Best Practices in Winter Maintenance

The purpose of the Winter Maintenance Scanning Tour was to seek out and observe the progress that state and local highway agencies are making in advancing today’s technology in the area of winter roadway maintenance. While this was the first tour in the United States, it was tailored after three previous scanning tours that had been conducted in European and Asian countries in 1994, 1998, and 2002. Much of what had been learned from these earlier international scans had become a new benchmark to several U.S. counterparts, inspiring them to pursue similar advances. The Winter Maintenance Scan was conducted from March 25 to April 7, 2009. The scanning team visited Minnesota, Colorado, Utah, Indiana, and Virginia. The focus areas included: 1. Maintenance Decision Support Systems (MDSSs); 2. Automatic Vehicle Location (AVL) Systems; 3. Equipment Technologies; 4. Training and Development; 5. Management Issues; and 6. Integration of Weather, Traffic, and Maintenance Operations. Best practices were examined, and recommendations were made based on the findings of the scanning tour.