Traverse City News and Events

City Turns To Tech Upgrades For Smarter Winter Response

By Beth Milligan | Nov. 14, 2018

Traverse City is turning to a number of technology upgrades to improve the city’s response to winter weather both “economically and environmentally,” according to Director of Public Works Frank Dituri – including testing out alternatives to traditional salt and sand to combat icy roads, going paperless as a department, and using GPS and live-data reporting to track truck plowing routes, speeds, and locations.

Dituri and Traverse City Streets Superintendent Mark Jones gave an overview to city commissioners this week of the department’s plan “to ensure safe streets” during the upcoming winter season. City Manager Marty Colburn said staff are responsible not only for overseeing plowing operations on city streets and sidewalks, but also monitoring transmission lines and responding to water breaks. “Some winters are worse than others in terms of not just the snow plowing, but also the temperatures, which can have an effect,” Colburn said. “There’s always a lot going on during the wintertime.”

The department has implemented several technology upgrades to better respond to dangerous conditions this winter. Every city plow truck is now outfitted with GPS and live data-reporting, allowing the city to see where all of its trucks are at any given time. That ensures the city can quickly deploy the nearest truck to lay down salt or sand at a dangerous site – say, an intersection covered in black ice, or a slippery hill causing accidents.

The data-reporting systems also log all of the streets plowed by city trucks, the routes taken by trucks, and the speeds at which they were traveling. Those advances not only allow the city to optimize routes, but also provides accountability for drivers and transparency for residents. Jones explained that the city prioritizes plowing routes in the following order: state trunklines, emergency routes (primary city routes providing connectivity throughout Traverse City for emergency vehicles), major/local streets, and alleys. Emergency routes are assigned plowing staff 24/7 during the winter; while staff also work to keep residential neighborhoods clear, those less-traveled routes become a lower priority during major storms when staff are scrambling to keep main travel arteries open.

Colburn said the data-reporting systems will allow the city to respond to resident complaints about a lack of plowing in their neighborhood and better explain routes and times. “With all this computerized now, they can look at the schedule” and confirm exactly when a truck last went down a particular street, Colburn said. Resident complaints about speeding plow trucks can also be verified through the reporting data; Dituri said the top speed for most trucks is 15-20mph. “We keep tabs on that quite closely,” he said.

The tech upgrades mean 2018 is going to be the first year Traverse City goes “totally paperless,” Jones said. In previous seasons, drivers had to manually track their mileage and salt and sand usage on major trunklines on sheets of paper. That’s because the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) reimburses the city to plow the trunklines within city limits; when a driver turns off a trunkline onto a city street, he or she has to note their numbers so resources spent on state and city streets are kept separate. Eliminating paper not only removes several layers of bureaucracy of reviewing record sheets, but is safer for the driver, Jones said. “He’s going to have his eyes on the windshield,” he said. “They’ve already got way too much to do.”

Traverse City staff will also experiment with methods this year to improve the city’s environmental impact from plowing. Dituri noted that while snowfall levels have steadily fluctuated between 100 and 200 inches over the last six years – dipping as low as 101 inches in 2012-13 and as high as 190 inches in 2013-14, with last year’s snowfall reaching 165 inches – the city’s salt usage has fallen by almost half in that same period. While the city used 2,239 tons of salt in 2012-13, it used only 1,256 tons in 2017-18. “That drive to continue using less salt while keeping the roadways as safe as possible is what we’re looking for,” said Dituri.

To keep exploring alternatives to salt and sand, the city will test out a pre-wetting salt brine system on at least one stretch of road this winter. The liquid layer helps better hold the salt application when it’s spread on the road, reducing environmental waste. “You have less waste by bounce and scatter,” Dituri explained. “When you drop something hard out of the back of a truck, like salt and/or sand, essentially it hits the ground and it bounces. It could fly off the roadway, it ends up in the gutters, along the edges of the road. With a liquid application…you gain some efficiencies out of that operation. So that’s what we’re going to try testing.”

All of the technology improvements will help the streets department balance the need to keep roads clear and residents safe – while also considering the impact of operations on nature and the city’s bottom line. “Our objective is to maintain a safe roadway system in a cost-effective way, while we’re trying to minimize environmental impact and still providing the required level of service,” Jones said.

Comment

Join The Ticker for April Recess at Commongrounds!

Read More >>

GT Regional Land Conservancy Acquires $5.1M Property in East Bay Township

Read More >>

173-Home Rental Subdivision, Timber Ridge Expansion Proposed

Read More >>

Leadership Changes, Housing Project, Commons Trail on Garfield Agenda

Read More >>

What's Next for Nonprofits at Planned Innovation Center Site?

Read More >>

Land Bank Plans New Uses for Crestwood, Kingsley, Boardman Properties

Read More >>

Meet Traverse City's Behind-The-Scenes Patrons Of Youth Music

Read More >>

NMC Audio Tech Program Plots Fundraiser Concert

Read More >>

Judge Dismisses Studio 8 Lawsuit Against City, Three Individuals

Read More >>

Avelo Airlines Coming to TVC with Direct Service to New Haven

Read More >>

How Two TC Filmmakers Captured The Story Of Michigan’s Arthouse Movie Theater Heritage

Read More >>

$30-$40 Million Technology/Logistics Park Proposed Next to Airport

Read More >>

Has Equilibrium Arrived For Traverse City Home Sales?

Read More >>

Local Wineries Score In Largest U.S. Wine Competition

Read More >>