Implementing �Weather Savvy Roads� Innovations through the FHA's Every Day Counts Initiative

In 2009, the Federal highway Administration (FHWA), in partnership with the American Association of State Highway Transportation Officials (AASHTO), developed the Every Day Counts (EDC) initiative with the aim to speed the implementation of highway innovations at individual transportation agencies, particularly where budgets are limited. The program is focused on taking effective, proven, market-ready technologies and putting them into widespread use, ultimately saving money by replicating innovation and bringing proven ideas to deployment more quickly.

Over the next two years, the FHWA’s Road Weather Management Program will be assisting agencies with the implementation of two EDC innovations: (1) Developing collaborative operational relationships with State departments of transportations (DOTs) and the weather enterprise, and (2) Integrating mobile observations (IMO) into transportation operations. The first innovation, which is also termed “Pathfinder,” aims to strengthen the working relationship between State DOTs and the weather enterprise (National Weather Service and private weather service providers) to promote the public dissemination of forecast messages that are clear, concise, impact-based, actionable, and consistent from all outlets. The result is a motoring public which is better able to make well-informed travel decisions, ultimately improving mobility and safety. The second innovation, IMO, is about deploying vehicle-based instrumentation to support improved weather-related maintenance and traffic management strategies. Weather data collected on agency vehicles provides information for traffic and maintenance operations alike, including filling in data gaps along critical routes and logging plow truck actions while in operation. This presentation will discuss the EDC program, its implementation over the next two years, and the ways in which the Pathfinder and IMO projects fulfill the mission of “weather savvy roads.”