New Technology Helping Crews Better Prepare To Treat Snowy Roads
BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- With winter weather in the forecast, new technology is already hard at work, informing crews of how they might need to treat the roads.
The technology is called Marwis, and it's now deploying all over the state to collect data, feed it back, keep drivers safe and to top it all off, save money.
TIMELINE | When Will Snow Arrive In Maryland Saturday?
Marwis Mobile Advanced Roadway Weather Information System is attached to 53 trucks statewide and uses infrared technology to measure everything crews need to know.
"As we are driving, it's steadily calculating road temperature traction grip," Charlie Gischlar, of the Maryland State Highway Administration, said. "It's telling me the ambient temperature, the air temperature [and] live real-time data."
In the last five years, salt use has been cut in half, all thanks to the new technology.
"In the past what we would do is go and lay salt no matter what," Gischlar said. "This we can strategically do that and reduce our salt impact."
There are also fixed Marwis units on more than 100 permanent weather stations taking the same data.