Weather-Responsive Management Strategies is an initiative of Every Day Counts Round 5. Learn more about it in the article below from FHWA EDC News on February 14, 2019, where it was the Innovation of the Month.
Road weather data helps transportation agencies implement the most effective response plans for maintaining safety and mobility during adverse weather. Maximizing the use of this data to support operations and maintenance decisions is a goal of the Every Day Counts round five (EDC-5) initiative on weather-responsive management strategies.
Many agencies use integrating mobile observations (IMO) technologies to collect weather, road condition, and vehicle data from agency fleets. IMO data provide operations and maintenance managers with a detailed view of weather and road conditions, as well as fleet locations on the highway network.
IMO benefits include more efficient operations, more proactive road weather maintenance, and reduced salt and sand use. The Michigan Department of Transportation, for example, estimated a 25 percent reduction in salt use with installation of automatic vehicle location and Global Positioning System equipment and use of a maintenance decision support system.
Read “Guidelines for Deploying Connected Vehicle-Enabled Weather Responsive Traffic Management Strategies.”
See the IMO toolkit for agency reports on deployment processes and lessons learned.
Contact Roemer Alfelor or Gabriel Guevara of the FHWA Office of Operations for information and technical assistance.