Western States Rural Transportation Consortium (WSRTC)

OVERVIEW | HISTORY | CONTACTS | WSRTC UPDATE | ARCHIVED WSRTC UPDATES  | WSRTC DOCUMENTS | PROJECTS | ARCHIVED UPDATES | DOCUMENTS | FACT SHEET | IMPACT | STEERING COMMITTEE | EMERITUS

The Western States Rural Transportation Consortium (WSRTC), comprised of California, Oregon, Washington, Nevada, and Utah, has been established to facilitate and enhance safe, seamless travel throughout the western United States. The Consortium seeks to promote innovative partnerships, technologies and educational opportunities to meet these objectives. Additionally, the Consortium seeks to provide a collaborative mechanism to leverage research activities in a coordinated manner to respond to rural transportation issues among western states related to technology, operations and safety. Consequently, activities of the Consortium are focused on technology transfer/education (Western States Rural Transportation Technology Implementers Forum) and incubator projects (small scale research projects intended to serve as a “proof of concept” for larger subsequent efforts) centered on the Consortium pillars of technology, operations and safety.


WSRTC Updates

A group of men seated at tables arranged in a U shape, thumbnail, link A group of men seated at tables arranged in a U shape, thumbnail, link A group of people meeting by a projector screen, thumbnail, link WSRTC logo mountain, thumbnail, link WSRTC logo mountain, thumbnail, link
WSRTC
Consortium Holds 2023 Annual Steering Committee Meeting
February 15, 2024
WSRTC
New Phase of the WSRTC Pooled Fund
September 14, 2023
WSRTC
The Consortium’s Latest!
October 26th, 2022
WSRTC
Consortium Holds Steering Committee Meeting
June 15th, 2021
WSRTC
Consortium Members Attend Northwest Transportation Conference
April 20th, 2020

Project Updates

19th Annual Forum thumbnail, and link Link, thumbnail, an instructor and students, person working on equipment, text - PCB for Communications. A seated audience watching a presenter, thumbnail, link 19th Annual logo snow covered mountain winding road, thumbnail, link Link, thumbnail WSRTC mountain logo, group meeting, fact sheet banner Link, thumbnail, students watching an instructor in a room during the RF Fundamentals Training Course.
WSRTTIF
It's time to register for the 2024 Forum!
March 27th, 2024
PCB
Project Makes Lasting Impact
February 5th, 2024
WSRTTIF
2023 Western States Forum Review
February 2nd, 2024
WSRTTIF
Now’s the time to submit an abstract for the 2024 Forum!
December 22nd, 2023
COATS
End of an Era – COATS Project Draws to a Close
November 3rd, 2023
PCB
RF Fundamentals Training Course
November 2nd, 2023

WSRTC: Consortium Holds 2023 Annual Steering Committee Meeting
Thursday, February 15th, 2024

The Western States Rural Transportation Consortium (WSRTC) convened for the annual meeting just prior to the start of the 18th annual Western States Forum in June 2023. The eleven participants represented five Consortium member states, WTI and Montana State University, and Montana Tech. You can review the meeting’s agenda (pdf), presentation (pdf), and official minutes (pdf) here and on the WSRTC Documents page.

Meeting attendees, clockwise from upper left: Doug Galarus (Montana Tech), Jeremiah Pearce (Caltrans District 2), Sean Campbell (Caltrans DRISI), Tyler Laing (Utah DOT), Tony Leingang (Washington State DOT), Jacob Grivette (Nevada DOT), Doug Spencer (Oregon DOT), David Soloos (Oregon DOT). Not pictured: Andres Chavez (Caltrans DRISI), Seth Daniels (Nevada DOT), Leann Koon (WTI/MSU).

A group of people sit at tables arranged in a semi-circle.

Photo by: Leann Koon

The meeting was called to order by Leann Koon and Sean Campbell, who welcomed attendees and facilitated personal introductions. Leann provided an overview of the meeting’s purpose and agenda.

Leann began the meeting with a preview of the 2023 Western States Forum. The Forum’s technical agenda will have seven presentations and host attendees from eight states, six DOTs, two universities, five Caltrans districts, and multiple Caltrans offices and divisions. Forum speakers and/or representatives present at the meeting each gave a brief overview of their topic.

Next, Sean Campbell discussed the history of the WSRTC and COATS project. He noted that Phase 1 TPF-5(241) of the WSRTC concluded at the end of March 2023. Phase 2 of the WSRTC, TPF-5(494), will run through spring 2027. The Consortium and its member states are the sponsors of the Western States Forum.

Doug Galarus reviewed Montana Tech WSRTC Task Order 1, which provided on-going support to the Automated Safety Warning System Controller (ASWSC) and One-Stop-Shop (OSS) projects. He described highlights of the project, which included the addition of new data feeds, conference presentations, a press release, and media interviews. With the conclusion of the Task Order, the ASWSC lab equipment was returned to Caltrans District 2.

Doug Galarus also gave a brief overview of the new WSRTC project – Chain-Up Delay Tracking and Estimation. Like what was envisioned with the travel times incubator project, the intent of this project is to use data from Caltrans-deployed Bluetooth loggers that will log time and MAC address, and to use the readings from these loggers in conjunction with chain control status and other data to develop an algorithm to estimate travel time/delay through the affected area.

