Background
The objective of this NCHRP project was to provide flexible, ongoing, quick-response research on transportation issues related to emergency incident prevention, mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery, paying particular attention to potential terrorist threats. Â BCG was to develop improvements to analytical methods, decision support tools, procedures, and techniques employed by practitioners to support statewide, local, and metropolitan transportation organizations in planning, exercising, and evaluating their continuity of operations programs.
Approach
In collaboration with McCormick Taylor, Inc., BCG distributed a 15-question survey to 199 Transportation Management Centers (TMC), transit agencies and state Departments of Transportation (DOT) to determine: the need for COOP guidelines; if agencies have developed COOP plans and why and, if so, what elements the COOP plan contains; and if agencies have identified key resources and personnel to support COOP functions. We developed a database of survey results and findings were analyzed. BCG conducted extensive literature review and developed an annotated bibliography. Telephone interviews were conducted with personnel responsible for developing and maintaining COOP plans at state DOTs, TMCs, and transit agencies around the nation. Finally, COOP plans gathered from submitted agencies were reviewed and analyzed.
Results
BCG created a complete guide to initiating COOP planning, including testing and executing the plan and revising it as necessary. We included customizable worksheets, a series of brochures that can be used to explain the COOP planning process to employees, a presentation developed to obtain support for the COOP planning process from transportation executive leadership, and a CD-ROM containing electronic versions of all COOP planning worksheets, COOP figures and tables, the COOP plan template, and the outreach materials. In addition, we included over 300 resource documents, organized in an electronic COOP library.