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NPHQ > Awards & Success
Stories > 2006 Make a Difference Award Winners > Louisiana
Louisiana Highway Teams Win National Quality Awards
For Hurricane Evacuation and Change Management Initiative
New Orleans, LA/November 14, 2006 – The National Partnership for Highway Quality (NPHQ) has awarded two of its National 2006 “Making a Difference” awards to Louisiana highway teams whose quality innovations promote roads that are completed more quickly, ride better, last longer, reduce congestion, and improve safety. Entries are judged by a panel of transportation industry leaders who serve on the NPHQ Steering Committee.
The Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development (DOTD) took home a Gold Award in the Partnering category for a plan that led to a successful evacuation of more than one million people associated with Hurricane Katrina. DOTD also captured a Bronze Award in the Risk Taking category for its agency-wide process improvement program.
Gold
The DOTD didn’t know it but Hurricane Ivan, in 2004, was a dress rehearsal for Hurricane Katrina. Wasting no time, they took lessons learned during Hurricane Ivan and set up a task force to improve its highway contraflow evacuation plan. The task force included the DOTD; the Louisiana State Police; the Louisiana Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness and, later, the New Orleans and Baton Rouge American Red Cross chapters. The State also consulted with Mississippi transportation officials.
After six months of task force meetings, a new plan evolved that later paid high dividends in managing one of the largest evacuations ever. Among the changes made were elimination of traffic chokepoints, initiation of phased evacuation, creation of a joint 24/7 Traffic Control Center, improved signage, and improved communication with the public.
The original plan used eight expressway lanes and had three chokepoint sites where traffic lanes are reduced; while the new plan used 11 lanes, and reduced the traffic chokepoints to
one. The new plan evacuated citizens in phases. For example, Phase 1 focused on evacuating citizens from the most vulnerable coastal areas.
By the time Hurricane Katrina emerged as a threat, the new evacuation plan was executed and the results were amazing.
- Evacuation by contraflow during Katrina was faster and more efficient than the Ivan evacuation. Instead of a 72-hour timeline, contraflow was executed within a six-hour projected landfall window and a two-thirds increase in traffic volume on the road was achieved - 20,000 vehicles per hour versus 12,000 during Ivan.
- Real-time traffic information was provided through the Traffic Control Center every 30 minutes to the media and to other Gulf States.
- During the 25 hours that contraflow operated, more than one million people were evacuated.
Bronze
The Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development also won a bronze in the Risk Taking category for its agency-wide change management program. The goal of the ongoing program is to streamline existing processes and improve effectiveness and efficiency.
Two years ago DOTD leadership hired Gerri Penn, a process improvement consultant, to help formalize and institutionalize changes in the organization that would lead to greater efficiency and effectiveness. Based on consultant interviews, leadership selected 30 processes to review and improve. A team was put together to dissect each process and make recommendations for improvement.
To ensure recommendations from the teams were implemented and institutionalized, leadership formally structured the Change Management Program and designated a Change Management Team. The team was assigned to the implementation efforts on a full-time basis as managers and facilitators. A Steering Committee also meets monthly to measure the success of the recommendations and to ensure the process improvement initiative stays on track.
Some of the highlights of recommendations that have moved forward include:
- Strategic performance measures.
- Streamlined project delivery process.
- A Value Engineering position to ensure full integration in the project development process.
- A new Intelligent Transportation System group.
- Launch of the 511 Traveler Information service.
NPHQ’s Executive Director Bob Templeton said of the award winner, “This is a department that meets change head on. Its leadership analyzes its processes and makes changes to ensure that transportation is a quality experience for everyone.”
About NPHQ
The Making a Difference Award program is sponsored by the National Partnership for Highway Quality, which combines public and private highway expertise to deliver quality highways for the safety and mobility of the traveling public. NPHQ members include:
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