2010-11-11

Number of road weather stations in Lithuania to double

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With a half of the scheduled number of new weather stations in place on roads across the country, the first stage of deploying the road traffic information system is halfway through. Once doubled, the network of these stations will help drivers assess the weather conditions better and will enable the road maintenance services to clean and maintain the roads with a higher degree of efficiency. Ordered by the Lithuanian Road Administration, the road traffic information system is being deployed on the national roads by the intelligent engineering solutions company Fima.

Most of the scheduled 43 road weather stations are already in place on the national roads and the rest of them will be deployed by the end of this year. At this time, there are 48 previously installed automatic road weather stations continuously observing the weather conditions on the country’s roads.

“Weather conditions can vary drastically among roads that are a mere dozen or so kilometres apart, ranging from ice in one spot to snow on the road or fog in another. We have over 20,000 kilometres of roads in Lithuania and the denser the station network, the more accurate data on the cover of a specific road will be obtained. This will provide added safety to drivers as well, who will be able to assess the information about the traffic and choose the right speed or a detour, and the road services to perform proper maintenance,” Rokas Šlekys, Director of Solutions Department of Fima has said.

Statistics show that deployment of weather stations helps bringing the accident rate down. “Back when we were setting up the old stations, we noticed that when it comes to accident, the situation improved quite a lot thanks to better-maintained roads in the winter time,” Gintaras Cilcius, Head of the Traffic Information and Management Division of the Lithuanian Road Administration has said.

The technology installed in the modern stations allows measuring the thickness of water, ice and snow on the road with great precision. It also accurately records the air temperature, the visibility, the speed of wind and other relevant parameters. On top of that, the stations also measure the intensity of the traffic. In R. Šlekys’ words, when choosing the spots for the stations, special focus was placed on sections of roads where the accident rate is high and the weather conditions affect the traffic to a major extent.

The expansion of the network of road weather stations will help the road services work more efficiently. “The Road services will have more specific information about the sections of roads that need salting, additional capacities to clean them, or are of acceptable condition. This is particularly relevant during the winter, when weather conditions aggravate drivers the most, and driving conditions are heavily dependent on the work and expedience of road maintenance staff,” said R. Šlekys. In his words, information transmitted by the stations will be gathered by the Lithuanian Road Administration and as of spring of next year such information will be freely available at a website for drivers www.eismoinfo.lt that is currently under development.