DOT to update traffic incident plans for Cedar Rapids, Iowa City

The Iowa Department of Transportation will be updating plans for state roadways in the Cedar Rapids and Iowa City areas for handling traffic during critical incidents, such as vehicle crashes, flooding or hazardous material spills.

John Wilson, the Iowa DOT traffic incident and emergency coordinator, is leading the update of what are called traffic incident management plans, which he said haven't been revised since 2013. The plans are a common playbook for where traffic will go in case of an emergency.

'The plans need to be updated,” Wilson said. 'We'll go around the state and work with local [officials] on detour routing in case of a hazardous incident, so we all know where traffic is going.”

Detours dictated by where the incident occurs are a major component of the plans. If a detour sends traffic through a small community, the local leaders need to expect a heavy traffic volume so they can respond with resources appropriately, Wilson said.

'The idea is to avoid backups,” Wilson said. 'That's where additional incidents occur, with those backups. Our goal is to get them out of the way and get them moving.”

Wilson said local officials, such as engineers, public works officials, fire departments and law enforcement, will be involved in creating the new plans. They will have a better knowledge of the local road systems, so they could caution if certain roads or bridges have embargos or tight corners that would make them poor choices for detours, he said.

Most larger cities have traffic incident plans, Wilson said.

The Cedar Rapids and Iowa City areas have separate traffic incident plans, but those will likely be merged into one as part of the process because the two areas have grown together, Wilson said.

Wilson said he hopes to develop traffic incident plans for the whole interstate system over the next year and half, so any responder could jump into the situation. Wilson said eventually the hope is the incident plans would be available to law enforcement on their smartphones.

Wilson said the DOT plans to host eight training sessions around the state for the people who would be called to follow the plan, from public officials and law enforcement, down to towing companies.

Patrick Hoye, chief of the Iowa Governor's Traffic Safety Bureau, said having, updating and using such plans is important to responding to major incidents.

'Preparation for events now increases chances of success when events really do happen,” Hoye said. 'You want to be able to just go into action mode and move forward when the event happens ... This just makes sure everyone knows what their role is.”