by David Chapman
Staff Writer
A critical need for first responders has been met, thanks in part to the North Florida Transportation Planning Organization.
Several law enforcement officials and first responders from several Northeast Florida counties attended the organization’s monthly board meeting Thursday to help with the official release of the Traffic Incident Management Handbook and Training Video, a comprehensive and uniform guide to establishing safer and more efficient deployment of first responders to traffic incidents. The project was funded through North Florida TPO funds and debuted after a year’s worth of work.
“We’ve developed different partnerships over time,” said North Florida TPO Planning Director Jeff Sheffield, “and this is a fantastic project.”
Board members were shown the eight-minute introduction of the training video, which will be used by first responders throughout the region and was born out of a need, said Chief Grady Carrick of the Florida Highway Patrol. Other regions have similar uniform manuals and procedures, said Carrick, but now Northeast Florida does as well.
While maybe considered an odd project for funding, one of the North Florida TPO’s goals through projects is to alleviate traffic congestion and times – something the training guidelines will accomplish.
Early releases have resulted in favorable results, said Sheffield.
“We’ve had some really positive responses,” he said.
Other news and notes from the latest North Florida TPO meeting:
• Following a presentation by Wiley Page of PBS & J regarding the Envision 2035 Long Range Transportation Needs Plan, the board approved the plan. Page and others had several public workshops regarding the plan and received much input, he said, with ideas regarding improvements to U.S. 17 in Nassau County, I-10 and Beaver Street and U.S. 1 and I-95. One of permeating conclusions from the workshops, he said, was that participants didn’t want to see any project that would negatively impact potential commuter rail projects.
• The board approved a revised Unified Planning Work Program for fiscal years 2008-10, the first ever two-year UPWP. The organization is 14 months into the plan, rollover funds were identified to be carried forward into fiscal year 2009-10 as well as needed budget revisions. Additionally, six new tasks were identified – a Dames Point Terminal Entrance Study; St. Augustine-St. Johns County Airport Intermodal Rail Study; Intermodal Transportation System architecture update and maintenance; a Regional Transportation Authority Task Force; St. Augustine Light House traffic study; and Road Weather Information Systems concept of operations – and added to the plan. The new additions total $400,000 over the two-year period.
• Dick Morales, the Jacksonville Port Authority’s representative, told the group during his report that a request for proposal for the design of the Hanjin terminal was being issued to three worldwide engineering firms. Additionally, he said that automobile imports and exports business is up from former numbers – though a saving grace to the downtime was the ability to increase infrastructure improvements.
356-2466