City of Oak Creek, WI saved 80 tons of salt in one winter event by operating according to localized weather forecasts from Wx Horizon.
The city of Oak Creek used localized weather data to combat unpredictable weather patterns – and achieved substantial cost savings.
Winter maintenance in Oak Creek, Wisconsin
Oak Creek, Wisconsin is a growing, 36,000-person community in a unique geographical location. Situated right next to Lake Michigan, the city experiences lots of unusual and unpredictable weather patterns, and forecasting weather is difficult in the city with the lake's influence.
During the winter, Oak Creek’s Public Works Department is responsible for plowing 316 lane-miles of road. Of these, the department anti-ices a little over a third, concentrating on primary and secondary roads. Importantly, Public Works must also balance the safety of their roads with the environmental effect of salt runoffs into one of the largest lakes in America.
With Wx Horizon, municipalities can improve their winter maintenance operations, save money, and prioritize public safety. The system provides invaluable insights into weather conditions and enables proactive decision-making, leading to more effective and efficient snow and ice management practices that benefit the entire community.
Optimizing snow and ice control operations with Wx Horizon
Due to the difficulty of predicting weather patterns, the city of Oak Creek looked for more local methods of predicting weather conditions. The National Weather Service is designed for public awareness, predicting the amount of snow that will fall, rather than predicting the amount of snow expected on the roadways. While helpful, it doesn't paint the whole picture for a winter maintenance professional.
Oak Creek’s Public Works Department started using the Wx Horizon winter maintenance solution to optimize their snow and ice control operations. The solution provides localized road weather forecasts through road temperature sensors. With the introduction of Wx Horizon, the department aimed to:
Get localized, real-time data on their own road network
Continue to lower salt usage (especially important due to potential runoff into Lake Michigan)
Optimize their operations with the use of technology
The following two examples from the Assistant Director of Oak Creek’s Public Works, Tyler Buerger, illustrate how Wx Horizon has already saved them substantial costs and reduced salt in the first few months of operation.
Example 1 – January 9th, 2024 winter event
Highlight: Saved 80 tons of salt by operating according to localized weather forecasts from road sensors, which differed greatly from the National Weather Service forecast.
For this particular day in January, the National Weather Service forecast predicted 6–11 inches of snowfall.
Wx Horizon, on the other hand, was predicting a mix of rain and very sloppy snow, based on the conditions on the road and the road temperature data from sensors.
Blue on graph shows water layer thickness, yellow is snow layer thickness.
“If I would have followed our old program, we would have had crews out salting at 7 o'clock in the morning,” Tyler explains. ”There were traces of sloppy snow and slippery road areas, and that’s what we would typically see at the beginning of a storm. Following our old operations, we would have hit the roads hard at the beginning, and then made further decisions as we went.”
Based on the forecasts, Public Works decided to only pre-treat the roads with salt and brine. They told their operators to relax and expect rain for the rest of the day, which – being a much easier workday – was also appreciated by the staff.
“It was hard not to do it the old way,” Tyler recounts. “But we stuck with it, and it saved us, at a minimum, 80 tons of salt. 5–6 thousand dollars' worth of salt. Which equals out to about a year’s subscription on Wx Horizon.”
“It was hard not to do it the old way,” Tyler recounts. “But we stuck with it, and it saved us, at a minimum, 80 tons of salt. 5–6 thousand dollars' worth of salt. Which equals out to about a year’s subscription on Wx Horizon.”
Tyler Buerger, Assistant Director of Oak Creek’s Public Works
Example 2 – January 23rd, 2024 freezing rain event
Highlight: The insights from real-time data enabled the fleet to stay deployed and treat a potentially disruptive re-freeze event.
Combining different technologies lets road maintenance planners make the most informed and optimal decisions. On January 23rd, analyzing road sensor temperatures together with the real-time air data from vehicles moving on the roads let Oak Creek’s Public Works stay ahead of a potentially disruptive re-freeze event.
On the day, Public Works dispatched 23 units at 4:30 in the morning to treat the roads for icy conditions. In normal operations, the fleet would have simply completed their first routes, parked their trucks, and called it a day. However, the acting supervisor was alerted by a notification from Wx Horizon – before even the local police, who were patrolling the same roads, called it in.
Real-time air data collected from vehicles in the area showed temperatures above freezing.
Wx Horizon road sensors indcated temperatures averaging 32 degrees Fahrenheit.
While air temperatures were hovering around or exceeding 32 degrees Fahrenheit, the road sensors showed road temperatures below the freezing mark.
With liquid precipitation falling from the sky, the sub-zero temperature of the roads allowed it to freeze on contact, resulting in a dangerous re-freeze scenario.
“We immediately alerted our fleet to re-run all routes, and treat that re-freeze,” Tyler says. “In this case, the Wx Horizon system helped us understand that we need to keep our trucks out longer to make sure they are safe to drive on for our residents.”
Implementing Wx Horizon only took a few days
Tyler recalls that the implementation process was extremely easy. The hardest part, according to him, was figuring out whether their organization had to have approval from the City Council to make the purchase.
The installation of the five road sensors took only a single day. The Oak Creek Public Works staff learned how to use Wx Horizon in just a couple of days. Just a few months after the implementation, the Department had a designated supervisor to check on any updates from Wx Horizon.
“I feel like we’ve been using this for a few years, instead of a few months. That’s how well it has been integrated into our operations,” Tyler says.
In a single winter event, on a single day, Wx Horizon saved the city of Oak Creek enough money to cover a year’s subscription costs. Over the rest of the year, the savings will continue to add up.
“With what we saved in the January winter event, and not sending our fleet out for that round of treatment, it speaks for itself. We were able to pay for one year of the system’s subscription from the savings in salt on that one day.”
Wx Horizon also makes planning ahead much easier by providing accurate, real-time data on road conditions.
“And for me personally, the system changed our operations to where it’s much easier to come up with plans. It allows me to focus on other aspects of our winter maintenance. I have less headaches,” Tyler laughs. “I have more time to plan or look for technology that can further help us out.”
With Wx Horizon, municipalities can improve their winter maintenance operations, save money, and prioritize public safety. The system provides invaluable insights into weather conditions and enables proactive decision-making, leading to more effective and efficient snow and ice management practices that benefit the entire community.
