The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) is defining the information infrastructure ("infostructure")requirements that will serve Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) deployments. The Road Weather Management Program of the FHWA is involved in defining the component for road weather information, especially the environmental sensor stations (ESS) that provide surface-waether and road-condition observations. The goal of the FHWA is to have a nationally available database of such observations, and to have them assimilated into the national environmental prediction process that will also provide quality control information back to ESS operators. This is to be done within the open system defined by the National ITS Architecture. Several technical and institutional issues must be addressed to achieve this vision.