Tri-State Tollway Fire/EMS freqs

[PCPA]

I'll be traveling the Tri-State in a couple of weeks from south to north.

I've looked up Cook, DuPage, and Lake Counties on the database--I could spend a lot of time looking at all the little communities the tollway crosses on a AAA map and trying to figure which Com centers handle them, or I could ask you local folks which are the most important Fire & EMS freqs to monitor for tollway incidents. Lots of room in my BCD396T so don't hold back.

 

[N9JIG]

The tollway itself is covered by the State Police District 15, they use StarCom21, and Sites 102, 115 and 108 cover the Tri-State from south to north.

As far as fire and EMS response, you are going to find that you will need to include just abot every suburban FD that the tollway passes thru. The Tollway is segmented by local agreements for fire & EMS response based on ability to enter the roadway and response times, not so much by actual jurisdiction. For this reason, even towns that the road doesn't actually go thru respond onto it.

I would certainly have the following freqs in the scanner:
155.055 IREACH (Used to coordinate choppers)
154.265 IFERN (Fire Mutual Aid channel)
154.280 (Aid/FG) used by some south suburban towns for local coordination
150.790 (FG Green) Used for chopper coordination in Lake County
153.830 (FG Red) Used for scene activities

Some local fire freqs used on the Tri-State include:
153.215 RED Center (North Cook county)
154.430 Used both in southern Lake County and south Cook
154.325 Northern Lake County
154.370 Central Cook (near O'Hare)
153.890 Southeast Cook

 

[PCPA]

As far as fire and EMS response, you are going to find that you will need to include just abot every suburban FD that the tollway passes thru. The Tollway is segmented by local agreements for fire & EMS response based on ability to enter the roadway and response times, not so much by actual jurisdiction. For this reason, even towns that the road doesn't actually go thru respond onto it.

Thanks--that is pretty much what I had guessed. If anyone can provide more details on the suburban FD's that would be greatly appreciated.

 

[FFPM571]

Dont forget Oak Brook 153.635 and Rosemont, Park Ridge 154.340

 

[chgomonitor]

Tollway and Highway FD/EMS Response Jurisdictions

This is actually a very complex subject. Fire and EMS response on the Chicago metropolitan area highways and tollways are generally done by semi-informal mutual aid agreements between adjacent departments whose jurisdictions include parts of the road ways. In many cases departments actually respond well beyond their usual physical borders - because the response is generally dictated by the locations of entrance and exit ramps and not the roadway itself. Direction of travel on the roadway in question is equally a factor.

After years of dispatching this sort of thing in just one little spot along I94 I came to the conclusion that the only effective way of listing this stuff is graphically with a map. Just my little spot took half a page to list effectively, so a response map covering the entire the whole area would be at least wall poster sized.

This would be a huge project requiring a great deal of research and insider knowledge. But the reason I'm reviewing all this is that I think it would be a tremendously useful reference. Not just for the monitoring community but for dispatchers, departments and medical helos as well.

Well, it's a worthy project at least - I think. Happy Scanning! - Ted

 

[FFPM571]

I agree Ted, I respond on the Tollway and we have problems with jurisdictions. It changes often with construction and changes in off and on ramp access.

 

[PCPA]

I agree Ted, I respond on the Tollway and we have problems with jurisdictions. It changes often with construction and changes in off and on ramp access.

Wow---this is one of the few times that I think that my Pennsylvania county is actually progressive by having ONE countwide emergency dispatch center and ONE countwide dispatch frequency. Only in the last few years have Interstate highway incidents been dispatched according to access points, however, and we have yet to do like some nearby Maryland counties and dispatch one company for northbound and another for southbound. Looks lie we can all stand to learn something from each other.

 

[N9JIG]

Wow---this is one of the few times that I think that my Pennsylvania county is actually progressive by having ONE countwide emergency dispatch center and ONE countwide dispatch frequency. Only in the last few years have Interstate highway incidents been dispatched according to access points, however, and we have yet to do like some nearby Maryland counties and dispatch one company for northbound and another for southbound. Looks lie we can all stand to learn something from each other.

Part of the problem is that the Tollways usually do not have full interchanges, they more often have on-ramps in one direction only and vice versa. Mix in the fractionalization of the suburban areas the Tollways transverse and the wide variety of dispatch operations in the area and the situation gets even weirderer.

 

[chgomonitor]

Incidents

But they odd thing is - the worse the incident the simpler the response. As soon as an EMS or Fire incident progresses to the mutual aid box level everything more or less reverts to the standardized MABAS response system. So it's actually the "small" responses that are so complex.