Forecasting using Contextual Data in Road Maintenance Work

Road maintenances works are very diverse and specific ranging from landscaping to laying down the road surface. Many stakeholders including managers, dispatchers, and maintenance teams are involved, and maintenance decisions need to be made in a timely manner. Proactive maintenance activities are enabled by forecasting. Importance of forecasting in anti-slip maintenance is investigated in this paper. The anti-slip maintenance is performed only in winter and concerns ability to provide anti-slip materials at a specific time and place on road surface in the winter season. The anti-slip maintenance nowadays uses live data from meteorological stations which are placed near the road for monitoring road surface. The meteorological stations have many sensors like current wind speed, outside temperature and more. The stations can provide managers and dispatchers with information of current road surface, for example, is road surface slippery or icy. The current situation for road surface is known. However, it should be known in advance because each road surface is maintained by several heavy vehicles and they deployment is not immediate. To obtain future road surface statuses, the forecasting should be used. The primary goal of forecasting is to provide accurate information to road maintenance fleet management.