Identifying best practices for snowplow route optimization : final report.

Details

• Creators:
  Dowds, Jonathan ; Sullivan, James ; Novak, David C. ; Scott, Darren
• Corporate Creators:
  University of Vermont. Transportation Research Center
• Corporate Contributors:
  Minnesota. Dept. of Transportation. Clear Roads Pooled Fund
• Subject/TRT Terms:
  • Best practices
  • Highway maintenance
  • Maintenance management
  • Maintenance personnel
  • Maintenance practices
  • Optimization
  • Routes
  • Snowplows
  • Winter maintenance
• Publication/ Report Number:
  CR 14-07
• Resource Type:
  Tech Report
• Geographical Coverage:
  United States
• Edition:
  Final report, 11/2015 to 1/2017
• Corporate Publisher:
  Minnesota. Dept. of Transportation. Research Services & Library
• Description:
  Well-designed winter maintenance routes result in snow and ice control service that is both more effective,
  
  because roads are cleared more rapidly, and more cost-efficient, because deadheading, route overlap and
  
  other inefficiencies are reduced or eliminated. There are an increasing number of computerized tools to
  
  facilitate the routing process, but these tools are not yet widely used by winter maintenance practitioners.
  
  The purpose of this report is to provide practitioners with an overview of computerized route optimization
  
  processes and concrete recommendations about how to ensure that route improvement efforts produce
  
  actionable results. Recommendations are synthesized from nine recent and ongoing snowplow routing
  
  projects using a variety of computerized routing tools. Project descriptions, based on interviews with project
  
  personnel, focus on project goals, optimization software features used, and lessons learned. Multiple route
  
  optimization projects report route length reductions on the order of 5% to 10%, with reductions as high as
  
  50% reported in one case. These snowplow route optimization projects show that route optimization is a
  
  powerful tool for improving routing efficiency but that it does not replace the need for expert judgment in the
  
  route design process. Successful route optimization projects rely on close cooperation between experienced
  
  winter maintenance professionals and the individuals conducting the route optimization as well as a highly
  
  accurate, snowplow-routing specific representation of the road network. Successful projects also include
  
  time to review and revise new routes to identify potential problem spots prior to implementation.
• Format:
  PDF
• Funding:
  06741;Project CR14-07;Pooled Fund TPF-5(218)
• Download URL:
  https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/32647/dot_32647_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 1.17 MB]
• Collection(s):
  US Transportation Collection
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:5992dc97b0992e39522eaa6d556bc1aa5355f189baedcbf81639dce0f111761e2b938585b50e82aba4e65f5ac4473093e403cf834e14284ac72b7895aee5442d