Redesigned TSP website is still in testing phase

The redesigned Thrift Savings Plan website showed signs of slowing in the face of high traffic during testing, an issue Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board Executive Director Gregory Long said the board is working to fix quickly in coming weeks.

At the board's monthly meeting on Monday, Long said the redesign recently underwent load testing, which is intended to ensure the new site can handle the "substantially higher volume" of Web traffic it is expected to generate. During load testing, testers simulate having several thousand users on the site at the same time making transactions.

"We found out it's a good thing we're doing the testing," Long said. "It was a little slower than we'd like."

While Long said the board is working hard with its contractors and expects to have the issue resolved in the next few weeks, at this point the website's launch date is "undefined."

"We're making sure the [new] website is a better, faster and more secure experience than it is now," he said.

At the May 17 meeting, Long said the board will refrain from publicizing the exact date the new site will go live to avoid excessive volume and to keep the site operating at maximum capacity during its debut.

In addition to the website redesign, the board also discussed on Monday participation in the TSP, which Renee Wilder, director of research and strategic planning, said held relatively steady in May as it has for the last few months.

Wilder noted, however, that participation for active-duty military personnel continues to creep up toward 40 percent; it was 39.1 percent in May, up from 38.8 percent in April. Wilder said she expects that, once the Roth investment option is established in 2012, there will be an opportunity for "meaningful increases" in active military participation in the TSP.

The Navy continues to have the highest participation rate among the military services, with 57.9 percent participating in the plan in May, up 0.3 percent since April. The Army has the lowest rate, with 30.2 percent participating in the TSP, up from 29.8 in April.