Doug Hornback of MDOT’s Maintenance Division and Don Grayson and David Brown of MDOT’s Information Systems Division work on MDOT’s outdoor advertising control system. (Mississippi DOT)The American Association of Highway Transportation Officials (AASHTO) is adopting the Mississippi Department of Transportation’s (MDOT) control system for outdoor advertising on billboards, which will allow the software to be used across the country and become the national standard for billboard controls.
“MDOT’s goal was to develop an interactive system to electronically permit, manage and research all outdoor billboards in Mississippi,” says MDOT Executive Director Melinda McGrath. “We are proud of the benefits the new ODA system offers to MDOT and sign owners.”
The agency uses the outdoor advertising (ODA) system to view billboard locations via GPS coordinates and Google Maps and allows them to communicate and coordinate with the owners to “improve transparency.” MDOT also tracks the status of sign construction using the system and owners can verify those details in real time.
The Federal Highway Administration has been following the progress of MDOT’s system since 2011, and a year later the agency granted usage rights to the New Mexico Department of Transportation.
“We very much appreciate Mississippi working with us on the Outdoor Advertising Control software,” says Jan Edwards, project director for AASHTOWare, AASHTO’s national cooperative software development program. “Mississippi built a very solid foundation that we are continuing to foster – and will invest as much as $900,000 in development through the end of next year so that what Mississippi started can benefit transportation departments and taxpayers throughout the country.”
