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Carter Kits

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James Banhart, KC Scout TMC Supervisor, conducted a training on Tuesday, July 1 for a Carter Kit which is a sensory tool designed to assist first responders when handling incidents involving individuals with autism, particularly children. Two sessions were held to accommodate different shifts. Additional sessions will be scheduled to ensure that any Emergency Response Operators who were unavailable during the initial training have an opportunity to participate. This idea originated after Banhart attended the Traffic and Safety Conference in Wichita, Kansas. During one of the breakout sessions, Banhart had the opportunity to speak with Mrs. Jessica Parker, the Program Coordinator for EMSC in the state of Kansas who shared what a Carter Kit is. Many individuals are not equipped to accurately recognize when someone is on the autism spectrum. Enhancing this ability is a substantial benefit to all agencies involved. This training not only provides the tools to identify individuals with ...
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Kansas City-Area Surface Transportation FIFA World Cup Exercise

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The Kansas City- Area is preparing for next year’s, 2026 FIFA World Cup in many ways. With the anticipated influx of people coming to Kansas City, a major aspect of preparation is Surface Transportation. “This past spring, representatives from federal, state, and local agencies in the Kansas City region came together at Sporting KC to participate in a regional transportation security exercise in preparation for the FIFA World Cup,” shared Traffic Systems Supervisor Kelly Alvarez. This transportation exercise involved a multi-staged incident involving a derailed train carrying an unknown chemical substance followed by a cyber-attack during a FIFA World Cup match in Kansas City. During the exercise, KC Scout was represented by Randy Johnson, Marcus Slaughter, Chris Engelbrecht, and Kelly Alvarez. “KC Scout is fortunate to be a daily witness to key transportation stakeholders' strength and collaboration in our region” stated Alvarez. “However, it’s still rather amazing what can...
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Scout Representatives Spoke at the ITS Heartland Conference on the KC Scout cybersecurity event

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This past April marked KC Scout’s one-year anniversary of the cyber event that resulted in months long system outage and there was interest in how the agency mitigated the aftermath of the cyber-attack. At the ITS Heartland conference, KC Scout’s Traffic Center Manager Randy Johnson and Traffic Systems Supervisor Kelly Alvarez presented about the cyber event, giving their firsthand account of the event and how KC Scout recovered. The presentation focused on the first eight hours after impact, our response over the course of the first few days, and the consequential months as KC Scout recovered.  “During that time, KC Scout received a great deal of interest on how our agency mitigated the aftermath of the cyber-attack. The ITS Heartland Conference provided an ideal opportunity to talk about our experience” shared Alvarez. While continuing to share about their experience, they shared what they learned. "We focused on lessons learned which included: limiting too mu...
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ITS Heartland Conference came to Lees Summit District Office to tour Scout

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KC Scout hosts many tours of its Traffic Management Center (TMC) for a range of different groups. This past April, KC Scout opened their Traffic Management Center to the ITS Heartland Chapter during their annual meeting that promotes ITS technology, solutions, and traffic projects. “We challenged our team to think of a more innovative way to host a tour and quickly landed on the concept of a technical tour which would focus on Scout’s ATMS (Advanced Traffic Management System)," stated Traffic Systems Supervisor, Kelly Alvarez. To have an engaging tour, attendees participated in a mock traffic incident where they were able to act as an ATMS floor operator. The tour was led by Operator III, Brian Brown, with the assistance of Amy Holt, Mary Bundridge, Scout Browning, Neil Kornis and Kelly Alvarez. “The feedback we received was remarkable and overwhelmingly positive. We even got an onstage shoutout during the conference from an individual who took the tour!” shared Alvarez. Wi...
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Bring your Child to Work Day 2025

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Each year since 2007, KC Scout has participated in MoDOT’s Bring Your Child to Work Day. Through this event, kids learn about Scout’s role as the nation’s only Bi-State Traffic Management Center. Scout has traditionally highlighted a key element of Traffic Management by involving the Dynamic Message Signs. Scout Admin Technician, Nancy Powell, and IT technologist, Terrance Stigler, helps create a fun day! “We give each participant a blank Message Entry Form with instructions on the proper length of characters they can use to create their unique Safety Message,” states Powell. Event participants were given Scrabble tiles to assist with the creation of their messages. When there were less participants, their messages were shown on the window of the TMC. This year, Emergency Response (ER) Operator, Floyd Bessard, posted messages on an ER Vehicle’s display board outside the main entrance for the kids to look at and see how the system works. “This gave the kids an opportunity to see...
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RETIREMENTS

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MoDOT KC District Engineer Chris Redline retires after 33 years, Feb. 28 On Friday, February 28 Kansas District Engineer Chris Reline retired. A registered professional engineer, Redline has spent his 33-year career at MoDOT. After graduating from Kansas State University with a civil engineering degree, Redline worked in a variety of engineering positions in the Kansas City District including construction inspector and resident engineer overseeing construction of area roads and bridges to the regional position of Area Engineer. He served as the Kansas City District’s Assistant District Engineer overseeing all the operations functions for more than a decade before being promoted to district engineer for MoDOT’s Northwest District. He then transitioned to DE for the Kansas City District in 2021. Koehn retires from KDOT after 30 years of service
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New KC Scout Board Member

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Michael E. Rinehart – KDOT District Engineer (District One) Michael E. Rinehart has been selected as the new District Engineer for District One, Northeast Kansas.  Michael, a graduate of the University of North Dakota, was previously the Metro Engineer for the Olathe Office, a position he has held for the last 5 years. Prior to joining KDOT, Michael worked for the Missouri Department of Transportation for over 27 years.  Michael brings a wide variety of experience into this position, and we look forward to his leadership for District One.
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