[Dispatch] New Streets or Street Changes

[Brooks, William]

Over the last month or so we have had several new streets open in the county. In one case, the engine crew called to let us know that a new section of roadway was opening and in another case one of the dispatchers noted that the route the crew took seemed odd and called the crew to confirm why they went the way they did.

This email is to serve as a reminder and ask for your assistance with new roads that open to you as a response route.

Currently the City of Austin is notified of new streets when they are platted either in the county or the city. At some point and time they are actually created in GIS and through a street import get passed along to CAD and the MDCs. This street import process takes place about every 3 weeks. All to be built streets receive a special code type and have a speed limit of 1 MPH; you see these on your MDC as yellow streets. The dispatcher sees them as a normal street and can't distinguish that they are un-built or under construction in our map. This is one case where you actually have better information in the field than the dispatcher does. See screen shots below.

The difference between the city and county is that when a new street is opened in the city, a process takes place that notifies GIS that they need to make the final changes to the platted street so that it is shown as open and receives the correct speed limit. In the county we don't know until you notify us of a problem, a dispatcher picks up on the problem or some other undefined process happens.

If you are aware or become aware of streets that open or if you see a yellow street that is open to traffic we need to know so that we can turn it in to our GIS section. Having the incorrect road network information impacts CAD picks, ETAs and routing. As you all are aware we don't always communicate across boundaries as well as we would like or should. Please let us know of any street changes you might become aware of.

The best way to notify us is to send a change request to firecommunications at austintexas.gov<mailto:firecommunications at austintexas.gov>. Depending on the timing it could take 3 to 5 weeks to get the update into CAD.

Captain William B. Brooks
Austin Fire Department - Communications
4201 Ed Bluestein Blvd.
Austin, TX 78721
Office: (512)974 - 0407
Fax: (512) 974 - 0443

[cid:image001.png at 01CDDE0D.B4E57490]

Same area viewed by the dispatcher.
[cid:image002.png at 01CDDE0D.B4E57490]

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