Road Closures Tool

2018 NACo Achievement Award Winner

Alameda County, Calif., CA

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About the Program

Category: Transportation (Best in Category)

Year: 2018

Alameda County is facing unprecedented growth. Construction equipment/cranes have become a permanent part of the streetscape. All that construction comes an inevitable slew of road closures – for repair, new work, responding to accidents. Our Public Works Agency (PWA), in conjunction with the Information Technology Department (ITD) works hard to provide timely information to residents. Updates are sent externally through social media and websites. We coordinate internally too - notifications to Public Safety departments and Public Information Officers. Unfortunately, even with all this activity, constituents are unlikely to see this information, because, let’s face it, nobody checks the County website for driving directions. They check Waze or Google Maps. This is where the new Alameda County Road Closures Tool comes in. County employees can now enter information about road closures into the app, draw the route of the closure on a simple map, and save it, so that information is immediately picked up by Waze. Benefits don’t end with just the County, however. The tool has been designed with partners in mind, and is being offered to cities within the County as well. As part of the Waze Connected Citizens Program (CCP), we also get access to real time traffic data.