This winter, more than 700 plow trucks across the state will be outfitted with technology to improve location and material-usage through a Pennsylvania Department of Transportation pilot program.
The upgrade is known as the Automated Vehicle Location (AVL) system, which uses in-truck technology to log and share data in real-time to enhance effectiveness and efficiency in snow plowing.
The pilot started in 2014 with 119 plow trucks installed with AVL and is expanding the number five-fold, with a few of those trucks allocated to the local area.
According to Marla Fannin, PennDOT community relations coordinator, a total of 35 AVL system trucks across eight of the nine counties making up PennDOT’s second district in northcentral Pennsylvania. Cameron County won’t have any, while Elk and McKean counties will each have one and two new trucks are yet to be delivered to Potter County.
The AVL unit in each truck sends a cellular signal through the system showing where a truck is located and whether or how much material is being spread from the truck, Fannin explained.
“The program will allow us to see where trucks are and how much material is being used,” she said. “We will be able to analyze material usage and make changes accordingly — leading to more efficient operation and higher customer service.”
If needed, while monitoring the system during winter storms or emergencies, the technology would be able to locate and direct the closest truck to an area that needs additional service, Fannin said.
AVL can also interface with other department technology to combine real-time weather and road conditions with corresponding material-usage rates, according to Fannin.
She said, with AVL, PennDOT will review the amount of salt and anti-skid used during the various stages of a weather event and then review data on effectiveness in returning traffic to pre-storm conditions.
“We expect that this technology will not only help us review truck movement and material usage after a storm, but it should also help us while storms are occurring,” PennDOT Secretary Leslie S. Richards said Thursday in rolling out the program at the department’s District 8 headquarters in Harrisburg. “Interstates and expressways are our top priority during winter weather, and this system will help us identify and respond to real-time conditions even better than we do today.”
The AVL system pilot is part of Governor Tom Wolf’s GO-TIME initiative that leverages inter-agency coordination and collaboration to maximize efficiency, modernize state government operations, and provide the highest quality services.
The pilot, as one of seven GO-TIME projects identified by PennDOT in 2016-2017, is expected to realize a cost savings of $1.4 million over the next four to six years based on a combination of reduced salt usage and better use of department equipment, Richards said.
“This system will allow PennDOT to see operations and conditions on the ground in real-time, helping them to better analyze how they do their jobs and get the best investment out of every dollar,” Wolf said in announcing the initiative Thursday. “A government that works is also a transparent one and this pilot is a perfect example of maximizing efficiency and modernizing operations.”
This winter, 516 PennDOT dump trucks and 212 contracted rental trucks on interstates and expressways across the state will have the technology installed. Statewide, PennDOT has 2,200 total department-force trucks and also rents approximately 270 trucks and their operators to maintain the more than 40,000 miles of roadway for which PennDOT is responsible.
PennDOT plans to make the system’s real-time location data available to the public later this year through its traveler information website,www.511PA.com.
For more information on winter operations and how the public can prepare for the season, visitwww.PennDOT.gov/winter.
