Although today's maintenance managers have a variety of good information which can lead to effective snow and ice control, all of the regulations concerning chemical applications, environmental impacts and multiple, often contradictory, weather and road weather forecasts can lead to information overload for the field operations decision maker. The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) since 1999 has been developing and field testing a Maintenance Decision Support System (MDSS) for snow and ice control operations. The MDSS project integrates state-of-the-art weather and road weather forecasting, data fusion, and optimization techniques with computerized snow and ice control rules of practice logic. This paper will provide an overview of the prototype MDSS system, its successes and lessons learned in snow and ice control operations in the Midwestern United States and the 2004-2005 field tests in the more complex weather regions of Colorado. Annual maintenance savings (materials, equipment and labor) will also be discussed. For the covering abstract of this conference see ITRD number E211426.
Samenvatting