Program Qualifications – Mobility, Safety, Security and Access Control

The following program descriptions highlight the experience of Addison Burnet Group and its associates related to transportation safety, security and access control.  While some of our associates have held U. S. government security clearances, including Secret and Top Secret, none of the programs described here was classified, nor were any non-U.S. citizen associates of Addison Burnet Group working on these programs. 

Table 1 – Mobility Experience Related to Safety, Security and Access Control 

World Trade Center Cleanup – Vehicle Route Verification / Security 

Following the attacks of September 11, 2001 several federal and state agencies were concerned about security of the vehicles hauling waste from the WTC site.  A primary sort of materials was being conducted on-site, with trucks hauling debris dispatched to one of five different dump stations where secondary, detailed sorting of materials, was completed.  Associates of Addison Burnet Group were asked to provide a rapidly deployable, reliable system based on commercial, off-the-shelf technology that could dispatch and automatically track trucks hauling debris throughout their round-trip haul cycle. 

In less than 72 hours we completed a needs assessment, settled on a system configuration, including suppliers of critical system and operations components, prepared and tested a prototype, and presented our recommendation to the team responsible for cleanup of the site – including a live demonstration on-site in Manhattan.  The solution we presented, though designed for another application, met approximately 90% of the functionality desired of those on-site responsible for cleanup in its prototype form.  It was thus selected for this critical assignment, and was being used to monitor vehicle dispatch and operations less than 48 hours after our demonstration. 

Once the system was deployed there was 100% accountability for each truckload of debris.  Turn-around times for the fleet of approximately 400 trucks per day hauling debris from the site were also reduced significantly, sometimes in excess of 70%, greatly enhancing efficiency of the recovery operation.  This system is credited with being one of the primary reasons why the cleanup was completed in 8 months instead of the 12 months anticipated to complete this work. 

Airport Landside Traffic Management

Under subcontract to the Puerto Rico Ports Authority, Addison Burnet Group recently completed an investigation on how landside commercial and motorist traffic could be monitored and controlled at the Luis Marín Muñoz International Airport in San Juan, Puerto Rico.  This work included an assessment of commercial and non-commercial users of the airport and resulted in suggested improvements of land operations to ensure compliance with changing requirements as Department of Homeland Security alert levels changed.  A number of operational recommendations were made, including conventional and high tech solutions.  In addition to increasing the efficiency of operations, both vehicular and airport, these solutions offered tighter control over commercial vehicles supporting the local tourist and cruise ship industry and delivery trucks servicing businesses at the airport via escalating itinerary verification requirements and monitors.  One of the key recommendations was a hierarchical system of vehicle and driver access control.  The recommended system concept also would enable itinerary verification.  Unlike vehicle tracking in near real-time, itinerary verification allows certain vehicles to be in certain locations or zones within prescribed time windows.  Excursions from pre-authorized time could be cause for alert and subsequent action. 

International Border Electronic Clearance (IBEX) Program  

IBEX was conducted for the U. S. Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration, Joint Program Office.  The main goal was to demonstrate how ITS can increase the effectiveness of monitoring cross-border commercial truck movements and enhance the efficiency of ‘live’ port of entry commercial vehicle operations (CVO).  Electronics were used to help Customs inspectors make more informed decisions regarding which trucks should be sent to secondary inspection.  This field operational test (FOT), which was managed by an Addison Burnet Group associate, went ‘live’ in September, 1995, and was the first operational deployment of ITS electronic technology designed to increase commercial mobility and at the same time increase cross-border truck, driver and cargo movement security at a U. S. port. 

Operational testing, completed prior to widespread adoption of the TCP/IP protocol, was conducted in close cooperation with U. S. Department of Treasury and U. S. Customs prior to incorporation of Customs into U. S. Department of Homeland Security.  The FOT demonstrated the need for a robust cross-agency interface specification.  Otherwise, the effectiveness of this system on monitoring CVO movements was a success.  Efficiency of operations was demonstrated to increase by 98% through hundreds of ‘live’ commercial movements with the close cooperation of one of the largest electronic manufacturers in Tijuana and San Diego.  Route verification was demonstrated to be practical using GPS units mounted on drayage tractors. 

