AASHTO Journal - NOCoE Sets Date for Overall TSMO Awards Winner Ceremony

The National Operations Center of Excellence or NOCoE will reveal the overall winner of its second annual Transportation Systems Management and Operations or TSMO awards competition on September 24 during a YouTube Live Event hosted by Jim Tymon, executive director of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials.

The awards announcement and ceremony will occur on NOCoE’s YouTube Live page at: https://youtube.com/c/nocoe/live.

NOCoE – a partnership between AASHTO, the Institute of Transportation Engineers, and the Intelligent Transportation Society of America, with support from the Federal Highway Administration – said originally planned to celebrate the TSMO awards content winner at AASHTO’s 2020 spring meeting, but delayed the ceremony due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Three state departments of transportation and the Houston Transtar traffic management consortium took home top honors in their respective categories within the TSMO awards contest and are now vying to be the overall winner.

The North Carolina Department of Transportation won for its “Statewide Central Signal System Initiative” in the Agency Improvement: Use of Capability Maturity Model category, while the Georgia Department of Transportation won for its “Improving TSMO in Georgia Using Data” in the Best Use of Management of Data to Improve TSMO category.

Meanwhile, the Washington State Department of Transportation won for its “TSMO Workforce Development Program” in the contest’s TSMO Workforce Development category, while Houston Transtar – a partnership begun in 1993 between the City of Houston, the Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County, and the Texas Department of Transportation – won for its “Roadway Flood Warning System” in the Best TSMO Project category.

Patrick Son, NOCoE’s managing director, noted in a statement that the organization received 46 entries in total for its annual TSMO contest, which is open to cities, counties, state DOTs, municipal planning organizations, and private sector organizations.

Winners in each of the four categories highlighted a successful TSMO project undertaken in the last five years that provided a clear benefit to the traveling public.

“The TSMO industry is essential to keeping the transportation system operating effectively,” he said. “An effective transportation system supports essential workers in getting to their jobs, enables emergency personnel to respond to those in need, and ensures that all of us can keep moving more safely and reliably. These awards capture the best of those efforts.”