OVERVIEW
The current gritting routes in Kent do not allow for regional climate similarities or differences. This leads to a misalignment in gritting and road-freezing – where frozen roads are ungritted and unfrozen roads are gritted. This has both a safety and cost impact for Kent County Council.
APPROACH
With our data analytics team and operational expertise, from delivering winter maintenance for Kent County Council for over a decade, we developed a machine learning road surface temperature prediction model.
Weather forecasts and location features (altitude, road type, population, traffic flow) are used to predict surface temperatures 24hrs in advance to 90% accuracy, within 1ºC. This highly detailed, localised information enables the grouping of road behaviours to create efficient gritting routes.
BENEFITS
- From the research undertaken, all winter gritting routes were optimised. Kent County Council has confirmed that the new routes will be trialled next salting season to improve safety.
- We anticipate an improvement in gritting efficiency of 18%, which will equate to a cost saving of £109k per year.