Texas Regional International Border Clearance (TRIBEX) Program

The TRIBEX program was conducted for the U. S. Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration, Joint Program Office, with close coordination with U. S. Department of Treasury and U. S. Customs Service.  TRIBEX systems were deployed at three bridges in Texas:  Lincoln – Juarez  Bridge in Laredo (Downtown), Colombia Solidarity Bridge, also in Laredo and Ysleta – Zaragosa Bridge in El Paso.  Similar to IBEX, the primary goal of this FOT was to demonstrate that interoperable electronic systems could be used to monitor commercial movements through ports of entry to improve effectiveness of cross-border monitoring programs while improving efficiency of the crossings.  As a follow-on to IBEX, TRIBEX used the systems architecture that was successful at Otay Mesa in California.  TRIBEX extended the system test to demonstrate that the electronic monitoring system could function in an interoperable way at multiple locations, and was flexible enough to operate in different configurations of Customs compounds. 

Like IBEX, the TRIBEX architecture supported a number of secure and open communications applications.  Information retrieved from the electronic system could be correlated to the safety history of the company providing the port of entry drayage, as well as criminal and security information related to the vehicle’s driver and its waybill and other documentation relevant to the security and safety of the cargo.  Results of security decisions were displayed at the U. S. Customs inspection station in the form of ‘red light’ (detailed inspection recommended) or ‘green light’ (detailed inspection not recommended) annunciation.  These results helped the Customs inspector make decisions about which trucks might present more or less security risk. 

The TRIBEX program, which required a high level of cooperation among multiple U. S. Customs agents, customs brokers, trucking companies and decision makers in Washington D. C., was determined to be a major success.  In addition to increasing the efficiency of CVO operations at the international border, it also demonstrated the value of using electronics to monitor and track trucks, their drivers and cargo at international border crossings.  

EPIC 

Another contractor had been awarded the field operational test at the Port of Nogales, Arizona (The EPIC Program).  That deployment was to accomplish the same functionality as that provided by IBEX and TRIBEX.  When it became apparent that that contractor was not going to be able to meet its milestones for installation and testing, FHWA requested that the software and communications system that had already successfully passed systems acceptance testing at TRIBEX locations under the direction of an Addison Burnet Group associate be used.  These systems and software were installed and successfully tested in a single day and turned over to the original contractor for operations. 

Commercial Vehicle Safety Inspection by Voice Recognition Technology

This series of investigations was sponsored by the U. S. Department of Transportation, FHWA, Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, Field Systems Group, Englewood, Colorado Research Office.  The goal of this program was to develop and field test a voice recognition technology that could be used effectively by safety inspectors at state ports of entry (POE), as well as at other locations where truck inspections are completed.

As inspectors perform their inspections, many large vehicles moving through a confined space can pose a significant safety threat to inspectors as they do their jobs.  A voice recognition system hosted on a belt mounted PC allowed inspectors to ‘speak’ their observations to document the condition of the vehicle during the inspection while maintaining ‘hands free – eyes up’ status to watch for moving vehicles.  The alternative was to use a notepad or pen computer, which requires the inspector to look at the pad or screen while documentation in an environment where moving trucks and inclement weather conditions might both exist. 

This work was managed by an Addison Burnet Group associate from 1996 to 1999.  Scope included definition of program requirements, a feasibility evaluation of available technology, system definition, software requirements development, software selection, integration, training and a number of different testing regimes.  The technology was demonstrated to work well in a number of harsh operating environments by utilizing a reasonably structured set of phrases that were stored and retrieved from a portable, speaker-dependent, continuous speech recognition system.  This technical approach allowed inspectors to verbally identify and record maintenance problems and damage to vehicles.  However, the system was not widely adopted due to the costs of specialized belt mounted computers at that time.

CVISN and Truck Screening Electronics   

From 1997 through 1999, an Addison Burnet Group associate was responsible for management, of the manufacture, integration and testing of RF readers deployed at hundreds of weigh station bypass and truck safety inspection stations at state ports-of-entry and other critical locations on the highway network.  During this time a major deployment of electronic monitoring infrastructure was deployed along the U. S. interstate highway system as part of the PrePass, NORPASS  and Advantage 75 programs.  The RF readers are the heart of these types of electronic monitoring system, and provide wireless communications to and from trucks.