Winter Maintenance: Asset Monitoring in Harsh Weather Conditions

Andrei Zhukouski – November 18, 2024

Collected at: https://www.iotforall.com/winter-maintenance-asset-monitoring-in-harsh-weather-conditions

The subject of winter maintenance presents several difficulties for both people and businesses. Assets must endure severe weather conditions while remaining reliable. For those in areas prone to heavy snowfall or freezing temperatures, this means carefully monitoring roofs, access roads, machinery, and vehicles. Snow accumulation and ice dams on roofs blocked access due to snowdrifts, and frigid temperatures all add to the strain of winter upkeep.

For companies that rely on reactive, on-site maintenance, these problems often escalate due to the need for immediate check-ups or hands-on solutions. This approach raises operating costs and increases the likelihood of delays.

Remote asset monitoring has emerged as an efficient way to track in real-time the state of properties—whether buildings, vehicles, or inventory—during blizzards and cold snaps. Most importantly, adverse weather conditions can pose life-threatening risks. These include traffic accidents from icy roads and roof collapses under heavy snow.

This article examines which assets face the greatest winter damage and how remote monitoring can prevent costly repairs while ensuring safety.

Key Assets to Monitor During Winter Operations

As winter approaches, certain resources require extra monitoring to minimize risks and ensure continuous operations. Here are some of the most critical assets to keep an eye on during the winter season:

• Roadways and bridges: The buildup of ice and snow can make driving perilous. This is particularly true when black ice forms—a nearly invisible, thin ice layer that occurs when rain freezes on cold surfaces. This turns roadways into slippery hazards for vehicles like cars and trucks. Alerts for falling temperatures and potential icing, delivered through remotely operated road monitoring devices, enable the timely initiation of de-icing activities to help prevent accidents.
• Railway tracks: Snow and frost on railway tracks usually disrupt train schedules, also posing grave safety concerns. By continuously observing the track state, operators detect any ice or snow build-up in advance. This ensures rail operations proceed as planned.
• Airport runways: Airport runways are not exempt from the dangers of ice and snow. It can lead to flight delays or even potential catastrophes. Continuous runway monitoring informs crews to promptly initiate snow removal, ensuring flights can proceed even during winter storms.
• Vehicles and fleets: Vehicles are among the first to suffer from cold weather, particularly those working in winter maintenance. Winter service vehicles face cold-weather issues like starting difficulties. Remote monitoring addresses these issues, tracks routes, and aids drivers in timely road clearance.
• Roofs and buildings: Heavy snow can overload roofs, especially those with structural weaknesses. Monitoring snow load, deflection angle, and roof integrity allows property owners to detect threats to real property and take preventive actions for safety.
• Power lines and electrical grids:Snow or ice on power lines tends to lead to outages. The worst scenario is the collapse of the lines. By monitoring these assets, utility companies can address issues before they escalate, keeping the power on during storms.
• Water pipes:Frozen water inside pipes directly causes them to burst, leading to huge damage and water waste. Monitoring pipe temperatures allows for preventive steps, like adding insulation before freezing occurs.
• Salt and grit supplies:When ice and snow hit hard, maintaining road safety depends on a steady supply of salt and grit. Remote inventory monitoring helps ensure adequate supply stocks, allowing crews to treat roads and keep drivers safe.

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.

The current monitoring systems alert the road services about hazardous conditions due to snow slides and the formation of ice. Such systems combine sensors, data transmitters, and analytical tools for data storage and visualization, enabling road managers to maintain safer traffic conditions for both vehicles and pedestrians.

Airways Monitoring

Flight delays are frequently caused by winter weather, due to snow, ice, and freezing rain contributing to poor runway conditions. This creates challenges for passengers and crews alike. For instance, about 50% of all flight delays in the United States are caused by bad weather during winter, leading to thousands of flights grounding within hours due to winter storms alone.

Real-time runway monitoring systems, using snow depth sensors and analytics tools, allow airport crews to track snow accumulation and runway slipperiness accurately. This data enables prompt de-icing and snow removal, helping flights get back on schedule more quickly.

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 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?

Manual inspections and other traditional methods of checking that were often based on guesswork left people insecure and exposed. However, things have changed due to new technology, and currently, roof snow load monitoring is much more accurate and simple.

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?

Real-Time Snow Monitoring

Here’s how it all works. Installed sensors and inclinometers measure the deflection angle, density, and weight of snow on the roof. Then data transmitters (gateways) send this data wirelessly to a control center, which can be hosted locally or on the cloud. There, the data is stored, analyzed, and visualized, making remote management accessible. 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.

Prylada

Heavy snow is indeed a great destruction force to the structures. Appropriate monitoring ensures that problems are detected in advance. Timely detection and maintenance in turn allows people to 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.

As winter approaches, organizations are able to avert costly damages, lower risks, and safeguard property and people through remote monitoring. With the correct tools and taking action beforehand, winter’s challenges become manageable tasks, ensuring safety, efficiency, and readiness.