KALAMAZOO COUNTY, MI (WKZO AM/FM) – The County Road Association (CRA) of Michigan honored the Road Commission of Kalamazoo County (RCKC) with three statewide IMPRESS Awards at CRA’s Virtual Awards Ceremony in late April.
Officials say IMPRESS Awards recognize county road agencies that demonstrate innovation with special projects in communications, operations and collaboration.
RCKC received an IMPRESS Award in Collaboration for “Traffic Signal Preemption Devices;” an Award in Communications for “Informational Meetings Go Virtual;” and an Award in Operations for its “Winter Operations Navigation System.”
“RCKC applied its strengths in multiple areas to advance Michigan’s local road network in Kalamazoo County,” CRA director Denise Donohue said in a statement. “The agency’s innovative approach to solving county road issues has proven their dedication and commitment to our cause. Moreover, sharing their work and ideas in the IMPRESS Awards competition, benefitted other Michigan road agencies.”
Further information about the awards are as follows:
Collaboration
RCKC partnered with Comstock Township and the Michigan Department of Transportation to install traffic signal preemption devices on Comstock Township Fire Department emergency vehicles to assist in changing traffic signals to green as the vehicles approach.
Communications
RCKC moved its project informational meetings online via Zoom and posted the videos on its YouTube channel for review on-demand. The move to virtual meetings was so popular with the public that RCKC will continue the option even with in-person meetings in the future.
Operations
This winter, RCKC created optimized snow routes and navigation system using Geographic Information Systems (GIS), providing turn-by-turn directions to maintenance operators out on the road. The technology also allows operators to assist one another with ease.
An independent panel of communications and operations experts from several of Michigan’s 83 county road agencies judged all IMPRESS Awards submissions.
Award recipients were honored for projects that solved time constraints, labor costs, communication barriers and fostered collaboration.
