WSDOT ARES Drill – Highway Damage

BACKGROUND

After an earthquake or large geological- or weather-caused disaster, WSDOT sends highway crews out on our roads to check for damage and initiate emergency repairs. In recent years, WSDOT has performed a transportation assessment after winter storms, king tides, and major windstorms. These storms cause landslides, sinkholes, and coastal embankment sloughing. Annually, WSDOT practices a region-wide assessment for Great ShakeOut. Typically, crews use cellular or 700 HZ radios to report. WSDOT has made use of amateur radio on a limited basis (1-2 counties) during ShakeOut exercises.

OBJECTIVE

In support of achieving and reporting a full state highway assessment, WSDOT Olympic Region Emergency Management will test WSDOT’s capability to use ARES and contingency radio traffic to report our damages. The exercise is designed to simulate the unavailability or compromised functionality of WSDOT’s communication infrastructure other than radio.

• Exercise Date & Time: February 21, 2025 / 10:00 a.m until 2:00 p.m.
• Scope of Play: WSDOT provides reports as paper or pdf documents to the county teams. County DEM ARES teams will send reports via both WINLINK and Voice. Part of the drill is to identify where we have data or voice challenges across our region.
• Enabling Objective: Align portable ARES teams with WSDOT Shed locations. These are typically remote. The county can also play from the county EOC.

Olympic Region EOC is located in Lacey, WA. Thurston County ARES will have a team on location and will transmit and receive reports via amateur radio. Additionally, the TCARES team plans to send queries on behalf of WSDOT, which may include reporting clarifications and other critical transmission of information.