Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Rural Service Patrol topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
TDOT to launch rural service patrols this spring to speed incident response
Summary
TDOT announced a $16.7M recurring expansion to fund rural service patrols—assistance trucks for interstates and major routes—with Region 2 to be the first deployment and staged rollouts across regions.
Commissioner Reed told the committee TDOT will use $16,700,000 of recurring funds to start a rural service patrol program that will deploy assistance trucks on rural interstates and major state routes.
“These are outside outside those limits. If we have an incident on those areas today, they get addressed by our maintenance and construction staff,” Reed said, describing the new patrols as “a force multiplier” that will help free maintenance crews to focus on repairs. He said the first region for deployment will be Region 2 and that rollouts will begin in spring with phased regional deployment.
In response to members’ questions about timing, Reed indicated a phased schedule driven by contractor ability to provide vehicles and staff, aiming for region-to-region deployment on the order of weeks to months rather than years. He said the program will reduce response times on higher-speed rural routes where incidents can be particularly hazardous.
