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Suggested Citation:"Chapter 1 - Introduction." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2005. Continuity of Operations (COOP) Planning Guidelines for Transportation Agencies. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13553.
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Page 1
Page 2
Suggested Citation:"Chapter 1 - Introduction." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2005. Continuity of Operations (COOP) Planning Guidelines for Transportation Agencies. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13553.
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Page 2
Page 3
Suggested Citation:"Chapter 1 - Introduction." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2005. Continuity of Operations (COOP) Planning Guidelines for Transportation Agencies. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13553.
×
Page 3
Page 4
Suggested Citation:"Chapter 1 - Introduction." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2005. Continuity of Operations (COOP) Planning Guidelines for Transportation Agencies. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13553.
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Page 4

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1CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION State departments of transportation (DOTs), traffic man- agement centers (TMCs), and public transportation rail and bus agencies differ considerably in their scope of operations, equipment, personnel, and training practices; however, all transportation agencies are committed to providing critical services during emergencies. These guidelines have been developed to help transportation agencies, whether state DOTs, TMCs, or transit agencies, to develop Continuity of Operations (COOP) plans. COOP planning offers transpor- tation agencies a way to define activities that must be per- formed if an emergency denies access to essential operating and maintenance facilities, vehicle fleets, systems, and senior management and technical personnel. Executing these plans helps transportation agencies ensure the performance of crit- ical services, even in an operating environment that is threat- ened, diminished, or incapacitated. These guidelines discuss recommended content for a transportation agency COOP plan. After a brief introduction and description of existing federal requirements for COOP planning, these guidelines cover the following topics: • Starting COOP planning; • Identifying system capabilities to deal with emergencies and vulnerabilities within the agency; • Identifying essential functions of the agency; • Identifying key personnel, delegations of emergency authority, and orders of succession; • Determining vital records, systems, and equipment and a process to safeguard and update these items; • Evaluating needs and selecting an alternate work site; • Developing an effective interoperable communications plan; and • Testing and executing the COOP plan and revising it periodically as necessary. The guidelines in this report are supplemented with elec- tronic versions of all COOP planning worksheets, the COOP plan template in Microsoft® Word, a series of brochures for use in explaining the COOP planning process to employees, a draft PowerPoint presentation that can be customized and pre- sented to transportation executive leadership, and more than 300 resource documents, organized in an electronic COOP library. These resources are available at http://www.trb.org/ SecurityPubs/ and provide additional references, support, and perspective on COOP practices in transportation and other industries. BACKGROUND Transportation operations can be interrupted by a range of naturally occurring and human-caused emergencies, includ- ing severe weather, fires, power outages, telecommunication failures, workplace violence, and terrorist attacks. Many of the emergencies that can disrupt transportation operations are as follows: • Naturally occurring – Tornadoes; – High winds; – Electrical storms; – Ice storms; – Snowstorms and blizzards; – Floods; – Earthquakes; – Naturally occurring epidemics; – Landslides; – Hurricanes; – Typhoons; – Tropical storms; – Tsunamis; – Wildfires; – Droughts; – Dust/wind storms; • Human-caused—intentional – Misuse of resources; – Security breaches; – Theft; – Fraud or embezzlement; – Fire or arson; – Vandalism; – Sabotage: external and internal actors; – Workplace violence; – Bomb threats and other threats of violence; – Terrorist assaults using explosives, firearms, or con- ventional weapons; – Terrorist assaults using chemical, biological, radio- logical, or nuclear agents;

