At its 2023 spring meeting, the Clear Roads Technical Advisory Committee reviewed new research proposals and selected projects to fund. This year, the committee selected eight projects:
Development of a Public Service Announcement Library
Quantifying the Economic Value of Snow and Ice Operational Success
Update to CR 14-02: Quantifying the Impact that New Capital Projects will have on Roadway Snow and Ice Control Operations
Solar Radiation Benefits / Chloride Reduction Potential Associated with the Use of Vegetation Management Practices Near Roads
Computer-based Training for the Clear Roads ELDT Modules
Synthesis: Management of Video Recordings and Images taken from Truck-mounted Cameras
Synthesis: Brine-making Practices
Synthesis: UAV Uses for Winter Maintenance
More information about these projects is available in the 2023 All Proposed Projects summary. Requests for investigator proposals for the new projects will be posted this summer.
The agenda, budget and minutes from the spring meeting are available on the Clear Roads Meetings page.
AASHTO’s SICOP Talks Winter Ops podcast tackles a variety of topics about winter road maintenance in three new podcasts. Listen to conversations with experts and practitioners who have real-life experience maintaining roads under snow and ice.
AASHTO’s SICOP Talks Winter Ops podcast tackles a variety of topics about winter road maintenance in four recent podcasts. Listen to conversations with experts and practitioners who have real-life experience maintaining roads under snow and ice.
Have a research idea? This year, Clear Roads is inviting members of the winter maintenance and research communities to submit ideas for consideration as future Clear Roads research topics. We welcome great ideas from anyone!
Some rural landowners maintain snow fences to prevent blowing snow from reaching highways, decreasing the resources MnDOT spends on winter maintenance. A recent project provided new information and updated tools to encourage more landowners to adopt this alternative snow control method.
This article was originally published by Clear Roads, July 2022.
Each spring, the Clear Roads Technical Advisory Committee meets to review research proposals and select new projects for funding. This year, the committee selected five projects:
Clear Roads, a MnDOT-led national research consortium focused on rigorous testing of winter maintenance materials, equipment and methods, selected seven new research projects for 2021 funding:
The Minnesota-led Clear Roads winter maintenance program has profiled six state agencies’ experience with automatic vehicle location (AVL) and GPS in winter maintenance fleets to share best practices with other cold weather states. Strong support by these agencies drives robust use of the technologies for location tracking, asset monitoring and planning for future storms.
AVL and GPS have been widely embraced in winter maintenance operations by transportation agencies around the country. But tracking vehicle locations for operational and safety reasons only scratches the surface of these systems’ potential uses. Many agencies also use AVL/GPS to collect extensive data for planning, operations, safety and inventory tracking to improve efficiency and response strategies.
Need for Research
AVL and GPS have been used in winter maintenance operations for several years. While most agencies use AVL/GPS for tracking vehicle location, the technologies offer operational, safety, inventory and planning applications, as outlined in a 2016 Clear Roads synthesis report. How agencies actually employ these automatic data collection technologies has remained less well-known.
Objectives and Methodology
The goal of this project was to explore agencies’ experiences and best practices in planning, implementing and using AVL/GPS technologies for winter maintenance activities. The investigation began with a survey of state and selected metropolitan transportation agencies about their level of commitment to AVL/GPS implementation and the data the agencies collect, use and share.
Investigators worked closely with Clear Roads to identify levels of usage of the technologies. Then they selected six agencies that represented various commitment levels, interviewed staff from each agency and gathered relevant documents about agency use of AVL/GPS. Using the information obtained during the interviews, researchers prepared case studies of each agency and recommendations for other agencies to further implement and utilize the technologies.
AVL/GPS hardware in this Sawyer County, Wisconsin, snowplow mounts below and behind the seat—a secure position that does not inconvenience the operator.
Results
Twenty-seven of the 38 agencies that responded to the survey reported using AVL/GPS to automatically collect winter maintenance data, while 36 of the 38 agencies indicated plans to add or expand use of the technologies in the future. Based on feedback from these agencies, researchers developed three levels of AVL/GPS use and categorized agencies according to the appropriate level.
Tier 1 agencies employ AVL/GPS for basic location tracking or monitoring. Utah DOT has mounted AVL/GPS behind the dashboard of every snowplow and incident maintenance truck (vehicles that assist stranded motorists on Utah’s roads and highways) in its fleet. The system connects with plow position sensors, tracks idling time and traveling speed, and reports plow locations on a publicly accessible website.
Tier 2 users add basic data collection, equipment integration and system reporting features to Tier 1 usage, often in concert with other technologies. Washington State DOT’s Tier 2 usage integrates AVL/GPS with spreader controllers, plow position sensors, and air and pavement temperature sensors in 80 percent of its fleet to track material use, road weather and operational analysis data. Michigan DOT integrates AVL/GPS with spreaders, plows and dashcams in 94 percent of its fleet to track vehicle location, vehicle diagnostics and material use, and to use for operational analysis and information sharing with the public.
Tier 3 agencies conduct complex data collection, integration and reporting activities with AVL/GPS as part of a suite of instruments and applications that collect and transmit data to users, the agency and, in some cases, the public. Colorado DOT (100 percent of its fleet), Nebraska DOT (33 percent) and Wisconsin DOT (53 percent) link AVL/GPS to data collectors, plows, spreader controllers, pavement and air temperature controllers, and other equipment. Each agency tracks vehicle location, material use, treatment recommendations, vehicle diagnostics and data for operational analysis, among other uses. Colorado and Wisconsin DOTs share data with a maintenance decision support system; Colorado DOT also shares information with the public.
Keys to success with AVL/GPS include obtaining full organizational and financial support from agency management, piloting the system with vendors and operators to identify objectives for use, providing operators with training that emphasizes the technologies’ operational and safety benefits, involving agency mechanics in installation, and using the system data for real-time adjustments to maintenance and resource-allocation strategies.
“The recommendations were very constructive— everything from planning and decision-making to how to best collect data and use it for performance measurement,” said Project Champion, Patti Caswell, Oregon Department of Transportation.
Benefits and Further Research
The final report offers information that will be useful to prospective and current adopters, describing best practices in AVL/GPS planning and implementation, procurement, installation, training, data collection and utilization, and operations and maintenance.
Future research may evaluate methods for integrating technologies from various manufacturers into a cohesive, operational system. Turnkey options remain limited, and integrating sensor, camera, data collection and GPS presents a number of technical challenges. Related study may evaluate communication terminology for uniform data
sharing between agencies. Follow-up research could also identify the costs and benefits of AVL/GPS to quantify the value of these technologies to users.
Connected vehicle technologies, which use roadside units to communicate with other roadside units and wirelessly with vehicles, offer potential applications for real-time data collection and sharing among plow operators and other stakeholders. The relative value and ability to implement such systems may warrant research and comparison to
AVL/GPS.
![[Infographic] Testing Snowplow Technologies: Slurry Spreader (target direction of salt, reduce salt use, reduce corrosion on trucks), Two-Way Reversible Plow (located on side of plow, providing more mobility in plowing and directing snow), Underbody Scraper (located under plow, clears compacted snow and ice from roads), True-Float Wind (mounted on front or side of plow, providing more mobility in plowing and directing snow)](https://mntransportationresearch.files.wordpress.com/2020/12/snowplowinfographic.jpg)
Crossroads 