Northern Traffic Lights

Northern Traffic Lights - a digital platform for monitoring and predicting gravel road trafficability in a changing climate

The importance of trafficable private gravel roads in the Aurora area is substantial. The transport volumes of northern forest industries are high and expected to increase. Moreover, timber trucks are now twice as heavy as they were when most of our forest roads were built, and many of the gravel roads become impassable during the freeze-thaw cycles and rainy seasons. With climate change the impassable time is expected to increase and roads will deteriorate faster.

Today, the information on gravel road trafficability is based on local knowledge from residents and operators, which is fragmented, imprecise and difficult to obtain and use. A new approach enabling real-time information on trafficability would enhance transport economy, make road maintenance more cost efficient and save limited sources of gravel material. New road information would help people in rural and remote areas with business activities like farming, forestry, tourism, green businesses, and public well-being.

The main objective of the project is to develop digital solutions for monitoring and predicting i) trafficability and ii) maintenance needs for private gravel roads. The aim is to ensure a more resilient supply for natural resources and improved accessibility of people and other business to support transition to sustainable rural economy. Project results are strongly based on the use of rapidly developed open data sources, increased utilization of vehicle data and digitalization opportunities to develop visual map-based decision support concepts for the road users, and other stakeholders.

Project includes five work packages: 1. Information systems for private gravel roads, 2. Extension of road weather stations, 3. Dynamic trafficability modeling, 4. On-line trafficability platform Northern Traffic Lights, and 5. Networking and dissemination. Partners involved are Luke, University of Eastern Finland, University of Oulu, Finnish Meteorological Institute and Finnish Forest Centre from Finland, and Skogforsk, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Luleå University of Technology, Linnaeus Universityand Creative Optimization from Sweden.