Volpe Center: Volpe Center Highlights

Information Resources

Volpe Center Highlights - March/April 2004

Workshops

Photo of a person in biosuit and mask exiting a subway station.

The swift resumption of normal transportation operations after a bioattack would be vital to the nation's economic well being. The Volpe Center recently held a forum where a wide range of experts discussed how the transportation community can clean up and recover passenger transportation facilities after bioattacks. Subsequent forums will address other urgent transportation issues. (Photo Eric Malema/Getty Images)

Volpe Workshops on Emerging Issues in Transportation Provide a Forum for Experts

Much valuable work is being done across the transportation community to enhance safety, security, and capacity. However, given the evolving challenges confronting the enterprise, the ability to identify trends in requirements and to map research and technology development is critical. Particularly important is the ability to recognize emerging issues that deserve urgent attention. Maintaining its long tradition of facilitating knowledge exchange across the transportation community, the Volpe Center has designed a workshop series titled "New Dimensions in Transportation" that brings together select experts from the public and private sectors to generate fresh approaches to emerging issues.

Sharing Lessons Learned from Anthrax Attacks
The costly, complex, and lengthy cleanup of several United States Postal Service and congressional buildings contaminated by anthrax spores mailed in the fall of 2001 offers object lessons to the transportation community. Several invited speakers shared lessons from these cleanup efforts. Workshop participants then explored ways to respond to the system-wide economic, operational, logistical, and psychological impacts of a bioattack, for example, how to:

Determine what institutional relationships are needed for successful cleanup and recovery;
Ascertain "how clean is clean enough" prior to resuming operations;
Assure travelers and workers that they are safe once operations resume;
Compensate for capacity loss and business interruption;
Plan for continuity of transportation operations;
Identify next steps at national, state, and local levels.

(Photo courtesy of Mr. Paolo Iscaro, URS Corporation)

Restoring Transportation Operations in the Aftermath of a Bioattack

In 2003, the Volpe Center held forums on emergency response planning related to bioterror agents and public health that focused on evacuation and/or quarantine. Complementing and building on these prior efforts, the Center recently hosted "Cleanup and Recovery of Passenger Transportation Facilities After a Bioattack," which addressed how to mitigate the potentially crippling and costly aftereffects of a likely bioattack on a major transportation node. The group of 50 invited attendees represented a cross section of transportation and homeland security stakeholders who share an interest in rapid, cost-effective recovery capabilities for biocontaminated transportation facilities, vehicles, employees, and passengers.

Lessons learned from the remediation of Postal Service and congressional facilities after anthrax attacks in 2001 served as a platform for discussing future needs and challenges. Experts from federal and state agencies, transportation authorities, academia, and industry reviewed:

State-of-the-art cleanup technologies and methods;
Programs and plans to enhance biodefense in transportation;
Key technology, policy, institutional, and resource challenges to rapid decontamination and recovery after a bioattack.

Dr. Aviva Brecher of Volpe's Office of Environmental Preservation and Systems Modernization organized the forum. The workshop summary, resource paper, agenda, and presentations are posted at http://www.volpe.dot.gov/ourwork/dimensions/workshops.html along with information about the entire New Dimensions in Transportation series.

Exploring Other Significant Challenges

The first forum of the New Dimensions series addressed Port Security in Boston Harbor. Hosted by the Center in January 2004, it brought together nearly two dozen federal and local experts who offered their views on existing security practices in the harbor region, future plans, and existing gaps and challenges. Dr. Bahar Barami and Mr. Michael Rossetti of Volpe's Transportation Strategic Planning and Analysis Office organized this roundtable in consultation with Mr. Michael Dinning, Acting Deputy Director, Office of Environmental Preservation and System Modernization. In subsequent forums, invited participants will address: Balancing Security and Mobility, Sustainable Transportation, and Trends in Future Demand for Aviation.

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