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Florida Department
of Transportation
ITS Office
605 Suwannee Street, MS 90
Tallahassee, Florida 32399-0450
(850) 410-5600
Roadway Weather Information Systems
| UNF and FSU Work Together to Develop a Prototype Roadway Weather Information System |
The University of North Florida's Applied Global Systems Laboratory (AGSLab) is spearheading the development of a prototype Roadway Weather Information System (RWIS) in cooperation with the departments of Meteorology, Geography and Electrical and Computer Engineering at Florida State University.
Dr. J. David Lambert, co-director of the AGSLab and the principal investigator for the project, said a pilot system, consisting of 15 weather stations, is being installed at microwave communications tower sites along the Interstate highways in FDOT's District 2. The first installations started in February and the pilot system will be operational in late spring. Lambert says the primary goal is to provide early warning weather advisories to travelers, transportation managers, law enforcement and emergency personnel. The system will focus particularly on hazardous weather conditions that could be important to traveler safety including low visibility from fog and smoke, heavy rain, strong winds and even freezing temperatures.
FSU's primary objective for the project is to research the correlation between atmospheric effects and microwave path fades. Secondary objectives include developing improved road weather forecasting methods that incorporate the new data and developing methods of forecasting fog at locations without sensors. To accomplish this, the UNF team is also building a special weather research facility incorporating three microwave towers located west of Tallahassee. The UNF team is also working very closely with the FSU researchers to determine the design requirements for the weather station network, the web site and the weather data archive.
Once the pilot system is in operation, as travelers prepare for a trip, they will be able to access current and forecasted road
weather advisories via the "MyFlorida.com" web site. Eventually, travelers will also get in-transit advisories via dynamic messaging systems while they are on the road and via touch-screen information kiosks at rest stops.
The UNF team is also researching the feasibility of installing "between-tower" weather and visibility sensors. The concern is that the 20-mile spacing of the microwave tower-based weather stations may not be adequate for providing in-transit warnings to motorists about dense fog or smoke from wildfires that may limit visibility. The UNF team is designing and installing a specialized radio communications system that will enable additional solar-powered, wireless sensors to be deployed between the towers.
For additional information regarding these programs, please contact Mr. Nick Adams, (850) 410-5608 or Mr. Liang Hsia, (850) 410-5615 at the FDOT ITS Office in Tallahassee.
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“...Still Alive and Kicking” |
FDOT envisions the Florida Fiber Network (FFN) as a public- private partnership involving the leasing of the rights to install telecommunications facilities along the FDOT rights of way to telecommunications service providers and telecommunications infrastructure companies. In return, FDOT would receive consideration in the form of telecommunications capacity, or bandwidth, on fiber optic cable facilities installed by these firms. This infrastructure would take the form of dark fibers, which FDOT would then light to accommodate future FDOT ITS projects. Most importantly, the FFN would create the infrastructure for a statewide fiber optic network supporting the FDOT ITS program.
On July 14, 2000, FDOT issued a lease to FFN, Inc. for the FFN project. FFN, Inc. had submitted the first-ranked proposal in response to an RFP issued by FDOT on
March 17, 2000. This lease agreement was to cover all of the Interstate mileage and Turnpike mainline within the State, in excess of 2000 miles. During the next ten months, FFN, Inc. tried diligently, but unsuccessfully, to obtain project financing and commitments from a variety of partners. However, this very favorable arrangement for FDOT was not ultimately realized. FDOT cancelled the lease agreement with FFN, Inc. on May 14, 2001.
FDOT then opened discussions for negotiating a lease for the FFN with UCN, Inc., on June 29, 2001. UCN was the second-ranked proposer to the RFP issued on March 17, 2000. FDOT met with UCN on several occasions to discuss rights of way and environmental permitting issues. In addition, FDOT, in coordination with the Florida Department of Management Services (FDMS), met with UCN on several other occasions to begin negotiations on the lease agreement regarding SunCom issues. Unfortunately, on February 6, 2002, UCN notified FDOT that financing was not available and they withdrew. FDOT closed the response for proposal from the March 17, 2000 RFP, and is considering unsolicited proposals.
As discussions were being held with UCN, FDOT received an unsolicited proposal on October 22, 2001, from FFN, Inc. This proposal was to install an FFN in substantial conformance to the requirements of the March 17, 2000 RFP for approximately 1,950 miles of FDOT limited access rights of way. FDOT performed a preliminary review of the proposal, deemed it worthy of further consideration, issued a public notice of receipt of this proposal and invited other firms to submit proposals in response. One other proposal was received on January 31, 2002, from APTUS Corp. FDOT is now reviewing these two proposals, which are available at http://www11.myflorida.com/public informationoffice/fiber/finalppa.htm.
For additional information regarding these programs, please contact Mr. Nick Adams at the FDOT ITS Office in Tallahassee, (850) 410-5608.
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