Roelofs, Tina

The traveling public increasingly relies on navigation systems, either as part of their vehicles or through their handheld phones or mobile devices. Currently there is not a consistent system, tool, or process being used by cities and counties in Minnesota to report road or bridge closures that local transportation agencies can use to display to the traveling public or provide to third-party mapping/navigation companies (e.g., Waze, TomTom, HERE Technologies, Google, Apple) so that these companies can display the information to the public. To move toward an approach for reporting road and bridge closures by local counties and cities, the Minnesota Local Road Research Board (LRRB) initiated this project, Using Apps to Notify the Public of Local Road and Bridge Closures. The objectives of this project were to identify and describe an approach the Minnesota LRRB could use to implement a user-friendly road closure reporting system and develop a guide on how local agencies could currently report closures to third-party mapping and navigation companies.

The North/West Passage Transportation Pooled Fund (TPF) Program is a multi-state cooperative program for the coordination, development, and deployment of Intelligent Transportation Systems projects along I-90 and I-94 from the states of Wisconsin to Washington. Individual states along the corridor have developed different systems for collecting, processing and integrating traveler and road maintenance information, and for delivering this information to users. As a result traveler information along the corridor has not been "seamless" or readily integrated and shared across borders. The objective of this TPF Study Phase I was to influence ongoing standards development; and utilize effective methods for coordinating, integrating, and sharing of traveler information across borders. The Minnesota Department of Transportation (DOT) was the lead agency for this study with North Dakota DOT and Wisconsin DOT also contributing funding for Phase I. A Steering Committee, consisting of members from the eight corridor states (Washington, Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, and Wisconsin), met monthly to coordinate efforts. The Federal Highway Administration served as a monitoring body, providing strategic and technical input. The committee successfully completed eight Phase I corridor projects and approved a Phase II Work Plan focusing on a corridor strategic plan.