Deployment of Maintenance Decision Support Systems for Winter Operations
The art and science of road maintenance during adverse winter conditions has long been hampered by a lack of true integration of weather information into operations. Beginning in 1999, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) began to study this deficiency with its Surface Transportation Weather Decision Support Requirements (STWDSR) effort. The results clearly showed that road maintenance personnel desire better, more specific weather forecast information, which could improve the productivity and efficiency of winter maintenance practices and ultimately lead to improved mobility and a safer driving environment. Beginning in 2000, the FHWA convened a team of national laboratories and created a stakeholder group of interested personnel from state departments of transportation (DOTs), private-sector weather service providers and academia. With guidance from the stakeholder community, the laboratories combined state-of-the-art weather forecasting capabilities with computerized winter maintenance rules of practice. This was the genesis of the winter Maintenance Decision Support System (MDSS) prototype. This prototype underwent several development cycles and three seasons of field demonstrations and evaluations--two in Iowa and one in Colorado. By 2004, MDSS technologies were mature enough for interested private-sector companies to begin to incorporate MDSS features into their product lines and begin to provide services to state DOTs. At this point, the FHWA MDSS effort transitioned from prototype enhancement to a focus on technology transfer to both the private sector and the states. Based on the national MDSS effort, as well as related activities, a group of eight states (led by South Dakota DOT) initiated a pooled-fund study in 2002 to develop and implement an operational version of MDSS for their agencies. The study has focused upon refinement, validation, and wide-scale deployment of sustainable MDSS technology, as demonstrated in a successful operational testing period over the 2004-2005 winter. Based on these complementary efforts, it is clear that the MDSS presents a valid and viable operational strategy, but not without its development and deployment challenges. This paper details strategies for the continued evolution of MDSS technologies into the marketplace as well as advancement of the state of the practice of winter maintenance. Details of the pooled-fund MDSS project are presented as one success story of deployment.
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Availability:
- Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/issn/00978515
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Authors:
- Pisano, Paul A
- Huft, David L
- Stern, Andrew D
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Conference:
- 11th AASHTO-TRB Maintenance Management Conference
- Location: Charleston South Carolina, United States
- Date: 2006-7-16 to 2006-7-20
- Publication Date: 2006-7
Language
- English
Media Info
- Media Type: Web
- Features: Figures; References;
- Pagination: pp 79-90
- Monograph Title: Maintenance Management 2006: Presentations from the 11th AASHTO-TRB Maintenance Management Conference
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Serial:
- Transportation Research Circular
- Issue Number: E-C098
- Publisher: Transportation Research Board
- ISSN: 0097-8515
Subject/Index Terms
- TRT Terms: Decision support systems; Deployment; Field tests; Pooled funds; State of the practice; Strategic planning; Technological innovations; Weather forecasting; Winter maintenance
- Identifier Terms: Maintenance Decision Support System (MDSS)
- Subject Areas: Highways; Maintenance and Preservation; I62: Winter Maintenance;
Filing Info
- Accession Number: 01030139
- Record Type: Publication
- Files: TRIS, TRB
- Created Date: Aug 4 2006 4:17PM