Assessment of Winter Maintenance Performance Objectives Using Maintenance Decision Support System

Details

• Creators:
  Walker, Curtis L. ; Anderson, Mark R. ; Khattak, Aemal ; Kauzlarich, Thomas ; Farhan, Abdul
• Corporate Creators:
  University of Nebraska-Lincoln ; Nebraska Transportation Center ; NSF National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR)
• Corporate Contributors:
  Nebraska. Department of Transportation Research ; United States. Department of Transportation. Federal Highway Administration
• Subject/TRT Terms:
  • Evaluation and assessment
  • Winter maintenance
  • Performance
  • Maintenance
  • Decision support systems
  • Statistical analysis
  • Datasets
  • Snow
  • Traffic control
• Publication/ Report Number:
  FY24(029)
• Resource Type:
  Tech Report
• Geographical Coverage:
  United States ; Nevada
• Edition:
  Final Report: July 2023 – January 2026
• Corporate Publisher:
  Nebraska. Department of Transportation
• Abstract:
  It is important for transportation agencies to assess their winter maintenance operations performance to identify areas for improvement and/or resource investment to maintain optimal levels of service, mobility, and safety. This study explores nine winter snowstorms in Nebraska during the 2023-2024 winter season across 20 road segments, 12 of which were along the Interstate-80 corridor. Datasets explored include meteorological information, traffic mobility insights, winter maintenance operations activities, and road conditions before, during, and after the periods of accumulating snowfall. Statistical analyses explored correlations and quantitative relationships among these datasets, while visual dashboards were developed to promote more qualitative considerations of factors that most influenced winter maintenance operations performance. Across these datasets, time, or duration, was found to be the most meaningful performance metric. The utility of time as a performance metric applied across all considered datasets to include factors such as the duration of snowfall or blowing snow conditions, the duration of speed reductions, road closures, or road condition degradation, and the duration of winter maintenance operation activities such as plowing or chemical applications. Traffic mobility insights, most notably speed disruptions which included speed reductions and road closures, were found to be the most important singular performance metric. Despite this importance, it is imperative to highlight that speed disruptions can result from external factors such as vehicular crashes and congestion associated with adjacent state road closures. All assessed metrics had strengths and limitations which warrant further scrutiny and caution regarding their use as a sole performance metric. The most important conclusion of this study is that a holistic consideration across multiple metrics offers the greatest benefit in the assessment of winter maintenance operations. The best lens is the broadest assessment which allows for consideration of both individual metrics as well as the relationships among various metrics in both time and space.
• Format:
  PDF
• Funding:
  SPR-FY24(029)
• Download URL:
  https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/90692/dot_90692_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 6.45 MB]
• Collection(s):
  US Transportation Collection
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:2e617134895fcd629ec2be59366fcc152cbbdeaa2afd8bfbb4af7f083e9267ee6889fc53a0499c0054ca17255fc540467db71944cb8203ba47a6db8d81c4b82f