1. Regional Operations Forum Road Weather Management
Accelerating solutions for highway safety, renewal, reliability, and capacity
Regional Operations Forum
Road Weather Management
Target time – 50 mins.

2. Session Objectives
Provide high-level awareness of road weather management
Develop awareness of principles and elements associated with modern road weather management
Understand how to implement elements of road weather management

3. The Road Weather Problem
Safety:
1.57± million weather-related crashes/year
7,400 fatalities; 690,000 injuries
24% of all crashes occurred on slick pavement or under adverse weather
Mobility: 15% of delay caused by bad weather
Productivity: Weather-related delay adds $3.4 billion to freight costs annually
Environment: Chemicals effect watersheds, air quality and infrastructure

4. Types of Weather Winter weather Snow, especially first snow
Blowing and drifting snow
Freezing rain
Rain
Especially heavy rain or first rain
Limited visibility
Fog or dust/sand storms
Frost

5. Weather Effects on Traffic Operations
Reduced Visibility
Reduced Roadway Friction
Reduced Roadway Capacity
Damaged Infrastructure
Blocked Roadways
Inundated Roadways and Flooding
Coastal Evacuation
Increased Speed Differential
Increased Driver Stress

6. Weather Data and Information Sources
Road Weather Information Systems (RWIS)—Fixed sensors and mobile sensors
Weather observing systems
Automated Surface Observing Systems (ASOS) — NOAA
Automated Weather Observing Systems (AWOS) —FAA
Both provide the basis for NWS forecasts
MADIS

7. Road Weather Information System (RWIS)
Environmental sensor stations (ESS) to collect data
A communication system for data transfer
Central server to process data
Dissemination of information to agencies/motorists

8. How is RWIS used?

9. Michigan RWIS Deployment

10. Available Weather Resources

11. Meteorological Assimilation Data Ingest System (MADIS)
Collect, integrate, quality control, and distribute observations from NOAA and non-NOAA organizations.
Leverages partnerships with multiple partner agencies to integrate observations
Including state departments of transportation
Provides a finer density, higher frequency observational database for use by the greater meteorological community
MADIS runs operationally in real time in the National Weather Service (NWS)
Many states are making RWIS data available to MADIS

12. Weather Forecasts
All weather observations can improve weather forecasts
The more information, the better
National Weather Service
Private meteorological services
RWIS performs double duty
RWIS information is used directly by maintenance crews, supervisors, and managers
Information from RWIS feeds and improves weather forecasts

13. Benefits of Reliable Weather Forecasts
Improved resource allocation
Crews sent to the right places at the right times
With the right equipment
With the right treatment material (and the right amount)
Effective resource allocation results in safer roads and reduced costs
A key to effective road weather management is timely and accurate forecasts and measurements.

14. Pavement Condition Prediction
Forecasts of pavement temperatures and conditions
Supporting information for treatment decisions
When and if to treat
What type of treatment to use
Valuable input to maintenance staff for resource allocation

15. Weather Responsive Traffic Management (WRTM)
Three types of WRTM strategies
Advisory strategies provide information on prevailing and predicted conditions
Posting fog warnings on dynamic message signs
Listing flooded routes on web sites
Control strategies alter the state of roadway devices to permit or restrict traffic
Reducing speed limits with variable speed limit signs
Modifying traffic signal timing based on pavement conditions
Treatment strategies supply resources
Most common treatment strategies are application of sand, salt, and anti-icing chemicals to pavements

16. Maintenance Decision Support System (MDSS)
System to support winter maintenance activities
Capitalizes on existing road and weather data sources
Augments data sources where they are weak or where improved accuracy could significantly improve the decision-making task
Fuses data to make an open, integrated, and understandable presentation of current environmental and road conditions
Proactive resource management, equipment management, cost management for highly variable winter operations

18. ,000

19. MDSS Benefits Indiana DOT program benefits
Statewide implementation 2009
Saved 228,000 tons of salt = $12M
Saved 58,000 hours of overtime = $1.4M
One-stop for winter weather information
Consistency in tracking/reporting among regional maintenance groups
Supports proactive training
Looking toward mobile data collection capabilities
Indiana has one of the better ‘case studies’ in terms of tangible benefits (cost savings/efficiency) as well as other benefits. This is widely featured in a lot of the MDSS documentation.

20. Road Weather Management Performance Measures
Will differ on types of weather encountered
Will differ by agency objectives
Sample measures
Regain time
Time to return to “normal” seasonal conditions
Coefficient of friction or “grip” factor
Benefit–Cost
What weather related performance measures does your agency use?

21. Notable Trends Open RWIS architecture Noninvasive sensors
Importance of camera imagery
Mobile data collection and AVL
Multistate weather response coordination
Interest in connected vehicles
Integration of weather and traffic management TMC)
Including traveler information
Emphasis on performance measurement

22. Group Discussion What weather events do you have to manage?
What road weather management tools do you use?
What has been successful?
What are the gaps you still have?
What new equipment, systems, or processes are you developing or exploring?

23. Weather Takeaways
Do you take advantage of all the weather resources available to you (appropriate to your role)?
Has your agency looked into mobile weather data collection?
Has your agency looked into the MDSS? Does it use it?