Predicting Weather and Road Conditions: An Integrated Decision Support Tool for Winter Road Maintenance Operations

Winter road maintenance practitioners have expressed a strong interest in obtaining weather and road condition forecasts and treatment recommendations specific to winter road maintenance routes. These user needs led the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) Office of Transportation Operations Road Weather Management Program to support the development of a prototype winter road Maintenance Decision Support System (MDSS). The MDSS is a unique data fusion system designed to provide real-time treatment guidance (e.g., treatment times, types, rates, and locations) for winter maintenance decision makers specific to winter road maintenance routes. The system integrates weather and road data, weather and road condition model output, chemical concentration algorithms, and anti-icing and deicing rules of practice. The FHWA began the multi-year project in 2001 by engaging several national laboratories with expertise in weather prediction and winter road engineering. A user needs assessment for surface transportation weather information, which was performed by the FHWA in 2000, formed the basis for the development effort. The FHWA required that the system be developed in an open environment with significant input from the stakeholders (state transportation personnel and private sector meteorological services). The resulting technologies (initial version) have been released on a non-exclusive basis to the surface transportation community. It is anticipated that the prototype MDSS will provide a springboard for the development and rapid deployment of operational systems by the private sector. This paper describes technical aspects of the MDSS (e.g., technologies, data fusion techniques, architecture) and how the ongoing consideration of stakeholder feedback has benefited the development effort.