The Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) won the “Best New Innovative Practice – Sustainability in Transportation” category at the annual Intelligent Transportation Society of America’s (ITS America) “Best of” awards.

ITS America hosted the 2014 World Congress on Intelligent Transport Systems in Detroit, Michigan September 7-11. The conference included more than 10,000 of the world’s leading transportation policymakers, researchers, and business professionals from the United States, Europe, and Asia.

MDOT, supported by Delcan Technologies, a Parsons company, and ITERIS, Inc., won the award for its Automatic Vehicle Location (AVL) and Maintenance Decision Support System (MDSS) implemented in more than 300 MDOT winter maintenance trucks.

The project included integrating mobile data collectors (MDC) onto the snowplows along with a software solution that provides MDOT with a wealth of data and reporting options. The MDC units can report on the location, speed, weather conditions, and material dispersal of each snow plow.

Additionally, Delcan Technologies was responsible for smoothly integrating existing Mobile Data Collector technology into an MDSS that uses HiCAPS™, an advanced model that accurately predicts highway conditions. Using this data, MDOT can interpret weather and traffic patterns and plan for winter road maintenance and treatment strategies.