Feature Story

Help with Road Weather Management

Help is on the way for traffic, emergency and maintenance managers to improve operations under inclement weather conditions. A CD-ROM, entitled Best Practices for Road Weather Management, is available from the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and contains case studies of systems utilized in response to various weather threats, including fog, high winds, rain, snow, ice, flooding, tornadoes, hurricanes, and avalanches. The CD also includes a list of road weather publications and other online resources.

According to FHWA, during bad weather, every year on highways 6,600 people die, 470,000 people are injured, and 544 million hours of time are lost. To combat these problems, FHWA is working with public- and private-sector partners to develop and promote methods of addressing the impact of weather on the highway system. The CD-ROM is an outcome of the FHWA's Road Weather Management Program.

In addition, an FHWA brochure, "Road Weather Management: Highlights of the Federal Program," describes three categories of standards pertaining to the Road Weather Information Systems, including the Maintenance Decision Support System (MDSS) that assists winter road maintenance managers in predicting the impact of adverse weather conditions and planning treatment. MDSS:

• An advanced decision system tool, recommending winter maintenance courses of action.
• Gives pavement condition displays, facilitating real-time communications between and across all levels of managers and operations; and
• Does this on a single, simple, intuitive platform, displaying results and recommended actions, as well as anticipated consequences of action or inaction.

For more details, contact FHWA Team Leader Paul Pisano at 202-366-13401 or at Paul.Pisano@fhwa.dot.gov.