March 2023

Every 4 years the Transportation Research Board sponsors an International Road Weather and Winter Maintenance Conference where winter maintenance professionals gather to learn about emerging technologies, new strategies, the latest technology, and current research for responding to severe weather events and winter maintenance. After a pause due to the pandemic this conference is happening once again. In Washington DC, May 9-10, 2023, you can be part of this gathering and exchange of information.

Learn more about this event from TRB Road Weather Committee Chair Paul Pisano and TRB Winter Maintenance Committee Chair Anna Arvidsson in this episode or by following this link to the conference website at https://trb.secure-platform.com/a/page/wintermaintenance
Special early registration and lodging opportunities expire on April 25th so mark your calendars.

0:00 Intro
00:54 History of the Conference
03:55 Planning for the 2023 event
07:30 What to expect when you get there
12:00 Why should I attend?
15:03 Who attends?
17:20 Conference details
20:45 Last minute thoughts
23:46 Sign off

SICOP Talks Winter Ops is always looking for interesting topics and guests to visit with regarding winter maintenance and road weather. If you have any ideas for future episodes contact Rick Nelson at rnelson@aashto.org our our co-producer Scott Lucas at Scott.Lucas@dot.ohio.gov

For over 40 years we have sought after a measure of friction during winter events to determine if additional treatments were required. Over the decades the science, sensors, and computing power have advanced to the point that friction or grip is making its way into winter operations.

On this episode we explore some cutting edge work in world of winter road friction. Lead Statewide Snow & Ice Engineer for the MassDOT Mark Goldstein and from the Research Applications Lab at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, Senior Software Engineer Gerry Wiener and Software Engineer Seth Linden discuss projects they are involved with and the finer points associated with using friction/grip in winter maintenance.
Follow this link for more information on the Aurora Road Friction Project https://aurora-program.org/research/completed/roadway-friction-modeling-improving-the-use-of-friction-measurements-in-state-dots/
You can reach out to our guests directly for more information on their work with wintertime friction and grip by emailing them directly through the links above.

Chapter marks:
0:00 Intro
1:54 when did you start thinking about friction and wintertime operations
4:03 how does friction play onto the highway environment
7:23 what are some of the grip measuring devices out there
12:31 how do friction sensors work, what are they measuring
17:05 The Aurora Roadway Friction Modeling study discussion
25:41 MassDOT friction project
38:04 What’s the future of friction/grip look like
44:04 Last minute thoughts – autonomous vehicles
46:42 sign off

SICOP Talks Winter Ops is always looking for interesting topics and guests to visit with regarding winter maintenance and road weather. If you have any ideas for future episodes contact Rick Nelson at rnelson@aashto.org our our co-producer Scott Lucas at Scott.Lucas@dot.ohio.gov