Road Weather Management Program
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Monitoring System Gives Highway Crews the Edge in Winter Maintenance

A state-of-the-art road weather information system provides the Minnesota Department of Transportation with timely, accurate information on road and weather conditions. The result: safer travel during the winter months.

The Challenge

Battalions of snowplows and sand trucks attack Minnesota's highways and streets each winter. The crews can't be everywhere at once, however. The Minnesota Department of Transportation (DOT) needed a way to determine when and where winter maintenance crews, equipment, and materials should be deployed to be most effective.

The Minnesota DOT thus decided to implement a road weather information system (RWIS). The technology, enhanced and evaluated under the Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP), provides accurate, up-to-the-minute information on road and weather conditions, helping the State ensure safe travel during the winter months.

Putting the RWIS to the Test

Minnesota DOT has so far set up 17 RWIS stations, clustered around Duluth and the Twin Cities areas. The stations consist of a number of sensors that collect information on weather and pavement conditions. These data are relayed to a central monitoring station, where they are used to enable more effective scheduling of work crews and equipment.

The DOT reports that the RWIS is working well. "RWIS gives an early warning when pavement conditions become critical and provides weather forecasts that allow crews to act before the first icy spots form on the roadway," says Edward Fleege, maintenance operations research coordinator for Minnesota DOT.

RWIS data also help DOT crews optimize their use of deicing materials. "Information from the sensors helps crew chiefs know the proper amount of chemical to apply," Fleege says. By using chemicals only where needed, the agency saves money and protects the environment.

The economic benefits are enormous. One study concluded that by improving the efficiency of Minnesota DOT's winter maintenance efforts, an RWIS system would more than pay for itself-with returns on investment ranging from 200 percent to 1,300 percent.

The Benefits

The most important advantage gained from an RWIS is improved safety. Minnesota DOT uses RWIS data to advise the public of potentially unsafe driving conditions. The RWIS also allows the DOT to do a better job of plowing and treating roads, preventing conditions from becoming hazardous.

Implementing an RWIS network has had many other benefits for Minnesota DOT. Thanks to information gathered with the system,

  • Crew chiefs have a better idea of how much deicing chemicals to apply to the pavements and when, cutting costs and minimizing any environmental impacts.
  • The DOT's operations have become more efficient, giving the agency a return on investment of 200 percent to 1,300 percent.

For More Information

Edward Fleege, Minnesota DOT, 218-723-4850 (fax: 218-723-4874; email: ed.fleege@state.dot.mn.us)
Paul Pisano, FHWA, 202-366-1301 (fax: 202-366-8712; email: paul.pisano@fhwa.dot.gov)

Publication No.: FHWA-SA-96-045

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