Road Weather Management Program
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Best Practices for Road Weather Management Version 2.0

Title:

Road Condition Critical

Abstract:

Pavement monitoring systems that evaluate and communicate potentially hazardous conditions have become critical components of highway safety efforts in recent years. When that information comes from easily damaged embedded sensors, it cannot always be counted on to be reliable. A new pavement monitoring system may be the remedy to the inherent unreliability of these traditional systems. The new system uses a novel combination of infrared sensors to detect and accurately evaluate pavement conditions from a position safely removed from the pavement itself. The new approach to pavement monitoring was developed with a grant from the USDOT IDEA program. The system illuminates the roadway with an infrared beam of light and measures light returned as backscatter. By monitoring changes in backscatter, the sensor is able to identify the presence of water, ice, or snow on the pavement surface and distinguish which is which. Two sensors were installed along Interstate 81 for evaluation by the Virginia DOT.

Source(s):

Traffic Technology International, Aug/Sept 2003 issue

https://trid.trb.org/view.aspx?id=698678

Date: 2003

Author:

McQuiddy

Keywords:


Environmental Sensor Station (ESS)

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