Performance Measures for Winter Operations

New winter maintenance vehicles are being equipped with differential Global Positioning System (DGPS) receivers and numerous sensors that collect environmental data (e.g., pavement and air temperature), equipment status data (e.g., plow up, plow down), and material usage data (e.g., salt application rate). These data can be both telemetered to a dispatch center and recorded on magnetic media for later downloading. Data are transmitted and recorded as often as every 2 s. Such data, both type and quantity, have only recently become available. Vehicles were instrumented with the reasonable expectation that information can be used to improve winter maintenance. As a result, these technology demonstration projects tend to be guided by loosely defined “try-and-see” data requirements. Now, with the availability of these data, agencies are beginning to explore the possibilities for improving the performance of winter maintenance operations. A comprehensive set of performance measures for winter maintenance that can be computed from data collected by DGPS receivers and sensors on winter maintenance vehicles is described. The performance measures are indicators of how well winter maintenance operations meet and satisfy expectations. Consideration of the business goals and objectives determined during a series of meetings with state transportation agency professionals from all levels, including winter operations engineers, county commissioners, patrol supervisors, and program managers, led directly to identification of the performance measures. Consequently, the measures directly tie to the business processes and performance of operations. After baseline values of the measures are established, changes in performance can be related to cost of the technology.