BEYOND ROAD WEATHER INFORMATION AS A DECISION-MAKING TOOL IN WINTER MAINTENANCE OPERATIONS, WHAT ELSE IS NEEDED?

The last few years have witnessed a leap forward by road maintenance agencies, with the adoption of new equipment, materials, and new application techniques, such as liquid anti-icing and pre-wetting. The development and proliferation of Road Weather Information Systems (RWIS) are positive steps into the direction of more advanced winter maintenance operations. While Road Weather Information Systems are gaining acceptance and popularity, they are only tools in a tool box and they do not become useful unless they are part of an interconnected system for the operation and management of the road winter maintenance operation. Other technologies have been developing as well; they are being adopted by the various levels of road authorities. Emerging technologies such as Electronic Spreader Controllers, Automatic Vehicle Location (AVL) technologies, and various types of Data Collection Systems have provided more hope for improved decision-making practices and improved tracking and control of winter operations, when used along with information from RWIS. Data collection is becoming more and more crucial to the winter maintenance operations. Operations managers should be able to access valuable information, not raw data, in order to enhance the decision-making process and make it more efficient. This paper will discuss how RWIS does not work independently, and must be integrated with other systems and tools to provide proper methodologies of decision-making. The paper will also touch on what requirements that must be met before adopting a road weather information system in a decision making process.