Cloud-based software platform provider Senet has partnered with road weather information systems (RWIS) specialist Frost Control Systems to help agencies oversee winter roads.
The companies say there are 1.2 million winter weather-related vehicle crashes, with a bill of $3 billion for de-icing materials, plus 48 billion pounds of salt spread on US roads each year.
This means that "automating the collection of critical road weather data for real-time decision making can have an immediate and measurable impact on roadway safety, the cost of deploying municipal resources, and the environment".
To achieve this, Frost has integrated Senet LoRaWAN network connectivity with its turnkey RWIS service to deliver remote monitoring of atmospheric and surface temperature for winter road condition monitoring.
The LoRaWAN specification is a low-power, wide-area (LPWA) networking protocol designed to enable Internet of Things (IoT) requirements such as bi-directional communication, end-to-end security, mobility and localisation services.
“Supporting LoRaWAN and partnering with Senet for network connectivity is a strategic commitment that provides public works departments with the opportunity to improve operations and save costs by modernising their roadway monitoring and management systems,” says Frost CEO Brad Tener.
The firms say that even small municipal customers have reported cost savings of $10,000-$15,000 per winter weather incident.
Frost's RWIS service includes hardware, software, installation, maintenance and network design, while Senet's LoRaWAN service offers broad coverage for low-power, long-range environmental sensors providing information such as road and air temperature, humidity and dew point, allowing authorities to treat high-risk roadway areas.
