FIELD TEST OF ROAD WEATHER INFORMATION SYSTEMS AND IMPROVEMENT OF WINTER ROAD MAINTENANCE IN HOKKAIDO

After the studded tire regulation law came into effect, extremely slippery frozen road surfaces occurred in the Sapporo area. The Hokkaido Development Bureau (HDB) has been conducting Hokkaido-wide surveys of road surface conditions with other road administrators since February 1993. The purpose of the surveys is to determine frozen road surface occurrence and regional road surface conditions in Hokkaido. In addition, in the winter of 1993-1994, HDB introduced the Finnish ice prediction systems to downtown Sapporo. HDB examined the accuracy of the system and clarified its limits of application. It was confirmed that the system has some limits because of errors in detection, which frequently occurred in cases of much snow, compacted snow, and frozen road surfaces. In the winter of 1994-1995, a new road surface classification method, which can identify extremely slippery frozen road surfaces and is easily used in winter maintenance operation, was developed. The Hokkaido-wide winter road surface condition survey was conducted with the use of the new classification method. In addition, an investigation was begun to develop ice prediction methods by using road weather information system (RWIS) for the greater Sapporo area in the winter of 1995-1996. In this investigation, use of the radar snowfall forecasting system was also considered, as was the use of forecast information for efficient winter road maintenance. Furthermore, the ideal RWIS of the next generation and the way to exchange and share the information with other organizations are now under discussion.

• Record URL:
  http://onlinepubs.trb.org/Onlinepubs/conf/1996/cp16/cp16-017.pdf
• Availability:
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• Supplemental Notes:
  • Distribution, posting, or copying of this PDF is strictly prohibited without written permission of the Transportation Research Board of the National Academy of Sciences. Unless otherwise indicated, all materials in this PDF are copyrighted by the National Academy of Sciences. Copyright © National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
• Corporate Authors:

  Transportation Research Board

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• Authors:
  • Matsuzawa, M
  • Kajiya, Y
  • Ishimoto, K
  • Takeuchi, M
• Conference:
  • Snow Removal and Ice Control Technology
  • Location: Reno, Nevada
  • Date: 1996-8-11 to 1996-8-16
• Publication Date: 1997

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: p. 125-130
• Monograph Title: SNOW REMOVAL AND ICE CONTROL TECHNOLOGY. SELECTED PAPERS PRESENTED AT THE FOURTH INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM, RENO, NEVADA, AUGUST 11-16, 1996
• Serial:
  • Transportation Research Board Conference Proceedings
  • Issue Number: 16
  • Publisher: Transportation Research Board
  • ISSN: 1073-1652

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Accuracy; Condition surveys; Detectors; Field tests; Ice; Information systems; Information, data, and knowledge; Surface course (Pavements); Weather; Weather forecasting; Weather radar; Winter maintenance
• Candidate Terms: Ice forecasting
• Uncontrolled Terms: Ice detection; Information exchange
• Geographic Terms: Hokkaido (Japan)
• Old TRIS Terms: Detection systems
• Subject Areas: Data and Information Technology; Highways; Maintenance and Preservation; I62: Winter Maintenance;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00745794
• Record Type: Publication
• ISBN: 0309062160
• Files: TRIS, TRB
• Created Date: Feb 25 1998 12:00AM