Episode 149: AASHTO WINTER WEATHER MANAGEMENT TSP - 2026 National Briefing

This National Briefing segment is presented by Jed Falgren Minnesota DOT and features AASHTO’s Winter Weather Management Technical Service Program. The Winter Weather Management’s work focus is on on the identification, promotion, and collaboration efforts necessary to implement and advance state of the practice winter maintenance and road weather techniques. 

Check out their work and get more information about the AASHTO Winter Weather Management TSP at their website https://transportation.org/winter-weather-management/ or by emailing Jed Falgren at jed.Falgren@state.mn.us or Rick Nelson at rnelson@talkinwinterops.com 

Watch the video and presentation along with all the other briefings on our YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/@Talkinwinterops or listen on the Talkin Winter Ops podcast at https://transportation.org/winter-weather-management/sicop-talks-winter-ops/ or wherever you get your podcast content.

Sign up for email notifications on future episodes and other communications associated with winter maintenance and winter weather management by clicking on subscribe on the Talkin' Winter Ops website at TalkinWinterOps.com

Thanks for listening in and stay safe out there!

Transcript

Rick 0:11

Welcome back to Talking Winter Ops. It's that time of year again when we sit down with other organizations working in winter maintenance to catch up on what they've been doing this past year. I'm Rick Nelson, and I'll be your host for the 2026 National Winter Maintenance and Road Weather Briefing Series. These briefings give us an opportunity to catch up with our partners in winter maintenance and road weather, learn about what they've been working on over the past year, and hear about their plans for the future. More importantly, they give you a chance to see how these ideas, tools, and initiatives might fit into your own operation. So grab your favorite beverage, settle in, and let's catch up with our partners across the country to hear about what's new and what's coming up next.

SPEAKER_01 1:00

Hi, I'm Jud Falgren, State Maintenance Engineer for the Minnesota Department of Transportation. And for the last 14 years, I've been actively involved in the snow and ice community at the state DOT. And over the years, I've seen no shortage of new technologies, new products, and ideas come along. The challenge often isn't finding information, it's figuring out what really works and what makes sense for your organization. As someone who's been involved with the program for these many years, I've come to appreciate the role the Ashto Winter Weather Management Technical Service Program plays in helping agencies answer those questions. One of the things that I've always valued most is that this just isn't theory. It's practitioners helping practitioners. It's a chance to learn from the experience of others. Avoid reinventing the wheel and tap into a network of people who understand the same challenges that we face every winter. I've seen firsthand how these ideas and relationships built through this program have helped agencies improve safety, efficiency, and service to our traveling public. And with a modest annual contribution, your agency can take advantage of the same resources, webinars, workshops, and peer networks that have made this program so valuable to me over the years. If you're not already involved, I really encourage you to take a look at the Ashto Winter Weather Management Technical Service Program. Visit transportation.org forward slash winter-weather-management. You may find the answers to a challenge you're dealing with today. Or the next idea that really helps you move your winter operations forward.

Rick 2:53

This segment focuses on the Ashto Winter Weather Management Technical Service Program. And we've got Jed Falgren from the Minnesota DOT and chair of the Winter Weather Management TSP. Hey, Jed. Hi, Rick. How are you doing today? Good, thanks. So tell us what's going on with the Winter Weather Management TSP these days.