– Labor disputes or strikes; – Disruption of supply sources; – Rioting or civil disorder; – War; – Hostage taking; – Aircraft, ship, or port hijacking; • Human-caused—unintentional – Voice and data telecommunications failures or malfunctions; – Software or hardware failures or malfunctions; – Unavailability of key personnel; – Human errors; – Power outages: external or internal; – Water outages; – Gas outages; – Heating, ventilating, and air conditioning (HVAC) system failures or malfunctions; – Accidental damage to or destruction of physical plant and assets; – Accidental contamination or hazardous materials spills; – Accidents affecting the transportation system; – Uninterruptible power supply (UPS) failure or mal- function; and – Inappropriate training on emergency procedures. Many transportation agencies have plans, policies, stan- dard and emergency operating procedures, checklists, and job aids in place to direct immediate response to various emergency situations. For the most part, these emergency response plans and procedures have performed very well under real-life conditions. Such plans generally describe the basic strategies, assumptions, and mechanisms through which transportation agencies and their local responders will mobi- lize resources and conduct activities to guide and support efforts for emergency response and recovery. However, detailed review of transportation agency emergency plans often identifies a continuity and recovery void. Conspicuously absent from many of these plans are the steps the transporta- tion agency should perform to maintain essential functions and services during emergencies that limit or deny availability of personnel, facilities, systems, vehicles, or communications. Without a management framework that clearly identifies essential functions and establishes operational procedures to sustain them when normal operations have been disrupted, transportation agencies remain vulnerable to service inter- ruptions, reduced employee morale, and, perhaps most sig- nificantly, loss of public confidence and community support. PURPOSE OF COOP PLANS COOP planning has five main goals: • Ensuring continuous performance of essential agency functions and operations during any situation or emer- gency that may disrupt normal operations; 2 • Protecting essential facilities, equipment, records, and other assets; • Reducing or mitigating disruptions to operations; • Minimizing loss of life, injury, and property damage; and • Achieving a timely and orderly recovery and resump- tion of full service to customers. COOP planning ensures that the transportation agency has a process to manage events that disrupt the agency’s internal operations or that deny access to important locations within the agency’s service area. Under certain disruptive condi- tions, the transportation agency cannot perform its normal business activities. Therefore, COOP plans specify the min- imum activities that will be performed by the transportation agency—no matter what the emergency or how it affects the agency’s service area. These minimum activities are called essential functions because they are the most important activities necessary to restore the internal capabilities of the transportation agency; to support emergency responders and emergency manage- ment agencies; and to ensure the safety and protection of the transportation system’s users, personnel, contractors, and ven- dors. In COOP planning, whether the emergency is the result of natural or human-caused events, an all-hazards approach ensures that essential functions will continue. WHAT IS A COOP PLAN? Depending on the type of emergency, continuity of oper- ations can be essential in emergency response planning. However, because not all emergencies have COOP require- ments, a separate COOP plan is developed. This plan is only activated under specific circumstances that disrupt the inter- nal operation of the transportation agency through loss of facilities, system, equipment, vehicles, or personnel. COOP planning is a separate, but important component of emer- gency response planning. COOP planning typically ensures that action will be taken immediately after an emergency disrupts internal transpor- tation operations. This action will create an organization and capability that can be expected to begin performing essen- tial functions within 12 hours of the emergency. This tem- porary COOP organization may continue to provide essen- tial functions for up to 30 days after the emergency or until normal operations resume. Although the period could be slightly extended, the COOP organization is designed to be temporary. Beyond 30 days, it is assumed that the agency will have re-established a more formal structure for manag- ing its operations. The temporary COOP organization will perform only those functions identified and prioritized as essential during COOP planning. In most cases, these essential functions will be per- formed to meet minimum legal, public safety, operational and maintenance, and public information requirements. By identifying and prioritizing essential functions, transporta-

tion agencies can develop plans to manage activities to sup- port personnel, contractors, customers, emergency respon- ders, and the general public in the immediate aftermath of an emergency. Throughout the COOP emergency, an element of the tem- porary COOP organization will be devoted to service plan- ning and attempting to bring on line additional functions and capabilities as resources, personnel, systems, vehicles, and facilities become available. To ensure that essential functions can be performed, COOP planning encourages transportation personnel to con- sider the use of alternate facilities (if access is denied to pri- mary facilities or systems). Examples include secondary sites where DOTs, TMCs, or public transportation agencies can perform essential transportation monitoring and dispatch func- tions; maintenance facilities that can store, fuel, and maintain vehicles assigned to other garages or districts; and secondary administrative sites equipped to store and manage personnel, financial, and emergency operating records. In transportation, COOP planning also encourages the availability and use of alternate procedures, often called tem- porary work procedures, to perform essential functions. Exam- ples include • Using transportation and law enforcement personnel to direct traffic if power outages affect traffic signals; • Running automated train control systems in manual mode; • Using pre-assigned routes for bus operators with no radio check-ins; • Using public and community facilities to manage pedes- trian overflow to clear roadways and bridges; and • Using manual record-keeping processes to administer emergency operations and financial activities. COOP planning also is concerned with ensuring continu- ity of leadership authority in transportation agencies. There- fore, elements of COOP planning emphasize the delegation of emergency authority and the development of orders of succession based on job titles to ensure that an agency can still make decisions, even when confronting the loss of senior management or technical personnel or both. In addition, COOP planning encourages training and supporting procedures to ensure that a roster of trained and equipped personnel is available in an emergency requiring continuity capability. These personnel are organized in teams to create a temporary management structure that enables the agency to focus exclusively on the performance of essential functions. Training provides personnel with a clear under- standing of essential functions and the specific activities per- formed to sustain them. Procedures developed to support COOP planning will ensure that personnel understand • How they will be notified regarding implementation of the COOP plan; 3 • Their designation as members of COOP teams under emergency conditions; • How the agency will communicate with all designations of personnel during a COOP emergency; • How to report for work at alternate facilities or locations; • What to expect as far as payment, benefits, shift schedul- ing, and personal leave or vacations during COOP emer- gencies; and • How the COOP organization will transition to normal operations. Depending on the emergency, personnel who do not sup- port the essential functions identified in the COOP plan may be instructed to remain at their residences. Personnel not required to report immediately could be on call or on standby status. Depending on agency policy and work rules, those personnel not on call or standby status are often placed on paid administrative leave unless otherwise notified. Finally, COOP planning addresses activities that will be performed by the transportation agency to support local responders, other transportation agencies, and local and regional emergency management agencies if elements of the transportation agency’s capability to provide service are dis- rupted. In this manner, the transportation agency can use the COOP plan to communicate with its local and regional part- ners to establish a mutual understanding of assumptions and capabilities under these conditions. A comprehensive COOP plan provides a framework that establishes operating procedures to sustain essential func- tions when normal procedures are not possible and provides a guide for restoring normal agency operations and building functions. COOP planning ensures that the transportation agency can • Provide alternative modes of operation under conditions of uncertainty, • Protect and restore vital systems and equipment, • Identify and resolve hardware and software requirements, • Establish interoperable communications, • Prepare in advance an alternate facility or work site so that the COOP can be activated, • Provide primary and alternate facility occupancy and resumption plans, • Address internal reporting requirements, and • Make agreements with other transportation and response agencies. HOW TO USE THESE GUIDELINES These guidelines explain how transportation agencies can assign the COOP planning process to a COOP team managed by a designated COOP leader. Once the COOP leader and team have been established, these guidelines provide work- sheets to be completed for each step in the COOP planning

