When Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge was struck by a container ship and collapsed earlier this year, the Maryland Highway Patrol was credited with saving lives by quickly halting traffic heading toward the bridge. Their swift and decisive action prevented untold numbers of vehicles from being on the bridge when it fell, preventing the tragedy from becoming much, much worse.
That decisive incident management, traffic management, and rapid communication to the public was enabled by the State of Maryland’s Advanced Traffic Management System (ATMS) called CHART. CHART (Coordinated Highway Action Response Team) was one of the nation’s first statewide ATMS and Intelligent Transportation Systems. GDIT partnered with the State of Maryland’s Department of Transportation and the State Highway Administration more than 20 years ago to develop CHART and has continually updated and enhanced it today. Just in the year 2022, CHART captured over 76,000 incidents reported and enabled helping 37,000 stranded motorists across Maryland’s state highways.
Constantly Evolve a Growing System with Increasing Scope
CHART encompasses a massive network of live traffic cameras, highway signs, sensors and more to give authorities a real-time picture of what is happening on the roads, paired with back-end technology and analytics to manage the safe and efficient flow of traffic. This ensures public safety on Maryland roadways during planned events, such as road maintenance and sporting events, and also for unplanned emergencies including accidents and fast-evolving weather conditions.
All this data is fed into the CHART traffic management system, which in turn feeds information to the public via the public CHART website, Maryland’s 511 system, dynamic message signs, highway radios, and other information outlets. Key metrics and performance data are also made available to the state agencies that need it, including the 26 organizations – from Maine to Florida – that make up the I-95 Corridor coalition.
Integrate New Tools and Data, Take a Holistic Approach
Over the course of our engagement, GDIT has assisted the state with the integration of new tools, the optimization of them, and real-time management and decision support. New and expanded geographic and geospatial data has helped the customer manage those massive datasets.
GDIT works collaboratively with Maryland to provide the advanced traffic management system interfaces for multiple roadway devices, including 367 dynamic message signs, 612 cameras, 23 highway advisory radios, 360 roadway weather detectors, 370 roadway monitors and more. GDIT manages the data from these devices that, in turn, allows the state to make its roads safer.
To further support Maryland drivers, the program was moved from a distributed to a consolidated data center and through multiple security and disaster data recovery efforts to ensure high system availability.
Collaborative Approach, Complementary Systems, Looking to the Future
Alongside CHART, GDIT developed and maintains multiple subsystems including an emergency operations reporting system, interactive mapping function, lane closure permitting system, and public website. Each of these systems enhances public safety, supports communication and coordination for support personnel, and allows for sophisticated data collection and reporting that the team can then act on as part of the CHART program.
GDIT’s partnership with the State of Maryland has led to $2B+ annual projected user savings since it’s original implementation. Looking ahead, we are working with the customer to improve how data is shared to Maryland’s neighbors including Virginia; Washington, D.C.; Delaware; Pennsylvania; and the Philadelphia metropolitan area. Our goal is to continue to ensure the tool continues to adapt to CHART’s business operations workflow improvements that makes it valuable for years to come.