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Winter maintenance is a topic that is filled with challenges for both individuals and organizations. Assets have to survive severe weather conditions while still remaining reliable. To those in areas that get buried under heavy snow or face freezing temperatures, this means keeping an eye on everything from roofs and access roads to machinery and vehicles. Snow accumulation and ice dams on roofs, snowdrifts blocking access, and frigid temperatures all add to the strain.
For organizations that rely on reactive, on-site maintenance, the situation becomes even worse than that, as they often have to rush out to inspect sites or clear issues in person. All these in turn drive up costs and create risks of delays.
Remote asset monitoring comes as an effective solution, offering a real-time look at a property’s state—whether buildings, vehicles, or inventory—during snowstorms and cold snaps. Most importantly, such weather conditions can endanger human life, leading to incidents like traffic accidents caused by icy roads or roof collapses due to snow overload.
This paper explores which assets experience the most harm during cold seasons and the way forward through the use of remote monitoring as a guide to prevent costly damage and make sure everyone remains safety within such context.
Who will find this article especially useful?
- Road and highway maintenance departments
- Vehicle operators and fleet managers
- Aviation operation divisions
- Railway maintenance crews and infrastructure control professionals
- Roofing contractors and building managers
- Public utility providers
- Public safety and municipal authorities
Key assets to monitor during winter operations
In preparation for the winter season, some resources require special surveillance in order to mitigate risks and ensure smooth operation at all times. Here are some of the most critical ones:
Winter road maintenance
The need for remote road condition monitoring in winter becomes even more evident when considering the dramatic statistics of weather-related traffic accidents worldwide. Among the factors that contribute to such accident frequency is black ice, which is hard to see. Let’s take a look at some of the winter road accident numbers.
Existing monitoring solutions offer responses to snow drifts and ice formation issues, timely informing road services about dangerous road conditions. Being one such solution, Prylada provides a comprehensive system for non-contact highways and runway control, using sensors, data transmitters (gateways), and an analytical toolkit for data storage, analysis, and visualization. By sending up-to-minute data on road state, Prylada enables road managers to maintain traffic safety, for both people and vehicles.
Airways monitoring
Winter flight delays are well-known, often caused by snowfalls, ice, and freezing rain on runways, which create challenges for both crews and passengers.
For example, in the U.S., bad weather is behind nearly 50% of all delays, and winter storms alone can ground thousands of flights within a single day, disrupting travel plans and airline schedules alike.
Prylada’s real-time monitoring helps crews keep a close eye on cold weather consequences, providing data to initiate de-icing and snow removal from airways. With snow depth sensors and an analytical toolkit, airports can track exactly when snow starts piling up and see just how slippery conditions are. This data allows crews to respond promptly, ultimately getting flights back on track faster.
Railroad tracks monitoring
Winter weather can wreak havoc on railway tracks. To be more precise, snow accumulation on tracks can immobilize components like switches while freezing temperatures can weaken the rail steel itself. Here’s why it matters to keep an eye on the following:
- Snow accumulation: As snow piles up on the tracks, it blocks essential components like switches and crossings, making them unusable. If this snow isn’t cleared in time, it can pack down, creating a dangerous situation where trains might derail.
- Temperature: The biting cold affects the structure of the rails, as steel contracts. This can lead to fractures or gaps between rail segments.
- Ice formation: This winter danger can form silently on key components like switches, joints, and rail surfaces, freezing mechanical systems and making them inoperable.
- Drainage and groundwater levels: As snow melts, it can flood the area around the tracks, leading to waterlogged ballast (the stones that support the tracks) and weakening the foundation.
- Rail stress and track alignment: Cold weather causes steel to contract, which makes it more likely to develop cracks or fractures.
Roof snow load control
Along with pretty landscapes, winter storms bring the risk of roof collapses, especially in areas that get hit with heavy snowfall. Each storm adds more weight to roofs, leaving property owners wondering: Is it time to clear the snow before things get dangerous?
Traditional methods of checking, like manual inspections, often rely on guesswork and can leave people unsure or even unprotected. But thanks to new technology, roof snow load monitoring has become a lot more precise and easier.
Automated monitoring systems like Prylada can now track how much weight is building up on a roof, giving clear answers to questions like:
- Do snow loads need clearing?
- When should this be done?
- Which part of the roof needs attention?
Here’s how it all works: Installed sensors and inclinometers measure the deflection angle, density, and weight of snow on the roof. Prylada’s gateways then transmit this data wirelessly to a control center, which can be hosted locally or on the cloud. The Prylada Cloud stores analyzes, and visualizes this data, making it accessible for remote management. Property owners can monitor snow loads from anywhere, view intuitive widgets, and receive real-time SMS alerts if the load reaches predefined thresholds.
Why is this so important? According to NOAA, winter storms caused $3.5 billion in property damage in the U.S. in 2020 alone, with roof collapses being a significant part of that. So, staying ahead of snow accumulation is essential for protecting both property and the people inside.
In short, heavy snow is no small threat to buildings, but continuous monitoring can help catch potential issues early, and avoid costly damage, all while staying compliant with safety regulations. By taking the guesswork out of winter maintenance, property maintenance managers can ensure that snow never becomes a disaster.
Winter service summary
Winter doesn’t just test the durability of assets but also the preparedness of those managing them. We’ve covered the key assets affected during the coldest months of the year. Among them are roads, highways, bridges, railway tracks, airports runways, and roofs. All of them require careful observation all winter round to prevent financial losses, or even catastrophes.
Remote monitoring empowers organizations to prevent costly damages, reduce risks, and protect both property and people throughout the colder months. With the right tools like Prylada and proactive measures, winter’s challenges become manageable tasks, ensuring safety, efficiency, and readiness.
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