Recorded presentation3.1
Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) Road Weather Management Program
Andrew Stern, Mitretek, Falls Church, VA; and P. A. Pisano
The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) has established highway mobility and safety as two of its five goals. This includes mobility and safety under adverse weather, which are addressed under the Road Weather Management Program. The Program has developed a road map to achieve its strategic objectives, such as reducing weather-related crashes and congestion. The road map organizes program activities in four areas: Observation Capabilities, Program Delivery & Customer Service, Advancing the State-of-the-Practice, and Coordinated Research. This presentation covers specific program goals and projects from FY 2003 to FY2008 related to advanced and applied research, training, and technology transfer.
With respect to the Observation Capabilities objective, there is a need to promote the implementation of national, open road weather observing systems. In order to enhance observation capabilities and define requirements for road weather observing systems, the program is developing siting guidelines for Environmental Sensor Stations (ESS) in the roadway environment. The “ESS Siting Guidelines” project will produce consistent guidance for state and local agency personnel responsible for procuring, siting, operating, and maintaining ESS along the nation’s roadways.
The Road Weather Management Program is designing two training courses to improve program delivery and customer service. “Fundamentals of Road Weather Management” is a one-day course aimed at helping highway operations and maintenance personnel understand the scope of the road weather problem, learn about basic meteorology, and develop strategies to mitigate weather impacts on roads including Road Weather Information Systems (RWIS) and decision support systems. A second course on “RWIS Implementation” will introduce the benefits of RWIS for various applications as well as identify solutions to the technical and institutional challenges associated with designing and deploying RWIS.
To advance the state-of-the-practice, the program is demonstrating a “Maintenance Decision Support System (MDSS)” prototype in Iowa. The MDSS project began with a requirements definition phase and evolved into a prototype system developed by a consortium of national laboratories. The first field demonstration of the MDSS prototype was conducted in central Iowa in early 2003. Results and lessons learned from this exercise will be used in a second and improved field demonstration planned for the winter of 2003-2004. In addition, FHWA will work with state departments of transportation to understand how traffic management personnel use road weather information and determine how this data can be integrated into operational procedures and control systems.
Finally, the Road Weather Management Program is working with other organizations, including the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) and the American Meteorological Society (AMS), to foster coordinated road weather research. The NAS is investigating the current state of knowledge in road weather condition forecasting, recommending research areas to enhance operational weather forecasts for roads, and identifying institutional and infrastructure requirements to deliver road weather information to users. The AMS has organized a “Policy Forum” to open dialogues and develop recommendations on improving the safety and operations of the nation’s highway system through better application of weather information.
Recorded presentation
Session 3, Surface Transportation
Tuesday, 13 January 2004, 1:30 PM-4:00 PM, Room 401
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