State to launch interstate response program in 2017

Sometime next year, drivers on all of Georgia's interstates will be able to get help from a new program being launched by the Georgia Department of Transportation.

The Roadside Assistance and Maintenance program, which will be known as RAM, is similar to metro Atlanta's Highway Emergency Response Operators, or HERO. That program uses emergency first-responders hired by the state to patrol interstates 24 hours a day in yellow vehicles to help with crashes and broken-down vehicles.

Unlike the HERO program, which assigns each vehicle to patrol six miles of roadway, RAM will feature 32 vehicles patrolling 16 routes, each ranging from 30 to 50 miles, for 16 hours every day, said Andrew Heath, a state traffic engineer.

"There's kind of a fundamental difference in how they're deployed," Heath said of the two programs. "But in terms of the services provided, those will be consistent."

In both programs, special vehicles will help people who run out of gas, need a tow truck or have a flat tire, Heath said.

But unlike HERO, the RAM program will be staffed and operated by a single, private contractor.

Heath said he could not estimate how much the program would cost taxpayers.

"I don't have an answer to that for you," Heath said. "We are actually asking our contractors to provide the cost. ... We kind of want to see where that range falls."

The state is accepting bids through April 28, according to the Georgia Procurement Registry website.

A contract will be awarded this summer, Heath said. Then, "(GDOT will) bring the team on, start introducing them to first-responders, local governments throughout the state (and) kind of finalize the details on how this program is going to operate ... with the goal of getting trucks on the road next year."

Nigel Floyd, traffic engineer for Macon-Bibb County, said he hadn't heard about RAM, but he said creating a program for the rest of Georgia that's similar to HERO "would definitely be an improvement for first responders here in Bibb County."

"We don't have anything here currently for someone that's broke down on the interstate or had a flat tire," Floyd said, adding that Bibb County has cameras on Interstates 475 and 75 "that would provide surveillance to the people here where they could dispatch those ... units to go help someone."

Heath said it will not be practical for the new program to cover portions of two interstates in the northwest corner of the state.

While GDOT is leaving the branding and marketing of the new program to the contractor, it definitely will not share a name with its cousin around the capital.

"We want to kind of keep the HERO program standing up on its own here in metro (Atlanta), kind of as a unique thing," Heath said.

To contact writer Laura Corley, call 744-4334 and follow her on Twitter @Lauraecor.

This story was originally published April 3, 2016 at 9:41 PM with the headline "State to launch interstate response program in 2017 ."