Road safety award for Idaho Transportation Department and Vaisala

Vaisala's collaboration with the Idaho Transportation Department has been recognised by the US Road Safety Foundation and Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) as winners of the biennial National Roadway Safety Awards. The award winners were chosen for reducing fatalities and injuries on roadways through excellence and innovation in operations, planning, and design. The Idaho Transportation Department, using Vaisala's pavement sensors that calculate grip or friction values, found that this value can als
December 3, 2013 Read time: 2 mins
144 Vaisala's collaboration with the 7477 Idaho Transportation Department has been recognised by the US 776 Road Safety Foundation and 831 Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) as winners of the biennial National Roadway Safety Awards. The award winners were chosen for reducing fatalities and injuries on roadways through excellence and innovation in operations, planning, and design.
 
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.
Air Quality & Weather Systems

Related Content

  • Connected vehicle technology the solution to safety?
    January 25, 2012
    A series of 'driver clinics' is under way across five states, as vehicle manufacturers and the US Government pin their hopes on connected vehicles becoming the next big advance in road safety. Pete Goldin reports. What would a car say if it could talk? Its first words might be: "Here I am". Many vehicles are communicating that very message to each other right now. Admittedly, this is in controlled environments of US Department of Transportation (USDoT) tests, but within the next few years 'connected vehicle
    Read More
  • Overture is open to the bigger picture
    June 18, 2024
    Four of the biggest players in the world of mapping have joined forces to create easy-to-use, interoperable open data that will power the next generation of maps. Kevin Borras talks collaborative interoperability with Overture Map Foundation’s Marc Prioleau and TomTom’s Willem Strijbosch
    Read More
  • Arkansas opts for ClearPath winter weather forecasting
    November 11, 2014
    The Arkansas State Highway and Transportation Department (AHTD) has selected Iteris’ cloud-based maintenance decision support system (MDSS), ClearPath Weather, to provide state-wide weather forecasting services for improved winter road maintenance response. ClearPath Weather will provide AHTD with web-based access to high-resolution pavement weather forecasting and treatment alternatives at designated locations around the state during winter weather events. Additionally, AHTD will have available use of I
    Read More
  • Weigh in motion reduces road wear, increases toll revenue
    January 24, 2012
    IRD, Inc's Terry Bergan discusses future applications of weigh in motion technology. The application in recent years of Weigh In Motion (WIM) at tollgates has been driven by recognition of the fact that there is economic value, which can be levied, attached to Heavy Goods Vehicles (HGVs) which haul laden (and are therefore heavy) rather than empty. As wear and damage to road surfaces increases exponentially with weight, the targeting of HGVs in particular makes sense from both the economic and maintenance p
    Read More

Highlighted Content