Impending Box Impact Warning System for Prevention of Snowplow-Bridge Impacts: A Final Report of Investigations

摘要

Each year, three or four Mn/DOT snowplows suffer bridge/box collisions while plowing. These collisions can shear off the box and frame damage to the truck. The box then falls onto the road surface where it becomes an immediate life-threatening hazard to traffic. In some cases, the integrity of the bridge may also be compromised. A typical collision of this type requires expenditures of $30,000 to $40,000 and results in potentially dangerous delays in achieving clean pavement status along the affected snowplowing route. Feasibility of linking on-board GPS technology for Automatic Vehicle Location with the current bridge information database at Mn/DOT, 'BrInfo,' will be investigated, on a plow-route by route basis, to create collision maps. Collision avoidance then will use some primitive form of map matching.