The Pennsylvania Pathfinder Project

Hazardous weather conditions can negatively impact surface transportation. Commercial truck traffic has been steadily increasing in Pennsylvania, due to rapid expansion of e-commerce and proximity of interstate highways to a third of the U.S. population. Recent winter snow storms have resulted in major transportation disruptions and interstate travel restrictions/commercial vehicle bans, resulting in significant impacts to safety, mobility, and the economy.

Local, municipal, and state Departments of Transportation (DOTs) are at the forefront of mitigating the impact of weather-related hazards through proper planning and deployment of critical resources, as well as necessary road closure operations, to protect the traveling public. In an effort to better serve the decision makers and correspondingly the traveling public, the National Weather Service Forecast Office (WFO) in State College, PA has implemented the Pathfinder Project to build a framework that facilitates collaborative partnerships between the 5 WFO’s that serve the Commonwealth, Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT), Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission (PTC), and their private sector weather service provider (WSP) AccuWeather.

Pathfinder, sponsored by the Federal Highway Administration through the Weather-Savvy Roads initiative, is a collaborative strategy for proactive transportation system management ahead of and during adverse weather events. The key mission is to share and translate weather forecasts and road conditions into a consistent transportation impact message for the public. Through collaboration on road weather impact messages, WFOs, DOTs, and WSPs can better serve the needs of users of road weather information, supporting mission fulfillment.

During the winter of 2018-2019, the first winter of the Pathfinder Project in Pennsylvania, the PA NWS WFOs, PennDOT, PTC, and AccuWeather collaborated before and after winter storms to communicate potential winter weather impacts and establish common impact messages for dissemination. The collaboration was performed via NWSChat, e-mails, conference calls, and in person.

This poster will highlight the Pathfinder Project background, current status, successes, and challenges thus far, and anticipated future enhancements to the collaborative process. The Pathfinder Project has the potential to significantly enhance communication of road weather information, ultimately improving societal response to weather events, and thereby positively impacting the surface transportation system.