MetService to supply road weather information to New Zealand road alliance

The Milford Road Alliance, a partnership between the New Zealand Transport Agency and Downer NZ to ensure the safe and efficient management of activities on State Highway 94, is to implement new and enhanced weather forecast services from MetService. Climbing through the Southern Alps, State Highway 94 is one of the highest highways in New Zealand. It includes the Milford Road which stretches from Te Anau through Fiordland National Park to Milford Sound and the high-altitude alpine conditions, a steep and r
May 9, 2017 Read time: 2 mins
The Milford Road Alliance, a partnership between the 6296 New Zealand Transport Agency and Downer NZ to ensure the safe and efficient management of activities on State Highway 94, is to implement new and enhanced weather forecast services from MetService


Climbing through the Southern Alps, State Highway 94 is one of the highest highways in New Zealand. It includes the Milford Road which stretches from Te Anau through Fiordland National Park to Milford Sound and the high-altitude alpine conditions, a steep and rugged terrain that can be beset by floods and avalanches, can pose significant risks.

To keep the road safely open as much as possible, the Alliance operates specialised weather and environmental data acquisition devices at both road and mountain levels. Information from these systems is supplied to MetService forecasters to provide regular expert interpretation.

For the 2017 winter season, MetService is providing the Alliance with several new and enhanced forecast services, including severe weather threat matrices covering the threat of snow, strong winds, and heavy rain with free air freezing level (FAFL). In addition, animating rainfall, snow and cloud ceiling forecast maps are being provided.  Site-specific rainfall and temperature probability forecasts complete the picture in term of value-added forecast services, while significant improvements to the distribution and communication of data and forecasts have been made.

The new services complement those currently provided by MetService to the Alliance and are designed to assist informed decision-making about the management of the road at an operational level including mitigating the risks posed by avalanches.

Air Quality & Weather Systems

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • How safe are smart motorways?
    March 3, 2020
    A valiant attempt to ease the UK’s congested strategic road system? Or an idea that should never have seen the light of day? Alan Dron reports on the controversy over smart motorways...
    Read More
  • C-ITS in Europe: jazz or symphony?
    August 18, 2021
    Communication between vehicles on the road is going to be increasingly important. Richard Lax of Kapsch TrafficCom explains why music is a good guide to the way that this could work safely
    Read More
  • New approach to real time travel information - free of charge
    February 3, 2012
    Austria's national road operator, ASFINAG, has launched the TMCplus traveller information service which is unusual in that it offers encrypted-level services to all users free of charge. Martin Müllner writes
    Read More
  • The importance of going with the flow
    April 6, 2018
    Ensuring worker safety and up-to-date driver information is crucial to ensure that roadworks are not a source of danger and delay. Andrew Williams looks at a scheme on the A14 in Cambridgeshire, UK. In recent years, portable workzone ITS solutions have emerged as important tools in the management of major roadworks and system upgrade projects - and are viewed as an increasingly vital means of ensuring any ongoing traffic flow disruption is kept to a minimum. The technology forms a central component of an
    Read More

Highlighted Content