T here has been a rapidgrowth in investment inRWIS technology in

North America in the last threeyears. Much of the investmenthas focused on stand-alone sys-tems intended to be operated byhighway maintenance personnelto aid decision-making duringwinter storms. RWIS are increas-ingly seen as an essential tool todo the job efficiently. By con-trast, responsibility for mainte-nance and data management ofthe RWIS is often overlooked asboth an unnecessary cost and adrain on limited IT resources.Outsourcing offers a flexible andcost-effective alternative.

Aurora City – investingin peace of mindThe street maintenance divisionof the City of Aurora in Col-orado, USA, has the responsi-bility for procuring and manag-ing contracts for the provision ofwinter service on more than1000 miles of roads both in andaround the City. Provision of aneffective winter service is a diffi-cult task in Colorado’s harshwinter climate, one which re-quires forward planning. Re-mote weather information tech-nology has a key role to play indetermining the correct winterservice action.

The importance of accurate,timely data being available 24hours a day is one of the mainreasons why the City of Aurorahas chosen Vaisala for the provi-sion of a complete data manage-ment solution, the Vaisala Bu-reau Service. This involves notonly the supply of remote roadweather stations but the respon-sibility for ensuring the continu-ous flow of data to the streetmaintenance personnel aroundthe clock.

A number of Vaisala weatherstations are located at strategicpoints on the road network.These provide a continuoussource of road weather informa-tion including details of the roadsurface condition and tempera-ture as well as the general state

6 167/2005

Managing Winter Service

Andy McDonaldSales Channel ManagerVaisala Birmingham, UK

Allocating resources where they are most needed is key tosuccessful operations. Outsourcing the non-core businessactivities to reliable partners is a growing trend - also when itcomes to Road Weather Information System (RWIS) maintenanceand data management.

of the atmosphere, for exampleair temperature and precipita-tion. The information is auto-matically transmitted to Vaisala’sdata management center whereit is stored and processed. Auro-ra’s maintenance engineers ac-cess the data via web browser ina configured display of graphicaland textual images. Data are up-dated every 20 minutes.

Continuous and accuratedata supply are two of the mostimportant criteria for the City ofAurora. To address these points,the data management solutionincorporates a number of safe-guards and monitoring func-tions. Weather station calibra-tion and servicing is offered pri-or to the start of winter. Oncethe winter starts the Bureau ismanned 24 hours per day, 7 daysper week to provide a continu-ous backup and ensure smoothoperation. By duplicating com-munication structures and otherprocesses the Bureau ensures areliable service.

Every time a new piece ofdata is received by the data cen-ter from a weather station it isautomatically scrutinized for er-rors and any evidence of calibra-tion drift. If an error does occurat any time Vaisala maintenancepersonnel are on constant stand-by ready to carry out repairs in atimely fashion and bring the sta-tion or sensor back online asquickly as possible.

In the words of Aurora’sProject Engineer, Lynne Center“This solution is making a realdifference. We can rely on thesystem to provide good qualityroad weather information whenwe need it. It's really easy to gethold of the data both in the of-fice or at home. Vaisala just takescare of the system and we canconcentrate on using the infor-mation to keep our roads safe.”

E-470 maintenance – a strategic partnershipE-470 is a highway that runsalong the eastern perimeter ofthe Denver metropolitan area.The E-470 Public Highway Au-

thority has a need to keep on topof winter storms and ensure thatits customers, the driving public,have a safe road on which totravel at all times. The E-470Public Highway Authority isworking with Vaisala for the sup-ply of road weather forecast ser-vices. The Vaisala Bureau Serviceis being used to facilitate this, asit also has the capability of pro-ducing and delivering forecastinformation, as well as managingweather station data.

Working in partnership witha local forecast provider for thesupply of atmospheric data, anumber of 24 hour forecasts aregenerated by the Vaisala BureauService each day for strategicweather station points on thehighway. Forecasts comprise arange of browser based productstailored for the E-470 PublicHighway Authority. Each graph-ical forecast provides detailed in-formation on the expected tem-perature and road condition forthe coming 24 hours, which canbe directly compared againstmeasured data from the weatherstation points. To complementthese point forecasts, forecastthermal maps of the completehighway are also provided.These indicate which sections ofroad will fall below freezing andat what time, giving crucial in-formation in sufficient time totake preventative treatment ac-tion.

The Vaisala Present WeatherDetector PWD22 has been in-cluded in a Vaisala weather sta-tion installed on the E-470 net-work. The instrument is capableof detecting a range of differentfrozen and non-frozen precipita-tion types, including freezingrain, as well as providing a mea-surement of visibility at the site.The ability to classify differenttypes of precipitation remotelyis a major advantage for mainte-nance personnel when determin-ing the correct treatment re-sponse.

The E-470 Public HighwayAuthority can access the forecastand weather station data using a

web browser. The web browseraccess is called Vaisala IceWeband is available to any of E-470’spersonnel or nominated winterservice contractors via the use ofa password. ●

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Vaisala Bureau Service

T he service incorporates a number of modules each tailoredto customers’ requirements. One over-riding priority is

that data ownership remains with the customer at all times.Data management has a number of advantages over the moretraditional route of purchasing a stand-alone RWIS server:

• Peace-of-mind: customers pay for timely, accurate data pro-vision. Vaisala takes care of all elements of data provision, includ-ing communication and maintenance. A 24/7 staffed helpdesk fa-cility ensures that telephone support is always available.

• Flexibility: the service is tailored to include only the servicesrequired. Additional services can be added as customer needschange or new products become available.

• Cost-effectiveness: Vaisala supply the service in onepackage. There is no server hardware to be maintained by cus-tomers’ IT personnel, no communication problems to solve, ba-sically no hassle. Access to a web browser is all that is needed.

By utilizing the Vaisala Bureau Service, maintenance per-sonnel can delegate the responsibility of data managementand concentrate on the core responsibility of managing thehighway network. ●

Vaisala Present Weather Detector PWD22 is capableof detecting a range of different frozen and non-frozenprecipitation types and providing a measurement ofvisibility at the site.