Volpe Center Assists New York Tri-State Emergency Operations and Planning
The Volpe Center is supporting four stakeholder agencies in the New York City tri-state region in developing a Security Cooperation and Emergency Operations Plan (SCEOP) for regional surface transportation. The 12-month project will address emergency operations and planning for events such as major transportation accidents and disruptions, public health emergencies, major technology failures, terrorism, severe weather, and evacuations.
The four stakeholders are New York Metropolitan Transit Authority (NY MTA), New Jersey Transit, Connecticut DOT, and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ). The PANYNJ is acting on behalf of the four agencies as the conduit for Department of Homeland Security funding and is responsible for overall project management.
The Volpe Center will begin with an assessment of each agency's existing and planned security and emergency operations to distill vital information about each agency's full spectrum of existing and planned security and emergency operations. Next, Volpe Center staff will perform an examination of best practices from around the globe of security and regional emergency management coordination. Finally, a gap analysis of these inputs will yield individual agency SCEOPs and a Regional SCEOP.
The plan documents will detail the requirements for systems capabilities; asset management; shared situational awareness; and tactics, techniques and procedures to coordinate regional resources and response to major events. The program goal is to develop documents that help leaders in the New York City Tri-State region mitigate event impacts ranging from delays and disruptions to loss of life.
Emergency response exercises are an integral part of emergency preparedness.
