Every administration that is responsible for managing a roadway network faces the same challenge each year: providing users with a safe and reliable network during the winter. This is a vital priority that has a direct impact on economic development, by ensuring mobility and safety on its roads. In recent years, the Ministere des Transports du Quebec (MTQ) has embarked on a process of equipping winter-maintenance decision-makers with toolsthat will help in making the best decisions with respect to snow-removal operations. The first tool that was developed by the MTQ was a mobile road/weather station. The MTQ installed various sensors on a vehicle in order to measure key atmospheric and road variables for forecasting road conditions (fog, white ice, etc.). The MTQ then acquired advanced expertise in developing an intelligent transportation system (ITS) with built-in stationary data capture along roads, in order to collect and store data from all atmospheric and road sensors. This innovative system is connected to Environment Canada's Meteorological Service in order to factor in weather forecasts and pavement surface temperature predictions using XML as the format for the data transfer. An important feature of the system is that it includes a data quality control system for detecting faulty data. A data distribution website was designed in order to make it easier for decision-makers to use the data. It has a simple, intuitive interface for making winter maintenance decisions. The potential of using the integrated ITS system withdata acquisition for other purposes has been proven, including collectingdata in order to detect freeze-thaw depths, as well as better documentation of weather/road-condition phenomena in Québec. For the covering abstract see ITRD E143097.
Abstract