The Intelligent Winter Road Maintenance Management in Slovak Conditions

The paper describes a multi-level solution for intelligent winter road maintenance management. The system is based on monitoring and forecasting of weather conditions and the road surface conditions at selected road locations. Automatic data collection and transmission is ensured by road weather stations, which provide early warnings about dangerous situations on the road (such as frost, ice, mist, wet or snow-covered surface). Data from these weather stations, together with weather forecasting models and date from weather radars and satellites are processed, presented and used for prediction of the pavement surface state and temperature. The result is information support for right maintenance decision and for effective and timely treatment of roads in the winter. Further part of the system is the winter maintenance dynamic dispatching which provides on-line fleet monitoring and management to ensure optimization and timely intervention. In addition, variable message signs are in the system for ensuring of information for drivers or even for traffic control on a dangerous road sections with the aim to improve traffic safety.