Sean Campbell and Tony Leingang discussed another new project. The Advanced Highway Maintenance and Construction Technology (AHMCT) Research Center at UC Davis will be working on a project in partnership with WSDOT and Caltrans to procure and evaluate Fotokite UASs for DOT operations in network-deprived areas. There will be two main phases for the research. The first phase will be procurement, which will be completed by the end of fiscal year 1. The second phase will be documentation of system setup, field trials by WSDOT and Caltrans including support and observation by AHMCT, and final evaluation and documentation. The project started February 1st of 2023.

More information about the two new projects will be posted soon. Please check back!

Leann Koon, Sean Campbell, and Jeremiah Pearce discussed Phase 5 of the Professional Capacity Building for Communications project which ended in spring of 2023 after five phases over 15 years. The project procured multiple training courses covering a variety of topics including optical fiber and radio frequency fundamentals.

Four individuals traveled to Portland, Oregon, in August for the ITE Annual Meeting. The meeting included a Rural ITS track as NRITS was incorporated into the agenda. The WSRTC group gathered for an informal meeting during the event.

The annual meeting concluded with the traditional roundtable of ITS project work. You can read more about the many rural ITS projects the member states are working on in the meeting minutes (pdf).

To review the meeting minutes, click here, or go to the Consortium’s Documents page. The presentation from the meeting is also on the Consortium’s Documents page.


Consortium Contacts:

Caltrans LogoCaltrans Project Manager:

Andres Chavez, P.E.
Chief, ITS Special Projects Branch
Caltrans, Division of Research, Innovation, and System Information
PO Box 942873
Sacramento, CA 94273-0001
(530) 780-6877
andres.chavez "at" dot.ca.gov
https://dot.ca.gov/programs/research-innovation-system-information
Caltrans LogoCaltrans Lead
Caltrans Rural Program Steering Committee Chairman - Interim:

Jeremiah Pearce, P.E.
Chief, Office of ITS Engineering and Support
Caltrans, District 2
1657 Riverside Drive
Redding, CA 96001
(530) 225-3320
(530) 225-3255 (fax)
jeremiah.pearce "at" dot.ca.gov
https://dot.ca.gov/caltrans-near-me/district-2
Caltrans LogoRural PSC,
Rural Division Technical Advisory Panel (TAP) Coordinator:

Jeremiah Pearce, P.E.
Chief, Office of ITS Engineering and Support
Caltrans, District 2
1657 Riverside Drive
Redding, CA 96001
(530) 225-3320
(530) 225-3255 (fax)
jeremiah.pearce "at" dot.ca.gov
https://dot.ca.gov/caltrans-near-me/district-2
ODOT Logo Oregon DOT Lead:

Doug Spencer, P.E.
Standards Engineer
Intelligent Transportation Systems
Oregon Department of Transportation
2080 Laura Street
Springfield, OR 97477
(541) 747-1276
Doug.L.SPENCER "at" odot.state.or.us
http://www.oregon.gov/ODOT/HWY/ITS/
Washington State DOT LogoWashington State DOT Lead:

Tony Leingang
Acting State ITS Operations Engineer
WSDOT HQ Transportation Operations Division
Washington State Department of Transportation
PO Box 47344
310 Maple Park Avenue SE
Olympia, WA 98504-7344
(360) 709-8002
leingaa "at" wsdot.wa.gov
https://wsdot.wa.gov/
NDOT LogoNevada DOT Lead:

Seth Daniels
Assistant Chief Traffic Operations Engineer
Nevada Department of Transportation
1263 S. Stewart Street
Carson City, NV 89712
(775) 888-7565 (Office)
(775) 253-5304 (Cell)
sdaniels "at" dot.nv.gov
http://www.nevadadot.com/
UDOT LogoUtah DOT Lead:

Tyler Laing
ITS Program Manager
Traffic Management Division
Utah Department of Transportation
2060 S 2760 W
Salt Lake City, UT 84104
(801) 887-3792
tlaing "at" utah.gov
https://www.udot.utah.gov/
FHWA LogoFHWA Technical Liaison:

Michael Villnave
Traffic Operations & ITS Engineer
FHWA Washington Division
711 S Capitol Way, Suite 501
Olympia, WA 98501
(360) 753-8078
michael.villnave "at" dot.gov
www.fhwa.dot.gov/resourcecenter/teams/operations/index.cfm
MSU LogoWTI Principal Investigator:

Leann Koon
Research Associate
Systems Engineering, Development & Integration
Western Transportation Institute (WTI)
Montana State University - Bozeman
PO Box 174250
Bozeman, MT 59717-4250
(406) 994-7643
(406) 994-1697 (fax)
leann.koon "at" montana.edu
www.westerntransportationinstitute.org
Montana Tech LogoMontana Tech
Principal Investigator:

Douglas Galarus
Assistant Professor
Department of Computer Science
Montana Tech
Museum 202
1300 West Park Street
Butte, MT 59701
(406) 496-4858
dgalarus "at" mtech.edu
https://cs.mtech.edu/

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