AASHTO Journal - TxDOT Putting New ‘HERO’ Boxes to the Test

The Texas Department of Transportation recently conducted a training exercise to prepare its employees for real-life scenarios in which communication is lost during an emergency – and how they can deploy newly-designed “HERO” boxes to help restore them.

[Above photo by TxDOT]

A crucial part of TxDOT’s storm response centers around the agency’s Emergency Operations Centers or EOCs, which almost went offline when a 2025 storm damaged several TxDOT buildings. If the EOCs go down, the agency said that would “significantly hamper” its local and regional response efforts.

That’s where the new “HERO” boxes come in.

Karl Schumacher, TxDOT’s information technology emergency response coordinator, explained in a blog post that a “HERO” box – which is actually a set of two boxes – contains deployable information technology or IT equipment used to restore or expand IT capabilities during emergency operations.

One box contains five laptops, ten cellphones, four iPads, four “MiFi” or mobile/portable wireless hotspots, while the other contains a portable router to reconnect to internet. The two boxes weigh about 150 pounds each. Their bulk and weight can make it difficult to travel, which is why the agency conducted a training exercise – forcing employees in the “heat of the moment” to develop a transportation plan for the critical boxes.

Schumacher and multiple districts and divisions at TxDOT set up fake EOCs in the cities of Austin, Childress, Waco, and Yoakum with people working in each area. Then crews in Austin drove the boxes to each area, talking with local crews about how to set them up. “Just the little details as we’re going through and talking through these are incredibly important for us to develop our plans,” he explained.

“When you’re in the middle of the chaos, it may not function like you intended to,” added Michael Brzozowski, TxDOT director of operations in Yoakum. “But having a kind of a real-life scenario, I think it helps everybody be prepared and know their role and what we’re going to have to do.”

This is just one of many emergency exercises TxDOT does that goes from tabletop to field. All of them help the agency stay prepared for any severe weather event.

“This particular exercise was unique in the fact that it involved new technology and real-world testing of the deployment and set up of the tech,” stressed Matthew Heinze, TxDOT’s emergency management coordinator. “This exercise has proven the value of having a strong IT relationship with emergency operations.”

Overall, Schumacher said the exercise was a success and they learned a lot to help prepare for the real thing. However, even though he says the name “HERO” is fitting for these new emergency IT boxes, he doesn’t quite know where the name came from.

“I don’t have a good answer for that,” Schumacher said. “[But] it’s heroic in that we’re helping. We’re helping the districts help Texans.”