In 1999, the US Department of Transportation's Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) initiated a programme to develop a winter road decision support tool called the Maintenance Decision Support System (MDSS). MDSS integrates relevant road weather forecasts, maintenance rules of practice and maintenance resource data to provide road maintenance managers with atmospheric and road weather forecasts, as well as recommending snow ploughing and treatment strategies. The aim is to make the road safe at minimum cost and to reduce the harmful environmental effects of salt and other harsh road chemicals. Currently 41 USA States participate in the program. Version 6.0 of the MDSS software is available from the NCAR MDSS website and is published in open source format and made available to public, private and academic organisations. Four other commercial products derived form the standard NCAR / Federal version are available. A cost benefit ratio study of MDSS was undertaken in the city and county of Denver, Colorado during two winters covering 56 snow events. MDSS provided a significant benefit for 10 of the 56 snow events, giving a US$100,000 cost saving in labour per winter season. MDSS incorporates tailored weather and pavement models which approximate small-scale weather effects on road systems that usually experience highly variable environmental conditions but the effectiveness of this depends on the availability of road weather conditions across the jurisdiction. The development of the Clarus system, designed to ingest data from road weather sensors from many separate transport networks across North America, is described. Expansions of the existing software to include assessment of the seasonal bearing capacity of roads, multi-state coordination and improved information quality is ongoing.
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