Winter weather means all hands on deck when snow and ice trigger dangerous driving conditions. And, keeping drivers safe on roadways means more than just clearing the snow.
While maintenance crews are out clearing roads, MoDOT customer service and Community Relations staff are busy keeping the public informed of driving conditions. For most districts, the process of gathering road condition information and getting it to the public is very similar. Maintenance personnel who are busy clearing the roads call, fax, or e-mail information about road conditions to the district headquarters several times a day.
“We will receive information such as dry, wet, partly covered or covered weather conditions, as well as current air and road temperatures and how much precipitation has been received. That information is then recorded for the appropriate routes,” said Tana Akright, customer service representative for District 3.
This information is then used to update the road conditions page on our Web site, which the public can access at www.modot.org. The districts also publicize the toll-free numbers the public can call to receive more detailed information.
“If people want information on specific roads that are not primary roads, we contact the maintenance personnel to get them the specific information,” said Danny Bradley, customer service representative for District 9.
Districts 4 and 6 have a few extra tools for monitoring road conditions at their disposal.
The Kansas City Scout intelligent transportation system uses closed circuit cameras and traffic sensors to provide real-time information about road conditions and weather-related traffic issues along the 75-mile Scout network in metropolitan Kansas City. This information is immediately available to the public via the Scout Web site.
Another way District 4 gets information to the public is by keeping in close contact with the local media, providing regular updates to metropolitan area traffic reporters and live feeds from Scout cameras to all local television stations.
“Scout's perspective has been such an eye-opener that a maintenance supervisor is now stationed in the traffic operations center during snow fights to enhance coordination,” said Joel Blobaum, District 4 Community Relations manager.
St. Louis’s Gateway Guide offers similar advantages to District 6. Real-time road condition information gathered from closed circuit cameras and other sources such as police or eyewitnesses is available at Gatewayguide.com. The same information is available on the 24-hour automated traffic hotline and message boards placed on highways.
So as winter bears down upon us, we tip our hats to those MoDOT employees who keep the public informed of road conditions during bad weather and work to reduce the risk of accidents for motorists across the state.
