This equipment package supports coordination with maintenance systems so that work zones are established that have minimum traffic impact. Traffic control strategies are implemented to further mitigate traffic impacts associated with work zones that are established.

 

Traffic Data Collection

This equipment package collects and stores traffic information that is collected in the course of traffic operations performed by the Traffic Management Subsystem. This data can be used directly by operations personnel or it can be made available to other data users and archives in the region.

 

Traffic Maintenance

This Equipment package provides monitoring and remote diagnostics of field equipment to detect field equipment failures, issues problem reports, and tracks the repair or replacement of the failed equipment.