2019 Agency Winner
Jefferson County Road and Bridge: Mobile Repeater

• Problem: The handheld 2-way radios used by Jefferson County employees during flagging operations were chronically unreliable due to their inherent inability to reach County radio repeaters. If a project was more than 2 miles away from a fixed repeater, the 2-way radios were extremely sporadic in their effectiveness. This made the flagging operations more dangerous for the flaggers and the paving and chipping crews for projects on Jefferson County roads.
• Solution: The Jefferson County Shop Foreman consulted with the local radio vendor that maintains the County’s radios and repeaters about a possible solution. The vendor suggested that the County purchase a mobile repeater that could be used in County vehicles. The mobile repeater setup would have a foldable antenna and could be positioned between flagging stations to make the 2-way radio communications between flaggers exponentially more reliable. That is precisely what the County ended up doing and the handheld 2-way radio communications for flaggers has vastly improved which in turn has enhanced worker and driver safety during County projects.
• Labor, Equipment, Materials: The radio equipment was $2700 and the labor was $2300 to wire everything in and program the radios to operate on the regular County FCC frequency and a car to car channel. The utilization of the car to car channel makes it so that County Public Works employees are not talking over one another if the flagging is being done on a high ADT road.
• Expenses: The total cost for this improvement to flagging communication was $5000.
• Savings/Benefit: The primary beneficiaries are Jefferson County Road & Bridge employees when they are working out on County roads during paving and chipping operations.