Regional Operations Forum Road Weather Management Session - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Regional Operations Forum Road Weather Management

Accelerating solutions for highway safety, renewal, reliability, and capacity

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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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How is RWIS used?

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ESS

RWIS

INFORMATION STAKEHOLDERS NEEDS CAMERAS TRAFFIC NWS MAINT NWS WSP TMC 511

Michigan RWIS Deployment

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Available Weather Resources

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Meteorological Assimilation Data Ingest System (MADIS)

• Collect, integrate, quality control, and distribute
• bservations 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

• bservational 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

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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

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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.

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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

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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

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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

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18

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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

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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?

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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

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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?

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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?

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