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(electronic swoosh sounds)

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- [Narrator] When wetter conditions cause

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unsafe travel on our roadways,

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it's important that the Texas Department

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of Transportation has real time,

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proven, and effective management

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and maintenance strategies in place.

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Researchers at the University
of Texas at Austin's

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Center for Transportation
Research have developed

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and tested technologies that
will improve the efficiency

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and management of snow and
ice removal from Texas roads.

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This translates to reductions in weather

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related vehicle crashes and travel delays

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as well as environmental benefits.

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- Texas has quite a
bit of extreme weather.

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But also unknown to a lot
of folks in North Texas,

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they really do get snow storms.

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They get severe ice.

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So TexDOT has always been
interested in being able

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to effectively treat
roadways so that they're safe

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for travelers in all kinds
of different extreme weather.

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TexDOT wants to have the
tools available to be able

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to effectively know what's
happening on the roadways

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so that they can be able
to optimize treatment

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and provide better service to travelers.

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- Searchers put this technology,
this equipment on the,

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the dump trucks and snowplows.

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They put monitoring equipment on that

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and then it goes into a
system that then can be,

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that data is all dumped into,

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and then the district
can monitor that system

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and see where the equipment's
at and what it's doing.

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Giving the ability for the
folks back at the district

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or at the EOC to be able to see what's

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going on out in the field in real time.

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They're getting that information
immediately and directly.

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They're not having to
wait for a radio call,

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a telephone call,

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or that sit rep that may not
come in till the next day.

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They're, they can get a snapshot

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of what's going on real time.

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- We also looked at low cost sensors

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that can help folks who are in
the Traffic Operations Center

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know what the conditions are like.

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So in the Abilene District,

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we deployed a series of, I'd
say prosumer weather stations

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and also a couple other types of sensors.

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A couple of them that mount to vehicles

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that assess what the surface
of the roadway is like.

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We also found ways of tapping
into the current system

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that TexDOT has which keeps
track of the GPS locations

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of all the vehicles so that
we have a couple extra signals

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that basically tell when
is the plow up and down

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and when is spraying or brine
happening on the roadway,

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and when is spreading of grit
happening onto the roadway.

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Not only does the labor of those who

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are driving the vehicles
have to be reduced

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but also not having to
rely upon third party's

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proprietary technologies that
require annual subscriptions

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in the millions of dollars.

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How can this be done with equipment

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that TexDOT already has with
the simplest possible equipment

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and how to free the drivers from having

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to interact with that equipment,

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to have that equipment completely passive

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so that the recording of winter operations

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happens in a transparent way.

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- And it got some side benefit out

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of it that we didn't even,

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this wasn't even part of the
project, wasn't scope of it,

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but the herbicide application is something

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that kind of came up in
some of the conversations

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with some of the districts
that this was reviewed by.

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And they said, well,

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why can't we use this on a herbicide rig?

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So I think that's one of the things

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where we're seeing there's a,

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there's a broader, it's
not just winter weather,

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and then combining it with the track

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of plow project with the cameras.

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We're seeing some benefit
there where we can,

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we can get a both a
visual plus what the crew

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is actually doing out there.

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- [Narrator] For more information

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and to find the publication
for this project,

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please visit the TexDOT research library

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at the link shown below.