Measuring Sustainability in Winter Service Operations

Sustainability has been an area of growing importance in the transportation field over the past two decades. In the United States, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) now provides an online tool that allows agencies to assess their performance in transportation design and operations, and include examples of how agencies have made use of the checklist based tool that the FHWA provides. The challenge for agencies charged with winter maintenance is that tools such as provided by FHWA are very [...]

A Winter Maintenance Manual for the Finnish Transportation Agency

In 2016, the Finnish Road Administration (FTA) initiated a project to describe the best current practices and winter maintenance methods entitled the “Winter Maintenance Manual”. The target group for the manual is winter service professionals, contractors, subcontractors, quality assurance personnel and FTA contract managers without previous experience in maintenance works. The manual also gives an overall understanding of how maintenance contracts are designed and what knowledge is expected [...]

Climate Change and Adaptation Needs for Road Infrastructure in Indian Himalayan Region

Heavy snowfall in several parts of Indian Himalayan Region (IHR) during current winter throws normal life out of gear with roads and residential utility services getting mostly affected. The challenges of winter commuting for the people living in IHR is even more acute owing to its terrain, lack of adequate winter maintenance infrastructure and early-warning system leading to limited social and economic development. Several of the mountain passes, access roads to high-altitude villages, pilgrimage [...]

Use of the Pikalert® System in the Wyoming Department of Transportation Connected Vehicle Pilot Deployment

Rural Wyoming is strongly impacted by hazardous weather along its road network. Interstate 80 (I-80) is a major highway that runs west to east along the southern part of the state, which is located in the Northern Rocky Mountain area of the U.S. illustration 1. The entirety of I-80 in Wyoming is over 1,800 meters in elevation, with a maximum of 2,633 meters. This elevation and Wyoming’s continental, northerly climate lead to extreme weather along I-80 throughout the year.

Managing the Risk of Avalanches on the Road

The Franco-Spanish consortium responsible for the Aragnouet-Bielsa Tunnel was created on June 2nd, 2008, as enshrined in the Bayonne Treaty signed between the Aragon Government (Spain) and France’s Upper Pyrenées Department. This entity conforms to a unified binational policy dictating maintenance and winter service on a cross-border itinerary through the heart of the Pyrenées range, at a maximum elevation of 1,880 m, hence exposed to the risks typical of high mountain roads. This highway connection, [...]