Author: Nick Brabham

Don’t Let Winter Weather Catch You Unprepared: Utilize Dry Runs and Spreader Calibration

Post author By Nick Brabham
Post date December 10, 2024

Snow and ice pose significant challenges to road safety, but DOTs can weather the oncoming storm.

DOTs must strike a careful balance between the need to keep roadways safe for the traveling public and the need to be good stewards of the environment by looking for ways to reduce road salt and the effects of its application during winter maintenance.

The most common substance used for deicing roads and highways is sodium chloride (NaCl). It is effective against snow and ice but comes with several environmental and infrastructure challenges. When overapplied to roadways, these challenges are magnified. When underapplied, precipitation can freeze on the road surface and create an unsafe and hazardous condition.

To meet both needs, PILLAR recommends DOTs start with proper spreader calibration and dry practice runs on snow routes as tools for effective transportation asset management. These two techniques will help DOTs ensure safe roadways and optimal use of resources while minimizing environmental impact.

Importance of Spreader Calibration

Every piece of deicing equipment needs to be calibrated at the start of winter, and then that calibration should be rechecked regularly throughout the season to make sure the systems continue to dispense at the correct rates. Here are some things to keep in mind:

Calibration of spreaders is simply calculating the pounds per mile discharged at various spreader control settings and truck speeds for each piece of equipment for each type of material used.
Different materials will spread at different rates even when equipment settings are the same, so spreaders and liquid dispensing systems must be calibrated with the material that will be used.
There are various methods of calibrating a spreader. Plus, gate opening and conveyer speed both need to be adjusted to achieve the optimal rates.

The process sounds complicated, but PILLAR has staff with years of winter maintenance experience that can either complete the calibrations or can work with you and help to teach your current staff.

Importance of Dry Practice Runs

Practice does make perfect, and dry runs help your winter road crews become familiar with the route they will be plowing before snow arrives. This is important preparation because:

Winter equipment may be inspected before the start of winter, but unexpected maintenance issues can be identified and corrected during dry runs, before the equipment needs to be running at maximum effort.
Drivers may be maintaining the same route as the previous year, but there could have been changes to the roadways since then, such as new curbing or the settling of bridge approach. Noticing these things before the snow arrives will increase the driver’s ability to work efficiently and safely.
Equipment fully inspected. At VDOT, we have mechanic teams walk around and fully inspect the snow equipment.
Plows can cycle through the up and down positions repeatedly to be sure they ready for deployment.

PILLAR’s experts are ready work with you to optimize your routes, practice runs as well as your snow management plans, developing efficient winter response plans that work with the resources you have.

Plow Forward with PILLAR

PILLAR’s team has been involved with winter weather planning and response on many different projects with 40-plus years of combined experience. Get in touch today to discuss how we can help you be ready for the snow and ice to come.

Planning and Execution: The Keys to Rapid Highway Incident Response

Post author By Nick Brabham
Post date November 14, 2024

Expect the unexpected. It may seem like a contradiction but that’s what it takes to efficiently deploy a rapid response to highway incidents. Preparation can be the difference between an incident and a disaster. Whether you’re dealing with accidents, snow and ice, or flooding, you need a plan and the ability to carry it out.

With budgets and schedules stretched thin, it can feel impossible to stay ahead of daily maintenance much less prep for unknowns. That’s why you need a partner like PILLAR. Our experts can help you develop preparedness plans that protect your budgets, make your resources go further, and enable you to rapidly respond to highway incidents.

Plan to Stop Traffic Chain Reactions in Their Tracks

In transportation asset management, we do everything we can to prevent accidents from happening. While we work toward a world with zero accidents, it’s prudent and safe to plan for them if and when they happen.

Accidents range from small fender benders that slow traffic for a few minutes to catastrophic pileups that impact hundreds and disrupt normal infrastructure function. Whether accidents happen from snow and ice, flooding, or collisions, when lives are on the line, minutes matter. Here’s how PILLAR can help you plan, execute, and minimize damage.

