ITS America Awards Caltrans Truck Scale Modernization Project with Top Honor

Cordelia Truck Scales Modernization Project Recognized As Best Innovative Service

DETROIT, Sept. 9, 2014 – The Intelligent Transportation Society of America (ITS America) today awarded the Cordelia Truck Scales Modernization Project with its 2014 Best of ITS Awards in the category of best new innovative product, service or application.

The California Department of Transportation (Caltran)'s Cordelia project, which was one of five finalists vying for the honor, involved the relocation and modernization of the busiest commercial vehicle inspection station in the United States. The new I-80 eastbound weigh station, which opened in July of 2013, was equipped with Intelligent Imaging Systems' (IIS) Smart Roadside.

"Along with the other members of the team responsible for the Cordelia project, we're proud to have received this honor from ITS America for the Cordelia project," said Mike Ferrell, California Highway Patrol commander. "The new I-80 eastbound Cordelia Commercial Vehicle Enforcement Facility will help the CHP carry out its mission of saving lives and improve our ability to inspect trucks and protect our roads for many years to come. Using the new technology now available, CHP commercial vehicle inspection personnel can sort high-risk vehicles for inspection without impacting the free flow of traffic on I-80 and through the facility.

"That efficiency is critical because the truck traffic volumes projected for Cordelia are among the highest in North America," Ferrell added. "With nearly 10,000 trucks travelling from the Port of Oakland along I-80 to Northern California and beyond, in addition to truck traffic from other points in the Bay Area, Caltrans needed a new station that could handle the more than 1.2 million trucks that travel through the Cordelia station annually. Plus it had to accommodate an anticipated 115 percent increase in truck traffic in the corridor by 2040. A traditional design to accommodate these levels would have made the layout and cost extraordinarily high. By including new and advanced sensor and systems technologies into the design, the overall footprint and cost of the site was significantly reduced.

"So far in 2014, we have realized a 25 percent increase in the number of vehicles inspected at the new eastbound facility over the number of vehicles inspected at our antiquated 1958 westbound facility," he said.

The award was announced during the ITS America awards breakfast session at the 21st World Congress on Intelligent Transport Systems in Detroit. The highly competitive Best of ITS Awards recognize organizations whose projects have demonstrated specific and measureable outcomes and exemplified innovation by establishing a "new dimension" of performance.

ITS America received 49 entries for this year's awards from companies and public agencies across the country. Three volunteers chosen at random from various agencies, the high-tech transportation industry and from ITS America staff reviewed each of the projects. The average scores from the reviewers determined the top 20 finalists in six different award categories. The project with the highest score in each category took the top honor.

IIS is among several companies and agencies that worked on the Cordelia weigh station relocation project: Solano Transportation Authority; O.C. Jones & Sons; Caltrans D4; HDR; California Highway Patrol; Metropolitan Transportation Commission; WMH Corporation; and GLA Partnering. Earlier this year, the California Transportation Foundation named this same project as its safety project of the year - http://transportationfoundation.org/transportation-awards/.

Several key IIS technologies were incorporated into the design of the Cordelia Truck Scale facility, including automated CVSA Decal Reader technology, an Advanced Lane Control system, and Vehicle Waveform Identification (VWI). VWI electronically tags and tracks commercial vehicles based on their magnetic "fingerprint". This patent pending technology identifies and matches commercial vehicles from location to location with an accuracy exceeding 96 percent. This technology was integrated with an electronic lane control system to offer complete weigh station traffic management and tracking.

IIS has been a provider of road safety equipment and software services since 2003. As a supplier and integrator of advanced imaging systems, IIS provides transportation and law enforcement agencies with advanced tools in an effort to make the goals of safety more efficient and effective.

About Cordelia Truck Scale

The California Department of Transportation (Caltrans)'s Cordelia Truck Scale is the busiest commercial vehicle inspection station in the United States. Nearly 10,000 trucks a day travel from the Port of Oakland along I-80 to Northern California and beyond. The old eastbound Cordelia Truck Scales, built in 1958, contributed significantly to the congestion on I-80 due to the lack of automation tools. This impaired the California Highway Patrol's ability to inspect trucks efficiently due to traffic congestion, and out-of-date technology. The modernization of the Cordelia truck scales benefits all travelers on I-80 by reducing congestion and improving safety, and it enables the CHP to conduct safety inspections in a more efficient manner. For more information about the project, visit the Caltrans web site - http://www.dot.ca.gov/dist4/80ebcordelia/.

About WMH Corporation

WMH Corporation provides project management and design services for Caltrans and transportation agencies throughout California. WMH serves state and local transportation authorities to deliver state of the art infrastructure projects. WMH Corporation was founded in January 2008 and employs engineers, managers, and design specialists, providing one of the best consulting services of its type in California. For nearly 25 years, WMH key staff have provided clients with quality consulting services on numerous transportation projects providing on-time and within budget completion.

About Intelligent Transportation Society of America (ITS America) ITS America is the nation's largest organization dedicated to advancing the research, development, and deployment of intelligent transportation systems to improve the nation's surface transportation network. To learn more about ITS America, visit www.itsa.org or follow the organization on Twitter #ITS_America.