SPEAKER_01 3:15

Well, Rick, we are very excited. Uh I've got a chance this year to take over the reins from Brad Darr, who did a phenomenal job with this group over the over the years. And it's been a lot of fun. There's been a lot of great things put in place, and I'm excited to just be able to work with this group as we start to move along our journey around winter weather management. Talk a little bit about where we're going right now. We've got uh or share just maybe a little bit about our leadership, uh, our leadership this year. Uh it took two of us to replace Brad. Uh Tom Renniger from the Nebraska DOT uh stepped forward uh to vice chair with me. And then uh our steering committee currently made up of Joe Thompson at New York, Dan Farley at Pennsylvania, Emily McGraw, North Carolina, Randy Feldner at Kentucky, and Becky Almoroth at Missouri, all just great, dynamic individuals. Uh with Tom and I moving into our positions on the executive committee, that does leave a space on that steering committee for both of us, as well as one other. We're pulling that together. And one of the new things we're introducing here is that each contributing state ends up having a voting member uh that will be a part of our committee. And as we uh advance and talk a little bit about some of the things we've been doing, I'll touch on that a little bit more. Really, when you take a look at the mission and what we want to accomplish with the Winter Weather Management Committee, is to go out there and find, evaluate, promote, and coordinate some of those promising winter weather management technologies. Uh there's this is a group across the country that is incredibly dynamic in finding creative solutions to problems that we all face. And sometimes the challenge, the biggest challenge is just getting our ability to share some of those great ideas. I'm a huge fan and supporter of RD when it comes in the maintenance community, and for that, it's ripoff and duplicate. How do we find those great things that occur and can occur at our respective DOTs to make things better for taxpayers and travelers all across the United States? Speaking of all across the United States, we are blessed by a large pool of states that are contributing to the Ashton Winter Weather Maintenance Management Group. Um, and it's it's just it's fantastic. We appreciate the support, and we know that as long as there are states that are uncolored, uh, some of our work is in just sharing with those states on how we can bring great ideas to them. And quite frankly, how can we get the great ideas that are occurring in their states and bring them across to what we are doing? But not only do we have the states and as individuals, we also are working a community that is just full of a bunch of fantastic partners. And those partners may be, you know, folks like Clear Roads and Aurora, which is actually uh from many of our member states, they are also involved with these groups, uh, other individuals within their organizations. So bringing that information, but even reaching out to partners in American Public Works. Uh the HPWA Snow Conference is uh is a highlight of our year, every year to just participate in that. But also groups like you know, the American Meteorologist Society, uh FHWA, and the work that Jeremy and the rest of their teams do there is always fantastic. TRB, obviously, we are consumers and guiders in the world of research. That's fantastic. And we certainly can't forget PyArc and our friends across the globe and our involvement there. And so uh it's fantastic that actually one of our one of our board members is actually our the representative, Becky, right now with Pyarc on a on an international scale. So really it's just bringing all of those folks together in order to do some some cool things. So some of those cool things might be, you know, an example of that is our technology, terminology technical or terminology task force. Say that fast five times.

Rick 7:37

I know you'll get it, Jed. I know you'll get it.