process. Worksheets are provided as a separate section at the end of the Guidelines. Completion of the worksheets will ensure that the COOP team assembles all materials necessary for the COOP plan. Throughout the guidelines, examples, tips, and recommen- dations are provided. Because transportation and transit agencies differ considerably in many areas, agencies are not expected to complete all worksheets fully. Agencies should, however consider the information areas represented in those worksheets in COOP planning discussions. A complete set of worksheets is available in Microsoft® Word at http://www.trb.org/SecurityPubs/. A sample COOP plan template, cross-referenced to the worksheets, is also available at http://www.trb.org/SecurityPubs/. The transpor- tation agency can use the worksheets and template to gener- ate its COOP plan. Some transportation agencies may find it helpful to read the COOP plan template first, then read the guidelines and complete the worksheets, and finally return to the COOP plan template to tailor it for their operations. Other agencies may choose first to read the guidelines, then to com- plete the worksheets, and then, finally, to review and tailor the template to create their COOP plan. Outreach materials are also available, as is a COOP plan- ning resource library at http://www.trb.org/SecurityPubs/. As the transportation agency COOP team and leader work through these guidelines, worksheets, and template, they will answer the following questions: • Has a COOP leader and COOP team been designated? • Have all key elements of the agency been involved in the planning process? • Have the agency’s essential functions been clearly identified? • Is the delegation of authority outlined sufficiently to ensure continuance of agency operations? • Is there a clear and documented order of succession for key management positions and appropriate authority for key officials, so that there is adequate command and control in an emergency? 4 • Have all the personnel named as successors or as hold- ers of emergency responsibilities been briefed or trained on their responsibilities? Is contingency staffing avail- able to perform essential functions? • Is there sufficient capability to conduct procurement actions, keep financial records, record time and atten- dance, and perform other essential administrative sup- port functions? • Is there a vital records program? • Is there a plan for protecting and recovering vital sys- tems and equipment? • Have alternate work sites been identified? • Are there sufficient resources at alternate work sites to ensure that essential functions can be performed? If not, have arrangements been made to obtain the necessary resources? • Does the relocation plan provide for security, transpor- tation, food, and lodging of all personnel who may need to operate out of that facility? • Does the plan ensure support for personnel and their families in the event of an emergency? • Is there a detailed communication plan that (1) identi- fies preventive controls for communications equipment and alternate modes of communication, (2) addresses interoperability issues as necessary, and (3) lays out a chain of communication? • Is there sufficiently detailed information in the plan to ensure that the plan can be implemented (e.g., phone numbers, addresses, names, locations, and equipment)? • Is there a program for training agency personnel on COOP plan implementation? • Is there a program to test the plan with exercises or drills? • Is there a schedule of regular review and revision of the COOP plan, with sign off from authority level management? Each question should be carefully addressed in order to develop an effective COOP plan.

Next: Chapter 2 - Existing Guidelines for COOP Planning »
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TRB’s National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Report 525: Surface Transportation Security and TRB’s Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP) Report 86: Public Transportation Security series publications have jointly published Continuity of Operations (COOP) Planning Guidelines for Transportation Agencies. The report is Volume 8 in each series. The report is designed to assist transportation agencies in evaluating and modifying existing operations plans, policies, and procedures, as called for in the National Incident Management System.

The planning guidelines in this report are supplemented online with downloadable worksheets, a template for a completed COOP plan, a series of brochures that can be used to explain the COOP planning process to staff, a draft PowerPoint presentation that may be customized and presented to transportation executive leadership, and more than 300 resource documents organized in an electronic COOP library. The supplement material can be downloaded in either a .ISO CD-ROM based format or a .ZIP format.

Download the TCRP/NCHRP COOP Library in the .ZIP format

Links to instructions on burning an .ISO CD-ROM and to the download site for the TCRP/NCHRP COOP CD-ROM are below.

Help on Burning an .ISO CD-ROM Image

Download the TCRP/NCHRP COOP Library in the .ISO CD-ROM Image format

NCHRP Report 525: Surface Transportation Security is a series in which relevant information is assembled into single, concise volumes—each pertaining to a specific security problem and closely related issues. The volumes focus on the concerns that transportation agencies are addressing when developing programs in response to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and the anthrax attacks that followed. Future volumes of the report will be issued as they are completed.

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