Road Weather Initiatives that Enable Resilience to Extreme Weather

Adverse weather events can have significant impacts on the safety, mobility, and productivity of road users. Over the last decade, more than 5,500 road user deaths and 415,000 injuries have occurred annually as a result of adverse weather. These events are also responsible for significant delays and economic impacts. For instance, the freight industry loses roughly $3.4 billion per year due to road weather related issues.

To address the impacts of weather on the transportation system, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) Every Day Counts (EDC) program launched the Weather-Savvy Roads (WSR) initiative in 2017. WSR includes two innovative road weather management solutions – Pathfinder and Integrating Mobile Observations (IMO). These transportation solutions are easily adoptable by state and local agencies looking to more proactively manage their roadway networks ahead of and during adverse weather events.

Pathfinder is a collaborative effort between State departments of transportation (DOTs), NWS Forecast Offices (WFO) and, if applicable, the DOT’s private sector weather service provider, to translate weather and road conditions forecasts into consistent transportation impact messages for the public. Its implementation includes a multi-step process on the type of information to share, when to share it, and how to share it before, during, and after high-impact weather events. The purpose of Pathfinder is to provide the public with consistent and actionable messages on potential impacts to transportation systems.

IMO promotes the collection of mobile weather, road, and vehicle data from agency fleets to improve situational awareness of road conditions. It builds on vehicle-based technologies like automatic vehicle location (AVL) and real-time communication that most states have already implemented in their vehicle fleets. Additional ancillary sensors collect weather and road condition data (i.e., air pressure, air and surface temperature, spreader rate and materials, windshield wiper status and rate, and relative humidity) and, when available, vehicle systems are accessed to collect and disseminate on-board data. The IMO data provides maintenance managers with a detailed view of the weather and road conditions, as well as asset locations along the highway network. This information can support a variety of applications for road weather management including maintenance and operations decision-making, road weather forecasting, end of shift reporting, material management, traveler information dissemination, traffic control, performance management and road weather condition assessment.

While IMO and Pathfinder both result in improved highway safety, mobility, and productivity, each has a unique set of benefits. Broadly, Pathfinder benefits include enhanced decision-making and better-informed travelers through consistent and targeted traveler information messaging, as well as the potential for reduced vehicle miles traveled (VMT), improved weather maintenance operations given less motorist impedance, and increased overall safety. These benefits will vary according to the level of involvement and scale of implementation. Specifically, the types of weather events Pathfinder addresses; the number of meetings/briefings conducted; the number of DOT and NWS staff who participate; and the breadth and the depth of weather support contracts, will determine the magnitude and extent of benefits realized.

Typical benefits resulting from IMO deployment include material savings and agency efficiencies, although these will vary based on the scope of an agency’s deployment. Material savings include reductions in salt and sand usage along with optimum material application rates based on real-time information about road conditions and fleet vehicle locations. . Agency efficiencies include improved reporting, reduced time spent on relaying, better situational awareness, reduced response to emergencies, and engine diagnostics and idling information. Real-time information about resource consumption that is more comprehensive and accurate provides agencies with the data needed for decision-making. Over time, additional IMO-related benefits are anticipated, such as reduced equipment usage and reduced legal costs from small tort claims, although these benefits have not yet been documented.

This session describes successful deployments of Pathfinder and IMO solutions by several state and local agencies to manage the transportation system during high impact events including extreme weather events. It focuses on the processes, technologies and tools adopted, the challenges encountered and the benefits realized, In addition to winter weather events such as snow and ice, these strategies have also supported enhanced public awareness and agency operations and maintenance of rain storms, dust storms, tropical storms, and events like the recent solar eclipse. These solutions are not-one size fits all, but rather they are adjustable based on agency need and available resources. There is an abundance of available resources for adoption of these efforts through FHWA along with a strong network of adopters for support and guidance.