Road Weather Information System Statewide Implementation Plan

The objective of this project was to develop a plan for deploying a statewide Road Weather Information System (RWIS) to support both current New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT) operations and future Maintenance Decision Support System (MDSS) applications. To develop the plan, various information and data sources were investigated, including the current condition of NYSDOT’s RWIS network, potential RWIS station sites, data needed for supporting statewide MDSS applications, and New York State (NYS) meteorological zones. A Geographic Information Systems (GIS)-based bi-level model was developed to optimize the RWIS network, considering contiguous segments having similar maintenance requirements and the associated characteristics (e.g., meteorology, traffic, etc.) that can affect the required road maintenance. Optimally, the recommended RWIS network shall provide and monitor timely road weather condition for decision making by road maintenance agencies, which ultimately leads to a higher level of service and reduced weather-related congestion delay and accidents, reduced cost, redundancy and environmental/ecological impacts, more efficient use of manpower, contractor services, fleet and asset management, and increased accountability resulting in prudent and efficient spending. It is expected that the proposed RWIS network in conjunction with NYSDOT’s MDSS will significantly reduce cost of road maintenance and increase safety, mobility, and productivity of, particularly in the adverse weather during winter time.