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: Fall 2024 Update
Wednesday, March 19th, 2025

We are less than 96 days away from our 20th Annual Western States Forum! Registration will open soon – Save the Date for June 16-18, 2025! We are proud to have provided a forum for engineering professionals to discuss high quality, detailed technical information for 20 years!

This quarter, work continued on the four active task orders.

• Evaluation of the Fotokite Tethered Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) for DOT Operations in Network-Deprived Areas (AHMCT UC Davis)
• Chain-Up Delay Tracking and Estimation (Montana Tech)
• WeatherShare Maintenance (Montana Tech)
• WSRTC Meeting Coordination, Western States Forum, Website Maintenance (WTI-MSU)

The UC Davis Fotokite research team continued investigation into possible premature ground landings, the potential for components to overheat, and how different model year vehicles could potentially impact Fotokite flight times. The team successfully identified root causes of some of the major issues and expects to implement solutions in the upcoming quarters.

Planning for the 20th Annual Forum continued this quarter with Save the Date postcards and Call for Abstracts distributed by mail and email. The Best Western Miners Inn was selected and secured for the 2025 Forum. You can check out some highlights from the 19th Annual Forum (June 2024) here.

Please keep an eye out for upcoming news about the technical presentations and demonstrations at the 20th Annual Forum!

Consortium Contacts:

Caltrans 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 Lead,
Caltrans Rural Program Steering Committee Chairman:

Stacey Barnes
Deputy District Director
Maintenance & Operations
Caltrans District 2, Redding
1657 Riverside Drive
Redding, CA 96001
(530) 768-7643
stacey.barnes "at" dot.ca.gov
https://dot.ca.gov/caltrans-near-me/district-2

Rural 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 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 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/ Nevada DOT Lead:

Jacob Grivette
Operations Technology Manager
Traffic Operations
Nevada Department of Transportation
1301 Old Hot Springs Rd
Carson City, NV 89706
(775) 888-7884 (Office)
(775) 516-4841 (Mobile)
jgrivette “at” dot.nv.gov
http://www.nevadadot.com/

Utah DOT Lead:

Matt Luker, P.E., PTOE
ITS Program Manager
Traffic Management Division
Utah Department of Transportation
2060 S 2760 W
Salt Lake City, UT 84104
(801) 887-3792
mluker "at" utah.gov
https://www.udot.utah.gov/ FHWA Technical Liaison:

Paul Muppidi
ITS/Operations Engineer
FHWA Washington Division
711 S Capitol Way, Suite 501
Olympia, WA 98501
(360) 753-9487
paul.muppidi "at" dot.gov
Washington Division | Federal Highway Administration

WTI 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
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/

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