The Idaho Transportation Department, using Vaisala's pavement sensors that calculate grip or friction values, found that this value can also be used to measure the success of the department's winter road maintenance operations. Idaho personnel developed several benchmark indexes that calculated operational performance, and were able to normalise any variance caused by storms and seasons.
Vaisala supported the development by integrating the indexes into their RoadDSS Navigator software which allows for quick review of the indexes alongside other decision-making tools.
Paul Bridge, offering manager and meteorologist for Vaisala Roads, says: "We are very proud to hear that our technology has been acknowledged as the most innovative in the industry. This is very much our goal with regards to providing information services; working with our client to develop additional value from our sensing technology. You know it's a winner when our client refers to us as their partner."
Vaisala's road weather system provides real value to winter maintenance operations in Idaho. "We had a pretty significant year, this year (2012-13) and preliminary estimates show that we have had a 10-20 per cent reduction in our US$7million dollar chemical usage budget," says Dennis Jensen, mobility services-winter maintenance coordinator, Idaho Transportation Department.
