Center for Weather Impacts on Mobility and Safety

CWIMS is a new center, formed in 2005, that's focused on finding better and safer ways to travel whenever weather is a problem. Faculty and staff at CTRE and Iowa State University have conducted research and technology transfer activities in this field for several years. Our capabilities are extensive and diverse.

Motorists have high expectations that roads will be cleared of snow and ice quickly.

To learn more about CWIMS, read this article. See also the information below:

Contacts
Research Projects
Technology Transfer
Resources and Laboratories
Related Programs

Contacts

For more information about

CWIMS research and capabilities, contact CWIMS Director Tom Maze, tmaze@iastate.edu, 515-294-9459
the Department of Geological and Atmospheric Sciences' weather-related research and capabilities, contact Gene Takle, gstakle@iastate.edu, 515-294-9871

Research Projects

The concept maintenance vehicle was a multi-state, multi-phase project that evaluated several different technologies related to winter maintenance.

CWIMS/CTRE

maintenance

November 2006, An Integrated Systems Approach to the Development of Winter Maintenance / Management Systems
August 2006, Snow and Ice Operations Cost Analysis
August 2003, Deploying the Maintenance Decision Support System (MDSS) in Iowa
June 2003, Highway Maintenance Concept Vehicle: A Business Case for Winter Maintenance Technology Applications
October 2002, Synthesis of Best Practices for Increasing Protection and Visibility of Highway Maintenance Vehicles and Workers (TR-475)
May 2002, Highway Maintenance Concept Vehicle, Phase IV
December 2001, Automated Bridge De-icing Pilot Project
February 2001, Highway Maintenance Concept Vehicle, Phase III
June 1998, Highway Maintenance Concept Vehicle, Phase I

pavement

September 2002, Improved Pavement Curing Materials and Techniques: Part 1 (Phases I and II) (TR-451)
December 2001, Automated Bridge De-icing Pilot Project

safety

weather data

November 2003, Evaluation of Weather Forecasting Services for the Iowa Department of Transportation
October 2002, Vendor Weather Forecast
September 2002, Development of an Advanced Traveler Information: Weatherview, Phase II: Enhancements; Phase III: Support
May 2002, Highway Maintenance Concept Vehicle, Phase IV
February 2001, Highway Maintenance Concept Vehicle, Phase III

Iowa State University Department of Geological and Atmospheric Sciences

Iowa State students worked with the Iowa Department of Transportation to gather data on bridge frost, a safety hazard to motorists.

2004, Bridge Frost Occurrence and Prediction, Spokane, WA
2003, Applications of a Roadway Frost Prediction System in Iowa, 19th International Conference on Interactive Information Processing Systems (IIPS) for Meteorology, Oceanography, and Hydrology, Amer. Meteor. Soc., Long Beach
2003, Bridge Frost: Observations and Forecasts by Numerical Methods
2003, Evaluation of a Frost Accumulation Model, Meteor. Appl. 10, 337-343
2003, Using an Artificial Neural Network to Predict Parameters for Frost Deposition on Iowa Bridgeways
2002, Conceptual and Scaling Evaluation of Vehicle Traffic Thermal Effect on Road Snow/ice, J. Appl. Meteor., 41, 1225-1240
The Iowa Environmental Mesonet Combining Observing Systems into a Single Network, Sixth Symposium on Integrated Observing Systems, Amer. Meteor. Soc., Orlando, FL
2001, A Model for Forecasting Frost Accumulation on Bridges that Uses Roadway Weather Information System (RWIS) Data, 17th International Conference on Interactive Information and Processing Systems (IIPS), Amer. Meteorol. Soc., Albuquerque, NM
2001, A Winter Weather Index to Estimate Maintenance Costs in the Midwest, 17th International Conference on Interactive Information and Processing Systems (IIPS), Amer. Meteorol. Soc., Albuquerque, NM
1998, Use of Pavement Temperature Measurements for Winter Maintenance Decisions
1996, Use of Expert Systems for Roadway Weather Maintenance Decisions

Midwest Transportation Consortium

The MTC is Iowa State University's University Transportation Center Program for Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, and Nebraska and is administered by CTRE.

Technology Transfer

Iowa State University's PCC Center has developed and is currently developing several publications about PCC construction which include information about weather-related complications.

Concrete Paving Notes (available from the American Concrete Paving Association)
- Materials No. 1: Formation and Characteristics of Concrete Mixtures for Pavements: The Basics (product code: SP486P)
Concrete paving workforce references (contact Mark Anderson-Wilk, maw@iastate.edu, 515-294-7124)
- No. 1. Concrete Materials Storage, Mixing, and Delivery
- No. 2. Concrete Paving Site Preparation and Construction
- No. 3. Concrete Paving Joint Sawing, Cleaning, and Sealing

Resources and Laboratories

CP Tech Center's Mobile Concrete Laboratory
PCC Pavement and Materials Research Laboratory
Remote Monitoring Laboratory

Related Programs

Aurora

CTRE administers the Aurora program, an international pooled-fund partnership for research in road weather information systems. See "Go Light with the Salt, Please: Developing Information Systems for Winter Roadway Safety" in the January–February 2004 edition of TR News (pdf) for an article about Aurora.

Iowa Environmental Mesonet

The Iowa Environmental Mesonet (IEM) was established and maintained as a partnership between Iowa State University, the Iowa Department of Transportation, the National Weather Service, and KCCI, the CBS affiliate television station in Des Moines, Iowa. (The IEM won a national award for being a public-private-university partnership.) The IEM displays a variety of raw and derived products using RWIS data. The Iowa DOT has played a central role in the RWIS data collection.

Weather Issues in Transportation

Led by the Iowa DOT, a diverse group of researchers is developing a regional, multi-disciplinary approach to establishing a weather-related research and technology transfer program. Read more about it on the Weather Issues in Transportation website.