Skip to main content

West Virginia state-wide 511 traveller information system launched

West Virginia’s state-wide 511 traveller information system, designed and deployed by intelligent transportation systems (ITS) provider Open Roads Consulting, has been unveiled by Governor Earl Tomblin and Secretary of Transportation Paul Mattox. The comprehensive system provides everything drivers need to know for a smooth commute: real-time traffic information including updates on congestion, crashes, construction, lane closures, road conditions and severe weather. It covers all of West Virginia’s interst
December 21, 2012 Read time: 2 mins
West Virginia’s state-wide 511 traveller information system, designed and deployed by intelligent transportation systems (ITS) provider 5660 Open Roads Consulting, has been unveiled by Governor Earl Tomblin and Secretary of Transportation Paul Mattox.

The comprehensive system provides everything drivers need to know for a smooth commute: real-time traffic information including updates on congestion, crashes, construction, lane closures, road conditions and severe weather. It covers all of West Virginia’s interstates and other major highways.

The 511 system offers four convenient ways for travellers to access free roadway information: by calling 511 toll-free from any landline or mobile phone; visiting their WV511.org online; downloading the free WV 511 Drive Safe mobile app for Android and iPhone devices available at WV511.org/mobile; and following one of twelve WV Twitter feeds at WV511.org/Twitter. In addition to traffic information, the 511 system offers public safety alerts, including Amber and Silver alerts.

West Virginia Department of Highways (WVDOH) traffic engineering director Cindy Cramer heralded the new system and its critical role in a recent public safety incident that also impeded traffic. “We are thrilled to publicly launch the statewide 511 system,” she said. “All of us at the WVDOH are appreciative of the commitment and dedication of the Open Roads consulting team in delivering a fully functional 511 system that proved to be an invaluable tool in assisting the public at the time of the natural gas line explosion that recently closed a portion of I-77 near Sissonville. The new 511 system will support the continued growth of WVDOH’s ITS technology program.”

Bruce Kenney, ITS coordinator and systems management engineer at WVDOH said the new 511 enhances existing systems to provide timely traffic and travel information to all users of the highways. “With the new 511 system designed and deployed by Open Roads Consulting and being hosted by them, the Transportation Management Center operators will be able to distribute information to all our stakeholders, both internal and public. The system has been designed to integrate with the existing state-wide advanced transportation management system also deployed by Open Roads Consulting, with WVDOH ITS field devices including 911/CAD data providing information to many other stakeholders including the trucking industry, 1742 Department of Homeland Security and the Parkways Authority,” Kenney said.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Traffic to flow freely over world’s widest bridge
    November 13, 2012
    Pete Goldin reports on a new Egis project in Canada, providing open road tolling operations for the widest bridge in the world. A bridge can present a bottleneck in a system of roads or it can support the smooth and unobstructed flow of traffic. Much depends on the bridge design, surrounding infrastructure and tolling system. By adding lanes and deploying open road tolling (ORT), the new Port Mann Bridge located in the metropolitan Vancouver area in British Columbia, will alleviate congestion at one of the
  • Standardise global ITS protocols to enable interoperability
    January 26, 2012
    ITS America has a new chief technology officer. ITS International caught up with Nu Rosenbohm at this year's World Congress to gather his thoughts on the main challenges at home and abroad
  • TransCore wins Scats deployment contract
    April 27, 2012
    TransCore has been selected by Cobb County Department of Transportation, Atlanta, to expand its Scats (Sydney Coordinated Adaptive Traffic System) adaptive traffic signal control technology with an additional 75 intersections, nearly doubling its use of the technology and making it the second largest deployment in the United States. The first phase of 26 intersections in the town centre area are now in operation with the remaining intersections expected to be fully operational by October 2012.
  • Key promotions at Open Roads
    May 22, 2012
    Leading ITS software and systems integrator Open Roads Consulting has announced two key promotions: Tiger Harris is now Open Roads’ Director of Business Services; and James Knowlton is the firm’s new Director of ITS Operations. “We are thrilled to announce the promotions of Tiger and Jamie,” says Open Roads President Barbara Skiffington. “Tiger has outstanding knowledge of the ITS marketplace and over 20 years of experience developing and deploying ITS systems. We will be able to leverage his experience in