SPEAKER_01 7:39

Well, and we and you take a look at when you bring all of these different individual groups together, um, slang is a part of the way work gets done. And sometimes it's just getting the slang to be on the same uh on the same page. And so uh Joe has led a group fantastic, they get together monthly. Uh, I love how he explains it sometimes that it's the least favorite hour of his month and his most favorite hour, and I think that wraps up the idea of let's take a look at all of these different terms as they've come through a variety of different sources. And can we bring some synergy or some bring everybody onto the same page? So they've reached consensus on 75 of it out of initial uh 300 term or 279 terms, and it's great work that they continue to do. Another thing that we are working with is the idea of putting together a winter maintenance wiki, you know, a ways where we can have the content that is actually generated by this task force. How can others comment, contribute, and over time that grow? So that is again some of the things we are starting to work through uh and and and working on another piece that we'll always be involved with and around and touched on and aware of is research. You know, a lot of that is NCHRP projects that uh we may be have a various level of involvement, whether it's just an understanding, active participation, or in fact, one of the ones that we've worked on here, the I'll talk to the snow and ice guide, that's actually in the publication pipeline right now. ASHDO is getting ready to actually publish that work uh that was completed a couple of years ago, and actually get that out into the hands of our snow and ice practitioners. So lots of different things where we get involved actively on it. And I think that's certainly an important part of again taking those research ideas that showed some promise, and how can we bring those to the field and actually uh make them happen? Outreach is always an important part of a group that is broad as broad as we are. Uh, one of our cornerstone pieces that every year at the ASHO Committee on Maintenance Annual Meeting, we get together for breakfast. And it's been interesting, even in the short, relatively short time that I've been involved, but just seeing how that grows every year and how we get more and more people that show up. And we we start to fill almost an entire session on things that we can be working on. What what are what's what's the new and an interesting either concern or opportunity or great new projects you see seized upon? How can we bring that together? Uh, we'll talk a little bit about what the member state workshop, and I'm gonna get into some little more details on that also. Uh, we recently did a joint meeting with Aurora and Clear Rhodes to uh to actually sit down with all three groups in the same room and again talk about what are the interesting challenges, what are the interesting solutions that are out there, and how can we leverage some of those best practices around the various states and how can we bring them nationwide. Uh, a favorite of mine is what you're listening to right now is the Talk in Winter Ops podcast. Uh, the work that Rick, you've done over the years has just been fantastic. And it was actually my introduction uh to this group when it was still called Psycop. Uh, and that was an important part for me at that time being a district maintenance engineer, is again a way for me to hear about what were some of the up-and-coming great ideas, what were some of the things that we could maybe bring into our area, what maybe we we weren't looking at, what were some emerging trends? And so uh I will always be a very uh loyal subscriber, uh, plugged into it, have had the chance to do a couple of these podcasts, and certainly thank you for the work, Rick, that you do. And even as a part of this natural national briefing, it is now a must-do event for me before I will show up at the ASHO uh Committee on Maintenance meeting at the end of July. So I know what I'll be doing as I at last resort, I'll be listening to it uh on my on my drive out to Colorado as we uh as we embark on a fantastic time out at Westminster. Um, this which is really catching up on that briefing. We also you know go back to some of the older times, you know, the subscriber-based emails, the listserv. Again, trying to find ways to communicate and connect with these professionals in a way that can be effective for them, uh, whether it's reacting to a small issue that they might have, how can we quickly get that out? And I really appreciate the work that Rick is doing on behalf of our group, but also as we fold into our new name, the Winter Weather Management Group uh from Ashto is bringing some of the Ashto platforms to that. So stay tuned. Uh I expect that to continue to grow and talk about. I talked a little bit earlier, I mentioned this uh member state workshop, and I want to go a little bit in a little bit greater detail of what we did. We got together, uh, 19 states were able to actually come together on relatively short notice. I really appreciate those states working hard, and I know that we heard from other states that just couldn't make it happen. We're gonna have another opportunity to get this group together. And what we did is spent a day and a half talking about some of the critical issues are out there. Uh, the ones that we have listed here are the one, the name sessions, variable speed limits, real-time warnings to travelers. What are the things that we can do? We talked about all things liquids. Liquid is certainly shown to be an emerging technology that has been emerging for decades now, but it is certainly a way that as we advance more and more into liquids, we're finding that there are some great benefits from a cost perspective, great benefits from a safety perspective and getting roadways back quicker. And part of that cost benefit is that we use less chlorides. And obviously, that has is an area of those that are outside of the direct maintenance community sometimes get frustrated with what we do. The amount of chlorides that we put into our roadway on our roadways, definitely needed there from a safety perspective. But when it leaves our road, what happens to it? And oftentimes it can create some significant pollution and significant chloride impact of lakes and waters of our country that we really need to find a way to work on that. So that was a big part of that. We also talked, you don't get together a group of professionals, and I'm beginning to think, you know, I was thinking it's just maintenance, but it's no, it's every everything that we touch on. My my wife who works in the dental industry, they're talking about AI. AI is everywhere, and we're going to be talking about it. Uh, but then also it comes back to the ideas how do you move the snow? How do you get the liquids to the roadway? How do you get chemical to the roadway? It's fleet. And so we talked a bit about fleet, and then our final session that was about supply chain and resource availability. We use a lot of materials, and those materials come from across the globe, and the all of the challenges that may come with that. How can we best react? How can we best partner around those things? So we spent again some time on that. We also threw in a session that talked about, okay, these are the ones that we talked about. What didn't we talk about and what should we be approaching uh down the road? And certainly that will become fodder for our executive committee to get together and talk about where again, where should we be going down the road? What are some of the things that that uh that that we can do and that we will be doing? Uh I already raved once about talking winter ops. I can't I have it's when it comes up, it's a podcast. Yeah, people know with me. I live with the earphones in my head, uh, sometimes to my detriment, but I cannot uh recommend more if you're listening to us today. Just you came to us because of the national briefing. Um tune in, take a look at some of the episodes. We have we have them available on our website, but they're also available on any of the uh podcast platforms that you might utilize. And I would encourage you, look some of the stuff that we have certainly put out there is timeless. Go back, take a look at it. Um, I had a situation where I had a top leader in our organization who was asking some of what I thought were some pretty technical, great technical questions, and I said, I tell you what, I'm happy to talk with you. But here, let me point you to this podcast episode, and you're gonna hear it right from a scientist's mouth. And so that was a a great chance, again, to help share that information, and and we continue to share it all over the place. And I I want to want to make sure that people are taking a good look at that. And then the the final thing that I wanted to touch on is we're talking and again, raving about this national briefing you're about, you're embarking on right now. I encourage you to listen to every one of the podcasts that Rick has put together and worked with all of these various partners of ours to really give what is the state of the state, what is the state of the industry, what are the things that are happening in their world? And please take some time. This should not be the only one you're listening to. Uh, in fact, this is uh kind of kicks it off. There's so many out there to hear. And what's kind of fun to do is go back and even listen to previous national briefings, take a look at those, enjoy it, and spend some time with that. So, with that, that wraps me up of what I wanted to talk about today on behalf of Ashto's Winter Weather Management TSP. Thank you, Ray.

