Advancing connected corridors from vision to operation

How agencies can build the digital and operational foundation for connected corridors to improve safety, reliability and mobility

By Greg Krueger, PE, and Collin Castle, PE | HNTB

Transportation agencies have invested significantly in technology over the past several decades to improve the safety and performance of their roadways. Advanced traffic management systems, communications networks, roadside technologies, real-time traveler information and a variety of data-sharing pilots have helped agencies better understand and manage conditions within their own jurisdictions. While they have helped improve operations in local communities and regions, they also have created digital silos.

Roadway users experience transportation networks as connected systems. Congestion, crashes, weather events and work zones do not stop at jurisdictional boundaries. A disruption that begins in one location can quickly affect mobility and operations across an entire region. Earlier and more coordinated awareness of these events enables agencies to minimize regional impacts, improve incident management effectiveness, maximize the performance of existing infrastructure and provide more reliable travel conditions for roadway users.

Recognizing this reality, the United States Department of Transportation’s Connected Corridors sets the foundation for progress. The initiative encourages states to take a coordinated, shared approach to reliable data exchange, common quality standards and interoperable services while allowing each agency to retain control of its own data and platforms with the vision of multi-jurisdictional digital infrastructure that supports better real-time coordination.

A connected corridor enables agencies to share trusted information, coordinate decisions and align operational responses so transportation systems function more seamlessly as people and goods move across the country. Technology is an important enabler, but connected corridors ultimately depend on operational alignment, governance and shared data across participating agencies.

The following steps can help agencies transform siloed jurisdictions into coordinated action.

1. Start with a shared operational outcome

Before selecting technologies or developing requirements, participating agencies can establish a common definition of the connected corridor they are seeking to create. This shared outcome articulates and defines the geographic and organizational scope of the effort.

This early alignment helps partners distinguish between capabilities that are essential to and those that may be incorporated over time. It also provides a clear value statement that agency leaders can use to build support within their organizations.

2. Identify shared and jurisdiction-specific needs

Each agency operates within its own policy, funding, operational and technology environment. A primary objective of connected corridors is to establish a level of regional consistency that supports coordination and interoperability while preserving flexibility within those local environments. For example, agencies may agree on common data standards and operating protocols that improve coordination and information sharing while maintaining agency control and decision-making authority.

A collaborative needs assessment can help partners identify the challenges they share, along with the assets, information and operational capabilities each organization already has. The assessment may consider traffic management systems, roadway devices, communications infrastructure, data standards, staffing models, incident-management practices and relationships with regional partners.

Participants can agree on the information or operational objectives that need to be consistent across the corridor while allowing each agency to determine how it will meet those expectations within its own environment.

3. Establish a collaborative operating model

The collaboration among agencies must also determine how information will inform decisions and actions.

A concept of operations can define the roles of participating organizations, the conditions that trigger coordination and the standard operating procedures that partners will follow during both routine operations and significant events. It can address questions such as:

• Which organization is responsible for maintaining and distributing different types of information?
• How will agencies verify and reconcile information from multiple sources?
• What actions can be coordinated across jurisdictions?
• How will travelers receive consistent information as they move through the corridor?
• How will operational decisions be made when agency policies or priorities differ?

These questions become increasingly important as more agencies and jurisdictions participate. Establishing the operating model early helps ensure that technology requirements are based on how the corridor will function rather than developed independently of agency processes.

4. Begin with an implementable use case

A connected corridor may support a wide range of long-term possibilities, but early progress often comes from a focused use case that addresses a recognized need.

Agencies may begin by sharing information about work zones, incidents, weather conditions or truck parking availability across jurisdictional boundaries. Providing operating agencies with visibility into conditions approaching their jurisdiction can create an immediate operational benefit without requiring every element of the corridor vision to be implemented at once.

A focused deployment also gives agencies an opportunity to test data exchanges, governance practices and operating procedures on a manageable scale and demonstrate early wins. Partners can measure the results and refine the approach before expanding into additional capabilities.

Early wins can be particularly important for multiagency initiatives. They help transform the connected corridor from an abstract concept into a working example of how coordination can improve operations and then lay the groundwork for the more challenging use cases.

5. Plan for implementation and long-term operation

Agencies may also consider how the corridor will function as a connected ecosystem and how digital infrastructure will be funded, maintained, governed and operated as systems and priorities evolve. Establishing these responsibilities early helps clarify ownership of key technologies and data, how operational decisions will be made and how ongoing maintenance and system upgrades will be supported.

Planning for the full life cycle helps agencies move beyond successful demonstrations to sustainable operation. With clear governance, connected corridors can adapt as transportation technologies and traveler needs change.

Building the foundation for what comes next

Connected corridors create value when trusted information leads to coordinated action across jurisdictional boundaries. Technology makes that exchange possible, but governance, shared outcomes and clearly defined operating relationships determine how effectively that information can be used to support agency decision-making and operations.

Travelers already experience transportation corridors as connected systems. By aligning information, technology and operations, agencies can enable multi-jurisdictional digital infrastructure that can create safer, more reliable and more responsive networks capable of supporting the next generation of mobility.