Summary:
The City of Calgary (“The City”) is giving a Notice of Intent to enter into a contract with Wood Environment & Infrastructure Solutions, a division of Wood Canada Limited (“Wood”) for providing service on the Road Weather Information System (RWIS) to migrate The City’s existing RWIS network and integrate along with Alberta Transportation’s RWIS network, specifically the 511 Alberta. The service provider will also implement, operate, and maintain the RWIS system on behalf of The City.
Background:
The City uses a RWIS to capture and generate information on weather and road surface conditions with the systems located throughout the city to represent five (5) microclimates. The RWIS is a system of pavement and atmospheric sensors integrated with real-time sensor and monitoring functions including weather patterns and can forecast adverse pavement conditions. The real-time data can reduce the need and dependency for road patrolling by providing timely and accurate information for directing winter maintenance operations. Weather patterns can be tracked as they move into an area, and associated modelling can predict when conditions are likely to result in hazardous road conditions.
The City deployed its first RWIS approximately 20 years ago. Additional sites have been added to the network using newer technology and equipment, with a total of 10 stations servicing Calgary managed roads. Overtime the stations have become unreliable due to aging station infrastructure and server which receive all the RWIS station data.
The City is in the process of establishing a partnership with Alberta Transportation (AT) via The City of Calgary’s Open Data initiative. This initiative would have The City’s RWIS network integrate into AT’s road weather and condition information via the 511 Alberta network (https://511.alberta.ca/).
511 Alberta is a traveller information service that can be accessed by phone, mobile device or computer, and is operated by the Government of Alberta. The information provides highway conditions, roadwork, major incidents, and weather alerts.
Scope:
Primary service requirements include:
- Provide Local Area Forecasts (LAFS) for three (3) climate zones (west, northeast and southeast quadrant) during the winter season from October 1 to April 30, updated four (4) times daily;
- Provide LAFs for one (1) southeast climate zone during the summer season from May 1 to September 30, updated once daily;
- Provide pavement forecasts and polling for each operating RWIS station;
- Perform 30-minute polling, display and archive data of all City owned RWIS stations;
- Reconfiguring and initial set up as needed of all City of Calgary RWIS stations to align with Wood network (i.e. forecast and web portal services);
- Provide weather consultation services on 24/7/365 basis through a 1-800 number;
- Provide a web portal that displays RWIS observational data, radar imagery from Canada and USA, available public weather station, and archived RWIS data;
- The web portal shall display the nearby AT RWIS station, if obtained permission from AT;
- Annual routine maintenance for on-site maintenance per RWIS station;
- Wood or an assigned subcontractor may be required to construct new RWIS stations;
- A warranty of two (2) years on any new RWIS system and components is required.
Data Ownership
The City owns all data collected from its RWIS stations and reserves the right to share any of the RWIS data, pavement and weather forecasts with any agencies or organizations it chooses.
Current RWIS locations managed by The City:
- Trans Canada Hwy & Bowfort Rd - INACTIVE - Being replace by TI as part of the Bowfort interchange.
- Glenmore Trail & Crowchild Trail - INACTIVE - Being replaced by TI as part of the Glenmore & Crowchild Tr. widening.
- Anderson Rd Exchange & Deerfoot Trail - INACTIVE - Investigating relocation of station.
- TransCanada Hwy (16 Av) & Deerfoot Trail - OPERATING
- Beddington Trail & Deerfoot Trail - OPERATING
- Stoney Trail & Bow River Bridge - INACTIVE - Investigating relocation of station due to Stoney Trail completion.
- Anderson Rd & 24 St SE - INACTIVE - Being relocated by TI due to Anderson Rd. widening.
- Country Hills Bvd & Shaganappi Tr - OPERATING
- 32 Ave & 36 St NE - OPERATING
- Airport Tr Tunnel & Barlow Tr NE – OPERATING
Two (2) additional RWIS stations may be added in Quarter 4 if 2019, subject to funding availability.