When major highways or freeways get shut down in North Texas, it can cause hours of delay.
For example, US 75-Central was shut down just north of Downtown Dallas on Friday morning for hours, causing miles of creeping delay. So TxDOT Dallas used one of their newest tools to get the word out, a HELP Alert.
HELP (Highway Emergency Link Platform) Alerts send a text message to cell phone users in certain areas who may be impacted by the traffic problem. TxDOT can initiate the system for any freeway closure that's expected to last four hours or more.
"We can go into a map of where the crash happened...and we can draw a geofence around where that backup happened and send out a text blast," says Kendall Sloan from TxDOT. "It's very similar to how it works with Amber Alerts."
In that text message, there's a link where users can sign up to receive text updates on the closure.
On Friday, the first alert went out at 8:30 a.m. reading: "South US75 at Haskell major accident. All lanes closed seek alternate route."
Help Alert example from TXDOTJohn Liddle
Then at 9:45 a.m., users who signed up for updates got another message: "Operations are back to normal. You are opted out of services for this closure."
TXDOT Alert message exampleJohn Liddle
"This is not something we hope people will get," Sloan says. "But we do hope that if you do happen to be in one of those locations and something does come through that it can help you get through your day."
Sloan adds that anyone who has opted into emergency alerts on their cell phone will automatically get initial messages if they are within the geofence. Subsequent messages are optional if users choose to sign up for incident updates.
LISTEN on the Audacy App
Tell your Smart Speaker to "PLAY 1080 KRLD"
Sign Up and Follow NewsRadio 1080 KRLD
