By Joyce Gramza
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wrvo/local-wrvo-945752.mp3
Oswego, NY – The Thruway Authority Executive Director Michael Fleischer released a draft report today on the agency's plans for preventing blockages like the one that stranded hundreds of vehicles in Buffalo for up to 24 hours.
Fleischer says Governor Andrew Cuomo "on literally his very first day" convened all of the agencies involved into a "Winter Emergency Action Team" to develop the plans and procedures.
The agencies included the New York State Police, the State Emergency Management Office, local emergency responders and the weather service.
"The message was clear that this is not acceptable and it will not happen again, and I can pledge to the delegation that we agree this is not acceptable and will not happen again," Fleischer says.
"All of us are committed to public service and are proud of the service we provide, but those two days was not a good day for our customers, it was not a good day for the Thruway."
He says the biggest problem was an absence of pre-planning that's now been corrected to improve communication and decision-making.
"What we're trying to take as the lesson is, we can't decide to deploy resources when all goes bad," Fleischer says. "It's usually too late."
We've never really had-- in my 15 years in the executive part of state government, let alone seven years in the legislature-- where state agencies got together before an event and had a conference call on, Are you ready, what do you need, are you confident' and those kind of calls are now happening as a routine in advance of these storms."
We have now been pre-planning, all the recent storms, we have been getting together, having conference calls, talking about what is needed in certain parts of the state, to make sure that we do in fact make better decisions."
He says the new plans are already being implemented and that they have already prevented similar problems.
"This past week where we were getting feet of snow, 18 inches of snow in a very narrow band, we had a tractor trailer jackknife on the Berkshire spur," Fleischer says. "Within a half an hour, that jackknifed tractor trailer was fully out of the way. We had a jackknifed tractor trailer in Catskill, within 25 minutes the tractor trailer was fully out of the way."
By pre-positioning the tow plows, they are not caught in the weather. They are right on scene and available to do that."
Other changes include:
Coordinated plans for closing entry ramps, including using volunteer firefighters as needed to help block access to the "freeway" parts of the highway that are not tolled.
Notifying drivers well before they enter problem areas, such as by using variable message boards.
Requiring contracted towing services to have vehicles on stand-by.
Stocking emergency supplies such as portable fuel tanks and barrels and cones.
Ability to remove barriers to allow emergency u-turns.
Fleischer says the team developed a specific Buffalo area plan and will also develop plans for all urban areas in Upstate and Western New York.
He says all involved agencies will conduct annual emergency closure exercises.