Helping Dispatchers Decide on Winter Road Maintenance in the Liberec Region

Silnice LK a.s. maintains roads across the Liberec Region. It also provides public-greenery care, construction work, and road haulage, serving municipalities, institutions, companies, and private customers.

The Challenge

In winter, dispatchers must prioritize where to send maintenance vehicles, and local temperature is a key input for deciding where to dispatch crews first. Standard weather stations are slow and expensive to acquire - typically several months of permitting and hundreds of thousands of crowns. Silnice LK approached us for dozens of rugged temperature sensors that would be simple to install and cost only a few thousand crowns each.

The Solution

To monitor local temperatures along the region’s roads online, we used our CHESTER IoT Hub in the Clime version, connected to the internet via Vodafone’s NB-IoT network. The devices run on batteries for several years, and temperature information is available in the Silnice LK information system and on Mapotic smart maps.

The CHESTER devices are simply installed on road signs and need no mains power. They send data to the internet over Vodafone’s NB-IoT network, which is available across the vast majority of the Czech Republic. Besides temperature and humidity, the devices also report their GPS position and detect shock and tilt.

Benefits of Our Solution

• Very low acquisition and running costs - online local temperatures from dozens of roads for a fraction of the price of a single standard weather station
• Easy mounting and removal, so sensors can be relocated as needs change
• Online data on maps, including the sensors’ updated GPS positions

Results

Silnice LK now has online information about local temperatures on dozens of roads across the Liberec Region, helping dispatchers decide where to deploy winter-maintenance equipment first. Because the sensors run on batteries and use NB-IoT connectivity, they are easy to install and move to new locations as conditions change.