Eno Center Publishes IBTTA Review on Adaptation and Resilience

The tolling industry’s work on severe weather adaptation and resilience received a boost last week when the Eno Center for Transportation published IBTTA’s review of its January, 2013 forum on Superstorm Sandy.

The article by Executive Director and CEO Patrick D. Jones went live on the Eno site just after Hurricane Arthur, North America’s first named storm of 2014, pushed its way through the U.S. Eastern Seaboard and Atlantic Canada.

“This was a game-changer for all of us who operate infrastructure,” said Rob Horr, Executive Director of the Thousand Islands Bridge Authority, and IBTTA’s 2013 President. “What we saw unfold with Sandy was something we had never seen before in any of our careers, and maybe in two or three generations,” agreed James Fortunato, Vice President and Chief of Operations for New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) Bridges and Tunnels.

Forum participants came up with a series of emerging practices for future storms:

• Establishing an integrated emergency operations center
• Pre-identifying backup locations and systems to speed business recovery when a key facility is lost
• Stationing engineering teams to assess damage as soon as a storm has passed
• Anticipating the need for key operational information, like mobile PIN numbers, and basic equipment like phone chargers, flashlights, and flashlight batteries.

Click here for IBTTA’s summary report and video from A Forum on Superstorm Sandy: Adaptation and Resilience, January 10, 2013 in Miami.