Surface deployments will move via Web server

Translog: Journal of Military Transportation Management, March-April, 2002

Pete Connelly has been in a hurry to get a sign-on and password ever since he first heard about the Intelligent Road/Rail Information Server.

Connelly, Transportation Officer of the Devens Reserve Forces Training Area, Mass., heard about the Web-based server March 26 in the opening session of the MTMC 2002 Training Symposium. The server, said Bill Cooper, Director of the MTMC Transportation Engineering Agency, provides multiple databases of information to deploying military units in the continental United States.

"It would be really helpful for us," said Connelly. "I want to get home and get an identification and try it."

Connelly said his Reserve training site, formerly the Army post of Fort Devens, Mass., is the hub of a lot of troop deployments.

"It's exciting--it's gone so fast" said Connelly. "It's amazing we'll be able to get real-time data, information and weather."

Connelly's excitement is shared by Keith Siniscalchi, of the Tooele Army Depot, Tooele, Utah.

"Right now," said Siniscalchi, "I'm kind of fascinated by it."

Using the Web server, Jon Pollack, of GeoDecisions, Camp Hill, Pa., displayed actual Tooele shipments to Siniscalchi. Attending the symposium in Dallas, Siniscalchi could see shipments moving toward Tooele, and observe shipments at the installation.

"From a managerial standpoint," said Siniscalchi, "it's great!"

Transportation Engineer Agency specialists have heard all the praise before.

"It's a traffic engineer's delight to demonstrate the server," said Paul Allred, of the agency's highway engineering division. "The server completely amazes our users and potential users. This server is absolutely top notch."

Intelligent Road-Rail Information Server, or IRRIS, as it is commonly known, is one of the Newport News, Va., agency's most important projects in 2002. The $1.5 million project was developed jointly, over 18 months, by agency engineers and GeoDecisions, of Camp Hill, Pa. The server combines leading-edge computer and Web-based technology to bring together complex transportation information. IRRIS gathers and integrates all types of information from the far reaches of the transportation world--about highways, railroads, marine ports, weather, and defense movements--and combines this information into a visual, easy-to-understand form.

The Intelligent Road-Rail Information Server also provides integrated, up-to-date information on deployment route readiness in the continental United States, and even displays real-time route camera images, where available.

IRRIS was developed to provide instant information for military deployments. As engineers develop the server, its functionality has expanded to allow real-time monitoring of defense shipments.

The server was presented to symposium attendees via a live Web-based demonstration, featuring colorful images on giant television screens.

"IRRIS can track a nearly limitless number of shipments," said Cooper, speaking to a general conference audience. "This is what's so exciting to us."

Currently, the MTMC Operations Center is tracking as many as 500 freight shipments daily on a real-time basis. The stream of instant and accurate data will give MTMC planners a new level of carrier performance.

"We are able to evaluate carrier stops, speed and route selection," said Cooper. "We can produce automatic reports in a few seconds. No longer will it take numerous phone calls."

A host of databases, added Cooper, will provide a stream of information to deploying units, in such categories as roads, bridges, railroads, military installations, seaports and satellite imagery. Video routes in the server, from power projection platforms to strategic seaports, are marked in video images every 108 feet.

"This is a very popular feature among drivers," said Cooper. "Drivers may literally drive the route of a deployment ahead of time."