KC Scout Shout!

When Marcus Slaughter and MoDOT’s General Services team created the JAWS innovation in 2018, they were well aware of what kind of impact it could have on the safety of their fellow co-workers. What they may not have anticipated, however, is that a mere five years later other agencies would be following suit - including those in Mexico.  JAWS, or Julie's Automated Waste Removal System, is an innovation created in honor of Julie Love. Love was a maintenance worker for MoDOT in 2004 when, tragically, she was struck by a motorist while attempting to remove debris from the roadway. JAWS is a truck equipped with a drop down skid plate allowing operators to safely and quickly remove debris in the roadway without getting out of their vehicle. According to Incident Management Coordinator Marcus Slaughter, an Operator Communication Manager from the Mexican Exterior Circuit reached out to him curious about the device.  "They reached out to me to express how much they liked the JAWS d

Crashes, flat tires, fires, police activity, and more. There isn't much that the Traffic Management Center isn't involved in when it comes to roadway incidents. An example of this is the bridge fire at 18th Street and Interstate 70 that occurred earlier this year. Recently, Traffic Systems Supervisor Kelly Alvarez received a Noteworthy Award from MoDOT senior management regardin g  her efforts during this event. The fire damaged the bridge and closed the middle lane of I-70 during the repair process.  According to Alvarez, this particular incident was challenging and required a coordinated approach to handle and help resolve. Her role involved coordinating the team in the Traffic Management Center along with coordinating response requests from local and statewide leadership. "From the initial call to the eventual work zone put in place, there were many tasks that KC Scout operations had to handle including dispatching first responders (including MoDOT Emergency Respon

In April, KC Scout was honored with the Best of ITS Heart land Product award at the ITS Heartland Conference in Lincoln, NE.  Submitted by Innovations and Training Coordinator Mary Bundridge, Traffic Systems Supervisor  Kelly Alvarez, and TMC Operations Manager Amy Holt, the award was presented to KC Scout for their Traffic Management Center (TMC) New Hire Training Program KC Scout's management team implemented a two week intensive course for new hires.  "The course starts with an introduction to ITS and incident management as a whole. It then provides basic systems training, processes, and expectations to the new hires," said Bundridge. According to Bundridge, the Advanced Traffic Management System training platform is utilized to provide hands-on scenario based learning exercises. Standard operating procedures, applications, and resources are reviewed one by one in a discussion format infused with examples from past TMC operations. When trainees transition to the TMC fl