US town integrates road condition monitoring
22/07/2020
Massachusetts town Spencer is working with smart city technology provider Cimcon on an initiative to improve driver safety, meet state environmental guidelines and reduce the costs associated with ineffective road monitoring and maintenance.Spencer, originally an agricultural and mill community, has an ageing population for whom road safety is a priority, especially during the winter months. It has a population of approximately 12,000 people.
Using the funds remaining from a grant and incentives received from the Massachusetts Area Planning Council (MAPC) and National Grid to convert its street lights, the town chose Cimcon’s NearSky smart city platform with the road condition monitoring application to improve public safety.
At the start of the project, the town identified four areas that experience the first occurrences of freezing during inclement weather. Two of these areas are along a causeway that runs beside the Stiles Reservoir and Cranberry Meadow Pond and the other two are in the northern section of the town, where the elevation is higher and the temperature is typically five degrees lower than in the town centre.
The town will monitor two additional areas for comparison purposes. Real-time data collected from road temperature sensors will be relayed back to the town’s highway department via the NearSky platform so that preventative measures can then be taken.
The data obtained from the StreetVibe software will allow the town to monitor the temperature of roads and to treat surfaces before hazardous road conditions can occur. Not only will this make the roads safer, but Cimcon claims that it will also allow the town to use less road salt, thereby helping it to achieve its high phosphorus reduction goals as part of its participation in the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System programme.
Highway superintendent Krukowski estimates that the platform will pay for itself within four years through savings on road salt and reduced equipment wear and tear.