Get Real Time Alerts: Thanks to the Internet of Things (IoT), we can outfit some assets with sensors that immediately notify you of issues. For example, internet-enabled sensors can be placed on guardrails to immediately register collisions, allowing you to deploy resources faster.
Coordinate with Emergency Services: We specialize in interagency communication and can develop relationships EMS, wreckers and tow trucks. Paired with an emergency response vehicle plan critical emergency services can respond to distressed motorists quickly.
Rapidly Mobilize Equipment & Personnel: We can help you develop a proactive plan that makes use of your existing resources in the most efficient way possible, so you aren’t left scrambling when an incident happens.
Manage Debris and Optimize Traffic: Accidents, snow and ice, flooding, or debris can all cause major issues for roadways. We can create debris removal priorities and develop a plan to optimize the flow of traffic impacted by obstructions.
Mitigate Hazards and Damage: With a proactive plan, you can improve response times and keep hazards and damage from accruing.
File Claims Faster: Pillar offers site investigation and claim management. The team at PILLAR can gather detailed information at the site of a traffic incident including time, date, location, photos, and law enforcement contacts. We even generate estimates and create a claims package for your accountant so you can file 3rd party damage claims faster and more efficiently.
Maintain Compliance: PILLAR makes it our business to stay up to date on the latest compliance mandates and with our staff augmentation we can prevent task backlog and keep you in compliance.
Incident Reporting: Our team of technical writers specialize in clean, concise, and accurate documentation. We can produce documentation of any incident, freeing you up to manage your assets.

Get Stellar Planning and Execution from PILLAR

Highway incident response requires a thorough plan and rapid action. We can use data to build a numbers-backed budget and plan from the ground up so you’re always prepared. What’s more, our experienced team helps you execute your operations and achieve peak performance by managing contracts, personnel, budgets, equipment, and more.

At PILLAR, we specialize in collection, assessment, planning, and execution to help you utilize your resources efficiently and maximize the lifecycle of your assets. Contact us to learn more about how we can help with your highway incident response.

PILLAR Talk

Welcome Our New Business Development Manager, Dan Collins

Post author By Nick Brabham
Post date November 7, 2024

PILLAR is pleased to welcome Business Development Manager Dan Collins to our dynamic and growing team.

In his new role, Dan connects transportation asset managers with PILLAR’s technology solutions and services to achieve impactful results. We’re not big on titles at PILLAR, but we suppose that makes him the firm’s Chief People Connector, or CPC.

Dan’s journey to PILLAR is the culmination of years of experience in the transportation sector both private and public and he holds a Master in City & Regional Planning degree from Harvard University. Thank you Jennifer Brandenburg for the referral!

Rather than the usual recitation of his career in a LinkedIn post, we asked Dan to share his thoughts on his new role at PILLAR:

What motivated you to work with PILLAR?

I saw the opportunity to be a part of a firm that is transforming how the industry approaches transportation asset management which hasn’t changed significantly in decades. I want to utilize my skills and experience to support PILLAR’s leaders, Mark Boenke and Eric Brooks in achieving their vision of becoming the premier advisor for infrastructure asset management and maintenance operations services in the U.S.

What is one of the biggest pain points you see in Transportation Asset Management?

I call it the data dilemma. Many transportation asset managers from DOTs, municipalities and P3 Advisors are struggling with the inability to utilize their asset data. They either rely on old school data collection and have insufficient or inaccurate data, or they have a tremendous amount of data, but struggle to effectively leverage it for data-driven decisions and management. This is a frustrating and costly problem that PILLAR is easily able to address.

What is one of the best parts of your job?

I’m currently reading, The Lady Tasting Tea, by David Salsburg. The book details the history of probability and statistics and how it revolutionized science in the 20^th century. This may sound deadly boring, but for me one of the important takeaways is you can have all the data in the world, but without tools to analyze data, it is worthless.

That’s what’s so exciting and different about the work PILLAR does. We deliver customized, sustainable, data-driven solutions that drive results for our clients. That means safer roadways and extended asset lifespans. It’s meaningful work.

Have a Transportation Asset Management dilemma? Let’s Connect. Dan (AKA CPC) would welcome the opportunity. He can be reached through LinkedIn or email him at dcollins@pillaroma.com.