MTO enlists help of technology to monitor Hwy. 11

Ken Johnston
Editor

Is “Big Brother” watching you when you drive?
Well the answer in some areas of the province is yes.
For weeks the Record has been trying to determine who owned and what a newly installed tower was at Worthington Road 3, just three miles east of Rainy River.
The tower appears to be a weather station and for the most part is. However Environment Canada did not know who it belonged to and neither did The Weather Network television station. Dawson Township’s town clerk, Pat Giles said that he was not sure who it belonged to, noting that it might be the Railway as it was installed right about the time that the old Worthington Road 3 crossing was closed and the new 10,000 foot long siding was opened there. However the “weather station” is closer to the highway than the railway.
Last week the Record contacted the Ministry of Transportation’s regional office in Thunder Bay, regarding the mystery tower. At first they were not sure if it was theirs or what it was. But within a few days they had all the information about it and the mystery was solved.
The tower is in fact called an Advanced Road Weather Information System (ARWIS). It is used to collect up to the minute atmospheric and road information including air temperature, precipitation, wind speed, pavement temperature and salt concentration on the road.
The Worthington Road 3 ARWIS station is part of a province-wide network of 112 stations. According to Larry Lambert, the Regional Manager of MTO in Thunder Bay, there are 12 of the ARWIS stations in Northwestern Ontario, three of which are on Highway 11 between Rainy River and Thunder Bay. “Most of the 12 have been located more westerly in Northwestern Ontario as that is the direction that most severe weather enters the region from,” said Lambert.
While the information from the ARWIS station is sent to a central location in Toronto, it is also collected locally in Thunder Bay, giving the MTO the ability to best decide when to salt and plow the highways. A special sensor had been placed right into the road and it can tell MTO when the road is too cold to salt. All dispatching is done at the local level.
Unfortunately the newly installed station at Worthington Road 3 is not operational yet. “It is not set to be activated until this spring,” noted Lambert.
The cost of each ARWIS is between $50,000 and $60,000 installed. But it is expected that the benefits of the system will far outweigh the costs.
The MTO website says, “This saves time by ensuring the right equipment and materials are used as soon as possible to clear snow and control ice for motorists on MTO’s highways.”
While the ARWIS station at Worthington Road 3 does not have one, in some areas of the province the MTO has affixed cameras to the tower. That can enable the function of the site to grow as it can determine where there is traffic congestion or actual weather and road conditions can actually be seen instantly.
Data from the towers are sent either by land line (phone) or by cell phone.
In addition to the weather conditions captured by ARWIS, MTO has also been experimenting with pre-wetted salt in an effort to reduce the amount of salt needed to keep roadways safe. Safety is not compromised but the lower amount of salt on the roadways is good for the environment.
The ARWIS technology is being installed across Canada and parts of the United States. Efforts to keep it universal have been undertaken. Ontario had been a key player in the ARWIS program.