Current Practices of Winter Maintenance Operations and Perceptions of Winter Weather Conditions
This article has been corrected.
VIEW CORRECTIONPublication: Journal of Cold Regions Engineering
Volume 33, Issue 3
Abstract
The annual cost of winter maintenance in the United States is approximately $2.3 billion, which makes measuring the performance of state departments of transportation (DOTs) a financially responsible and mission-critical task to improve services, strengthen accountability, and provide better information for effective decision making and resource allocation. Although state DOTs are increasingly interested in current trends for winter performance measurements, the data documenting performance are limited. This study synthesizes the current practices of winter maintenance operations and identifies the most commonly used performance measures and the impact of weather information on winter maintenance operations by conducting a survey of 31 state DOTs. The results indicate that (1) state DOTs are more dependent on weather information for planning rather than tactical purposes; (2) snowfall, road temperature, and freezing rain are the most important weather variables, and (3) labor/equipment hours and material quantities are the most frequently used performance measures. This study can help state DOTs discern a comprehensive picture of current trends in winter performance measurements and benchmarks for best practices.
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Acknowledgments
The study described in this paper was sponsored and supported by the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship under Grant DGE-1041000 and Nebraska Department of Transportation Project Grant SPR-P1(17) M054. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the writers and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation, University of Nebraska, or Nebraska Department of Transportation. The National Center for Atmospheric Research is sponsored by the National Science Foundation. The authors also acknowledge the contributions of the Nebraska Department of Transportation staff—especially Tom Sands, Austin Yates, Todd Cecrle, and Jesse Schulz—for providing significant inputs to complete this study. Furthermore, the authors thank the editors and anonymous reviewers for their contributions to strengthen the manuscript.
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©2019 American Society of Civil Engineers.
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Received: Mar 5, 2018
Accepted: Feb 11, 2019
Published online: Jul 2, 2019
Published in print: Sep 1, 2019
Discussion open until: Dec 2, 2019
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