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Volpe Center Highlights - March/April 2002

Focus

Director's Notes | Focus | Safety | Mobility | Human and Natural Environment
Economic Growth | National Security | Papers and Presentations

Supporting RSPA and its new Administrator

Administrator Ellen G. Engleman leads RSPA as it continues to make America's transportation system more integrated, effective, and secure. RSPA provides innovative, collaborative solutions in transportation safety, research, education, and emergency management.

The Research and Special Programs Administration (RSPA), an agency within the U.S. DOT and the parent organization for the Volpe Center, provides vital services to the nation's dynamic transportation system.

The RSPA Administrator, Miss Ellen G. Engleman, was sworn in on September 25, 2001. She is a business leader, attorney, and accredited public relations professional, as well as a commissioned officer in the U.S. Naval Reserve serving in a Naval Reserve unit supporting the Chief of Naval Information in the Pentagon.

She was most recently president and chief executive officer of Electricore, Inc., an Indiana-based nonprofit consortium for research and development (R&D) of advanced transportation and energy technologies through federal private/public partnerships. Over six years, she led the consortium's expansion to participation by major U.S. automotive manufacturers, large and small businesses in 17 states and over 25 universities, and to federal R&D partnerships of $160 million involving more than 70 projects.

Miss Engleman leads RSPA in its mission to protect people and the environment from risks of hazardous materials transportation; promote transportation innovations through research, technology, education, and training; and manage transportation emergency services. RSPA pursues four strategic goals in carrying out this mission: safety, environmental protection, emergency management, and research and technology innovation.

RSPA offices work collaboratively to achieve these integrated goals.

• Safety: Protect the public from deaths, injuries, and property damage caused by transportation of hazardous materials;

• Environmental Protection: Protect our natural environment from damage caused by transportation of hazardous liquids by pipelines;

• Emergency Management: Ensure our nation's transportation system functions adequately during natural disasters and national security crises so that adverse impacts on people and property are minimized; and

• Research and Technology Innovation: Promote innovation through science and technology to support the achievement of national transportation goals of safety, homeland security, mobility and economic growth, and human and natural environment.

An office of RSPA, the Volpe Center executes projects in support of the RSPA Offices of Hazardous Materials Safety; Pipeline Safety; Emergency Transportation; and Innovation, Research and Education.

Safety and Environmental Protection
The Volpe Center has been supporting RSPA's Office of Hazardous Materials Safety (OHM) and its predecessor organizations for more than 20 years. This support has included performing a variety of background studies examining the movement and safety of hazardous materials (hazmat), and analyses in support of proposed changes in hazmat regulations. Currently, the Center is conducting a comprehensibility study of labels for hazmat that considers the introduction of the United Nations Global Harmonization System (GHS) for labeling hazardous chemicals.

Volpe staff support two information systems for OHM: the Hazardous Materials Registration Information System (HAZREG) and the Hazardous Materials Information System (HMIS). HAZREG, which is evolving into an e-government application, supports registration of transporters of certain classes and quantities of hazardous materials. HMIS enables OHM managers to monitor the performance of RSPA's hazardous materials transportation safety programs.

The Center's work for RSPA's Office of Pipeline Safety (OPS) has included analytical and technical support, including cost-benefit analyses related to regulatory changes and background studies on safety issues. Currently, Volpe is working with OPS on a knowledge-based, decision-support system that will allow OPS to leverage its resources to ensure safer pipeline distribution systems. Volpe support includes creating an automated system to support communications between OPS, its regional field offices, and the state pipeline offices. The Center is also developing data analysis and information management strategies to enhance OPS's trend analysis and proactive information management.

Emergency Management
RSPA's Office of Emergency Transportation (OET) tasked the Volpe Center with supporting development of DOT's Transportation Information Operations Center. This facility will be the center for communication within DOT and with other agencies and industry during a crisis such as a natural disaster, a major transportation-related accident, or a security threat. The Volpe team is working with OET to help integrate the definition, planning, design, and implementation of the facility. The Center is also supporting the OET in developing a coordinated, comprehensive emergency transportation database for DOT, in cooperation with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). This database contains detailed points of contact and transportation requirements for the numerous components of the federally defined emergency support functions. Staff from the Volpe Center also worked with OET immediately following September 11, 2001, to coordinate DOT's support to FEMA.

Research and Technology Innovation
RSPA's Innovation, Research and Education program is the focal point for a departmental effort to shape and advance the national transportation R&D agenda. The DOT's R&D programs leverage the research investments of other federal agencies, state and local governments, the private sector, and academia to stimulate transportation innovation. The Volpe Center produced a seminal Transportation Science and Technology Strategy for the federal government. The Center also completed the final draft of the FY 2002 DOT Research, Development, and Technology Plan (Report to Congress) in January 2002. Currently, Volpe staff members are developing the second edition of the International Transportation R&D Assessment.

The Center performed a vulnerability and risk analysis of surface transportation, addressing threats such as traditional attacks using weapons of mass destruction, as well as threats involving emerging biological and chemical weapons. In support of RSPA's Transportation Infrastructure Assurance research, a Volpe team is assessing the interdependencies of critical operating elements of the transportation system, including telecommunications and electric power, and analyzing the potential impacts on people and systems of their loss or damage.

To facilitate public-private research partnerships, the Volpe Center provides white papers and conducts seminars and technical meetings. In January 2002, Volpe staff completed the report "Public-Private Partnerships III: Engines for Innovation." A Volpe team is also developing a series of workshops involving infrastructure assurance and homeland security.

Under a TEA-21 (Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century) mandate, DOT, in cooperation with NASA, is validating commercial remote sensing products and spatial information technologies for multimodal transportation applications. For the past 4 years, the Volpe Center provided technical assistance in this area to RSPA, which also relied on the Office of the Secretary and a Remote Sensing Working Group supplemented by experts from NASA and the Transportation Research Board. The Center organized a national symposium; supported program reviews and project management; and designed, implemented, and maintains RSPA's Remote Sensing Web site.

RSPA's University Transportation Centers (UTC) Program advances U.S. technology and expertise in transportation through education, research, and technology transfer at university-based centers of excellence; the Volpe Center is responsible for the UTC Web site. The Center also maintains the RSPA Web site, the RSPA Chief Counsel site, the RSPA OET site, the Technology Sharing Program site, the DOT Technology and Innovation site, and the DOT Transportation Science and Technology site.

As a key component of RSPA, the Volpe Center will continue to support its mission through the advancement of safety, environmental protection, emergency management, and research and technology innovation.

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