Improving Emergency Incident Response During Interstate-64 Construction

About the Program

Category: Risk and Emergency Management (Best in Category)

Year: 2018

In 2016, the York County Department of Fire and Life Safety identified the need to partner with many other agencies that provide emergency responses in the area of the widening project of Interstate 64 (I-64). This interstate widening project brought an escalated risk and need for action in order to ensure the safety of first responders. Changing traffic patterns, combined with limited access points due to a severe limitation of areas for traffic to pull out of the way for emergency vehicles, increased risk to units responding to I-64 incidents. The first segment (Segment I) started in the City of Newport News and would extend to the 248 mile marker (MM). The York County Department of Fire and Life Safety, along with the James City County Fire Department, would be responsible for the emergency responses in the second segment (Segment II), beginning at MM 248 and extending to MM 241.3. The jurisdictional boundaries of both York County and James City County exist in Segment II. After conversations with the Newport News Fire Department we were able to identify the lessons learned from their response to I-64 during Segment I, and it was determined that a collaborative approach would be needed to accomplish the next two phases of construction involving many different agencies. Radio communications seemed to be the biggest hurdle that the City of Newport News faced along with access to the emergency scene. Unlike Segment II (our area), Newport News (Segment I) only had one fire/EMS agency responding to many of the incidents which caused less confusion during their responses. Within the Segment II work zone, there are typically at least two different departments and/or fire stations responding to the same incident and potentially operating on different radio channels.