The Tennessee Department of Transportation recently launched a new Rural Service Patrol or RSP in Region 4 of West Tennessee, marking the next phase of a statewide expansion to bring HELP incident response to rural interstate corridors.
[Above photo by Tennessee DOT]
Currently, Tennessee DOT’s HELP trucks patrol the state’s four largest urban areas: Nashville, Knoxville, Chattanooga, and Memphis. With this expansion, the Rural Service Patrol will serve Regions 2 and 4 and will be fully deployed statewide by the summer, ultimately covering more than 870 miles of rural interstate.
According to a statement, RSP provides no-cost roadside assistance and incident response services, including active patrols from 6:00 a.m.–10:30 p.m. daily; on-call overnight support for major incidents, lane closures, and traffic control; fuel, water, and minor mechanical assistance for stranded motorists; first aid, debris removal, and lane management to reduce secondary crashes; and maintenance reporting, including guardrail damage or roadway hazards.
[Editor’s note: The Utah Department of Transportation recently released a video that provides an inside look at the highway duties of its Incident Management Teams, which is similar to the service provided by Tennessee’s HELP teams.]
The state provides $16.7 million in annual funded to support RSP via the Tennessee DOT, which includes new recurring General Fund dollars dedicated to roadway safety.
Since 1999, Tennessee DOT’s HELP program – operated by AutoBase, Inc. – has reduced congestion, improved safety, and assisted thousands of motorists in the state’s urban areas. The RSP expands this mission to the state’s rural corridors, where response time is critical to preventing secondary crashes and saving lives.
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