In an effort to reduce winter road maintenance costs, agencies are using Road Weather
Information Systems (RWIS) to gain more information for application to surface transportation.
RWIS technologies consist of roadside Environmental Sensor Stations (ESS), forecasts, and
information dissemination and display interfaces. RWIS allow agencies to efficiently plan
winter maintenance routes, reduce wear on the vehicle fleet, reduce chemical, sand, and salt
usage, and provide a better level of service by applying anti-icing practices.
Until recently, agencies deployed ESS equipment and data collection procedures as independent
and isolated systems. These legacy systems were designed with the vendor retrieving data from
the field, reformatting it, and presenting it to the agency. Little or no communication took place between different vendor products or multiple jurisdictions. However, as agencies have sought to expand their RWIS networks and provide their road and weather data to all who may benefit from it, the need for RWIS integration and data sharing has grown.
This case study describes the deployment of WRMS and the benefits achieved by the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) using mobile road wea...
Remote weather information systems (RWIS) are an important part of determining maintenance activities and scheduling. However, the cost of RWIS limits...
Links with this icon indicate that you are leaving a Bureau of Transportation
Statistics (BTS)/National Transportation Library (NTL)
Web-based service.
Thank you for visiting.
You are about to access a non-government link outside of
the U.S. Department of Transportation's National
Transportation Library.
Please note: While links to Web sites outside of DOT are
offered for your convenience, when you exit DOT Web sites,
Federal privacy policy and Section 508 of the Rehabilitation
Act (accessibility requirements) no longer apply. In
addition, DOT does not attest to the accuracy, relevance,
timeliness or completeness of information provided by linked
sites. Linking to a Web site does not constitute an
endorsement by DOT of the sponsors of the site or the
products presented on the site. For more information, please
view DOT's Web site linking policy.
To get back to the page you were previously viewing, click
your Cancel button.
United States Department of Transportation
[PDF-1.01 MB]
