What is Incident Management
and Where is it Headed?

	New WAIMSS software along with NHI's Incident Management course provide freeway management personnel with strategies to quickly and effectively manage traffic incidents.

Incident management is the management of a non-recurrent event (e.g. crashes, work zone projects, and vehicle breakdowns) which causes a reduction in roadway capacity or an abnormal increase in demand. FHWA has been involved in two recent efforts to manage incidents: the Wide Area Incident Management Support System (WAIMSS) and a new NHI course on Incident Management (Course # 13348).

WAIMMS, which is being used in the Suffolk and Northern Virginia areas, was developed by the Virginia tech Center for Transportation Research through FHWA's OTA and Office of Research and Development. Its goal is to assist incident management personnel with appropriate strategies to manage traffic incidents and execute the steps required for effective and timely implementation. For example, the software includes modules that predict incident duration and suggest detour routes in real time.

The Incident Management course is available in a 1- or 2-day format. It was developed in response to the success of DP 86, Relieving Traffic Congestion Through Incident Management, which is a 2-day workshop sponsored by OTA. Both DP 86 and the Incident Management course are taught by the Washington State Transportation Center.

The WAIMSS and DP 86 projects have been completed, and summary reports are available upon request. Federal, State, and local partners who would like to purchase a session of the NHI course should contact the local FHWA division office nearest them.
Morris Oliver, (202) 366-2251.