- Signal Spotlights: The Importance of Preventative Maintenance
- Tips from Tony: Rail Safety
- Dead and Grounded, Dead and Grounded, Dead and Grounded...Make Sure It's the Wires and Not You!
- Innovation Station: 2019 Creative Solutions Award
- National Work Zone Awareness Week—April 8-12, 2019
- UConn-Sikorsky Team Engineers Autonomous Firefighting Drone
- April Is National Distracted Driving Awareness Month
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Signal Spotlights: The Importance of Preventative Maintenance
A critical component of any traffic signal management program is maintenance. Preventive maintenance ensures that components of a traffic signal system that have a limited service life are regularly cleaned, replaced, re-calibrated or tuned to prevent equipment failures, ensure optimal operations and extend the life of the infrastructure. Reactive maintenance involves providing emergency response when equipment fails to restore the signal to normal operation.
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When managing infrastructure assets, preventive maintenance must be balanced with reactive (corrective) maintenance to ensure optimal performance and reliability. This concept is often used in pavement, facilities and fleet management, but is equally applicable to traffic signals.
To continue reading this Signal Spotlight,
click here
.
If you have traffic signal systems questions, please contact:
Theresa Schwartz, P.E., P.T.O.E. - Traffic Signal Circuit Rider
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Tips from Tony: Rail Safety
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Are you familiar with the FRA website and the resources on it?
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Answer:
“FRA” is the abbreviation for the U. S. Department of Transportation’s Fede
ral Railroad
Administration. The
FRA website
provides access to valuable safety information and resources for roadway users, government officials, public safety personnel and first responders. A variety of materials are available, including videos on rail safety for law enforcement, emergency dispatchers and emergency response services at:
https://www.fra.dot.gov/Page/P1098
and railroad crossing safety and trespass prevention for motorists and pedestrians at:
https://www.fra.dot.gov/Page/P0843.
The FRA, in coordination with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, is launching the upcoming national Rail Grade Crossing Safety campaign "
Stop. Trains Can't
" that will run April 16 - May 12, 2019. Several downloadable media tools designed to increase public awareness about the dangers around railroad tracks and to reduce deaths and injures have been developed for use in local communities and are available in English and Spanish at:
https://www.trafficsafetymarketing.gov/get-materials/rail-grade-crossing/stop-trains-cant
.
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If you have any questions about these or other local road safety concerns, please contact:
Anthony Lorenzetti, P.E. - Safety Circuit Rider
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Dead and Grounded, Dead and Grounded, Dead and Grounded...Make Sure It's the Wires and Not You!
by Warren Rogers, C.S.P.
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Only the electric utility can make a situation safe where there are wires, trees, vehicles, chain link fences, guardrails and electricity. There is nothing anyone else can do except keep all personnel safe at least 30 feet away, further if possible. No arc and spark means nothing, everything can still be "hot."
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Do nothing else until you hear from the utility person at the scene, "It's dead and grounded"!
People trapped in a car? Call 911/Dispatch, and make sure to tell them to pass the information along to the utility. Utilities have priority response to situations where there are lives in immediate danger from wires. Communicate to the people in the car to STAY IN THE CAR! Inside the vehicle is always the safest place to be until the lines can be made DEAD and GROUNDED. If the occupant must leave the vehicle due to another hazard (fire), direct them to jump away from the vehicle and hop or shuffle to safety.
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2019 Creative Solutions Award
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Have you or someone in your crew built a device to help make a job safer or more efficient? Have you improved a process that has increased safety, saved time or reduced cost? If so, let us know about it!
The Creative Solutions Award recognizes individuals and departments that have found innovative ways to get the job done safely and efficiently with resources they have on hand. Share your "homemade" gadget, tool, equipment modification or process with us and let us share it with the public works community through the Connecticut Creative Solutions Awards.
Winners receive recognition at our annual Graduation and Awards Ceremony and their creative solutions are entered into the National Build a Better Mousetrap Competition sponsored by the National Local Technical Assistance Program Association.
Not sure your gadget would make the cut? Check out our
online guide
to see examples of past winners—and maybe get inspired to try something new!
Deadline is August 1st—submit your entry today!
Click here
to get the entry packet.
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National Work Zone Awareness
Week
—
April
8-12, 2019
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National Work Zone Awareness Week (NWZAW) 2019 is scheduled for April 8th thru April 12th. This year's theme is
Drive Like You Work Here
. NWZAW is an annual spring campaign held at the start of construction season to encourage safe driving through work zones. The key message is for drivers to use extra caution in work zones.
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Wednesday, April 10th is Go Orange Day! Show your support for Work Zone Safety by wearing orange on April 10th. Join the American Traffic Safety Services Association's (ATSSA) movement by taking an "orange selfie" and sharing your photo on social media. Use hashtag #OrangeforSafety. And as always, represent the CT Department of Transportation by using #GoOrangeDayCT and #ObeytheOrange!
For more information and resources from the Work Zone Safety Information Clearinghouse,
click here
.
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UConn-Sikorsky Team Engineers Autonomous Firefighting Drone
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Working with mentors from Sikorsky, three University of Connecticut engineering seniors are translating their classroom education to the field.
Electrical engineering majors Kerry Jones and Joshua Steil and computer engineering major Ryan Heilemann are collaborating to build and program an autonomous firefighting drone to battle blazes without a pilot's guidance.
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"In the world today there's a high prevalence of forest fires, like in California, but the problem is how to safely put out these fires," says Steil. "So our project, in essence, is to see if we can start putting out fires without a human driver."
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April Is National Distracted Driving Awareness Month
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Distracted driving is dangerous, claiming 3,450 lives in 2016 alone. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) leads the national effort to save lives by preventing this dangerous behavior. Get the facts, get involved, and help us keep America's roads safe.
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NHTSA is dedicated to eliminating risky behaviors on our nation's roads. NHTSA leads the fight nationally against distracted driving by educating Americans about its dangers and partnering with the states and local police to enforce laws against distracted driving that help keep us safe.
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Use these links to get more information about the Connecticut Technology Transfer (T2) Center:
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If you have any ideas or suggestions for future
Connecticut Crossroads
topics, please feel free to email the designer Regina Hackett at
regina.hackett@uconn.edu
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