Guidelines to Improve Collaborative Services for a Weather Ready Nation as it Pertains to Surface Transportation

High impact weather and water events, and their likely increasing frequency of occurrence, negatively affect surface transportation safety, mobility, capacity and productivity in ways that require a serious reevaluation of current practices for delivering weather-related decision support services to transportation stakeholders. The goals include: reducing crash risk and public exposure to weather-related hazards, minimizing disruption along transportation corridors, improving transportation network design and increasing durability to minimize infrastructure damage or accelerate restoration from high-impact events. Due to the diverse geographies, climates, economies and policies around the nation, a wide variety of services have evolved in response to weather impacts. This presentation will describe how the National Weather Service and the Federal Highway Administration are working together to develop guidance for improving collaboration between State Departments of Transportation (DOTs) and the Weather Enterprise. Current practices of DOT interactions and relationships with the Weather and Climate Enterprise (public, private and academic) are being evaluated and different methods of collaboration and good practices will be documented. Best practices will include strategies for effective communication and data sharing before, during and after events that have a high impact on surface transportation, public behavior and emergency response, as well as long term planning and maintenance. The objective is to provide State and Local DOT road and traffic managers and planners, commercial providers, and the public with the best available practices, guidance and tools by first learning how others are responding to similar weather, water and climate challenges.