Maintenance Decision Support System (MDSS) ASFINAG / Austria Experience of a Comprehensive Winter Maintenance Management System

摘要

Some of the major objectives in road operation are safety, environmental protection, economics and the necessary optimization of these issues in delivering quality winter maintenance services. In order to increase road safety and optimize traffic flow, high quality prediction and sensor technologies are required as well as appropriate winter service treatments at the right time. Given the complexity of meteorological, traffic and winter service processes, winter services require a comprehensive Winter Maintenance Management System.rnASFINAG (Autobahnen- und Schnellstraβen-Finanzierungs-Aktiengesellschaft) plans, finances, maintains and tolls the entire Austrian motorway and highway network covering 2,178 kilometers. This figure includes over 300 kilometers per direction in tunnels and some 300 kilometers per direction over bridges. ASFINAG is wholly owned by the Austrian Federal Government.rnIn order to benefit from synergies and to reach common, high quality standards - particularly in winter maintenance - ASFINAG has decided to launch a specific, company-wide project: the MDSS ASFINAG.rnThe MDSS system is a common, robust, modular and scalable platform able to support the decisions of all the maintenance depots within the two service companies of ASFINAG. Boschung Mecatronic AG has been selected to develop and to provide the MDSS system.The objectives of the MDSS system are Road Weather Information System (RWIS), data concentration, the integration of weather forecasts and combination of RWIS and forecast data as well as the integration of operational data to devise situation maps for comprehensive decision-making support.rnThe MDSS system brings together all of the RWIS stations distributed over the road network. This provides a common interface for all users, who will have the opportunity to access data from neighboring regions.rnThe Austrian road network has been divided in about 230 Road Weather Segments corresponding to micro/meso-climatic regions. Specific weather forecasts for up to 72 hours will be established for each of these segments.rnOne of the main benefits of the MDSS system will be to combine local RWIS station data with weather forecast data to develop the road surface and road weather information of the corresponding Road Weather Segment so as to aid decision-making.