Controlling snow and ice buildup on roadways during winter weather events presents several challenges for winter maintenance personnel. Among these challenges is the need to make effective winter maintenance decisions (treatment types, timing, rates, and locations), as these decisions have a considerable impact on roadway safety and efficiency. Additionally, poor decisions can have adverse economic and environmental consequences. In an effort to mitigate the challenges associated with winter maintenance decisions, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) Office of Transportation Operations (HOTO) initiated a program in 2001 aimed at developing a winter road Maintenance Decision Support System (MDSS®).
The MDSS® project goal is to develop a prototype capability that:
The MDSS® ingests weather forecast data at locations important to the user’s operations. These forecast locations are typically at surface observation stations such as RWIS and METAR sites, though they need not be. The weather forecasts at each forecast location serve as input to the pavement heat balance model (e.g., METRo) that predicts the road surface and subsurface temperatures and the snow depth at each forecast lead-time. These forecast road conditions are used to generate treatment plans at each site based on Rules of Practice guidelines. The prototype MDSS® also includes a graphical user interface display designed for easy interpretation by road maintenance managers. This display application is designed to allow the maintenance manager to generate “what-if” scenarios by setting up customized treatment plans and seeing the resulting predicted road conditions.