00795327

Component

This article discusses the advantages and limitations of an expert system for winter road maintenance in Sweden and how to create an effective system. An expert system will support the maintenance manager in decisions in real time. It is primarily intended for inexperienced users. An effective system has to give advice on what action should be taken, when the action should be carried out, and, if necessary, how much and what type of chemical should be spread. Another important usage of an expert system is education and training of maintenance managers. The overall goal of this project, which is a Ph.D. thesis, is to develop an expert system. The knowledge in this system is gathered in part from literature studies but the main part is from interviews with experts. These interviews took place during February, March and April 2000 as in-depth interviews with six experienced maintenance managers on their opinion on winter maintenance activities. The interviews were based on examples where the present and forecasted weather was given along with the time of day. The settings were the managers' real areas of operation with the available equipment. Based on these examples, the managers were asked what action they would take and why. In order to obtain the best possible result, real activities were followed up by checking what actions had actually been taken at the time of the weather examples used in the interviews. A short discussion on why the decisions were made took place. After the interviews are concluded the information will be compiled and the key parameters will be identified. Based on this, rules of best practice will be formulated. These rules will state what action is to be taken given the current conditions such as temperature, wind, precipitation and forecast. The action will be divided into plowing, sanding and salting (NaCl). Three types of salting are defined: dry, prewetted and brine. The rules will also prescribe the correct amount to be spread. Preliminary results show that brine spreading is preferred over prewetted salt in most situations. Dry salt should never be used. For preventive salting, normal recommended amounts are 10 g of brine/sq m (124 lb/lane-mile) or 7 g of prewetted salt/sq m (87 lb/lane-mile). These rules will later be translated into rules that can be used by the expert system.

Session E

English

13p

2000

Ninth AASHTO/TRB Maintenance Management Conference

Figures (9) ; References (14)

Best practices; Brines; Decision making; Education and training; Expert systems; Interviewing; Literature reviews; Maintenance management; Real time information; Sand; Snow removal; Sodium chloride; Winter maintenance

Prewet salt

Sweden

Education and Training; Highways; Maintenance and Preservation; I62: Winter Maintenance

TRIS, TRB

Jul 19 2000 12:00AM

• CUSTOMER PERCEPTIONS AND EXPECTATIONS OF MN/DOT'S BARE PAVEMENT PRODUCT
• VEHICLE SPEED AND FLOW AT VARIOUS WINTER ROAD CONDITIONS