Rick 18:14

Thanks, Jed. Um, you know, I think a lot of times people ask, so so what's the difference between the Winter Weather Management TSP, Aurora, Clear Roads, uh TRB, there's there's an awful lot of folks working in this winter weather, road weather management space. Um I think the the winter weather management technical service program really sort of fills a void uh that's there with the with the new leadership, and and maybe you can talk about this just a little bit. You know, there's lots of groups out there doing research, uh, but but it seems like implementation is is really a a key element that's sort of a niche that we can we can help fill.

SPEAKER_01 19:02

Yeah, absolutely. And I think I'll I'll even I'll credit the group and certainly I'll put Tom in Nebraska as being really putting some maybe uh frustration or a the idea of there is so much great information out there. Um and there's great work being done at these committees, but sometimes we are just not getting that to get all the way back into the practitioner's hands, and it's not for the lack of the work by the different various groups. Uh, you know, I sit in a Clear Rose meeting, I'll sit in a uh Aurora meeting, I was in an MDSS pool fund meeting last week, and there is a lot of awesome things that are happening, but sometimes it takes maintenance leadership within a given state DOT to help push some ideas or to make maybe remove some barriers or to help give voice to those various committees as they work within our respective states. And I think that's where uh Tom came to we were talking about this is the idea is if we could do one thing, that's it. How do we implement? That's certainly one of the core pieces that we talked about. You know, how do we find, evaluate, promote, and coordinating? That's all about the implementation of taking some of these great technologies and great ideas, and maybe it isn't a you don't need 100% of what came out of it, but maybe it's 50% or 80% or even 10% of what this is happening out there, and how can we help move that forward? So certainly that is going to be the charge, the conversation that we've been talking about at a steering committee level, and certainly getting all of our members together uh in person that we did. We had a very small group that got together with Aurora and Clearroads, a much larger group that got together down in Houston. And I would anticipate that we're gonna be looking to get those representatives from the states together, you know, on a somewhat annual basis, to again, how do we attack and how do we help promote all of these different great ideas that are happening in the winter management, winter weather management. Now, we talked about snow and ice and Psycop. The interesting thing about the name change here, while we're still talking about winter weather, it's not always just snow and ice that may be a part of some of those winter weather activities. And I think as we just get more and more involved with the forecasting, the MDSS type support, whatever platform that a state DOT is using, the more and more we get to know and leverage these things, they don't just help us on a snow and ice event. They can help us on so many other events and the relationships that we build. And again, we just want to promote and help build that. And that's where I think that niche that we have with the Winter Weather Management TSP can really be strong.

Rick 22:02

Yeah. All right. Thanks, Jed. Appreciate the briefing and look forward to seeing you next month in July in Colorado at the Committee on Maintenance Meeting.

SPEAKER_01 22:12

It will be wonderful. Looking forward to it. Thanks, Rick.

Rick 22:17

Thanks for listening in on this year's national briefing. You can catch them all and other Talk and Winter Ops episodes on our website, talkin'winterops.com, at the Ashto Winter Weather Management website at transportation.org forward slash winter-weather-management, or wherever you get your podcast content. Video versions of this briefing are available on our Talk and Winterops YouTube channel. Now, if something in this briefing sparked your interest, you can email me or our guest to keep the conversation going. Until next time, thanks for tuning in and stay safe out there.