MDSSPro

For the ultimate MDSS solution, join the fourteen states that have participated as members in the Pooled Fund Study by moving up to MDSSPro. This version is the essence of the Maintenance Decision Support System envisioned by maintenance officials in the member states, bringing everything a user needs to make an informed decision into one stand alone tool. By escaping the limits of a web-based interface, MDSSPro offers a myriad of features that directly address the needs of maintenance supervisors, while adhering to commonly accepted practices accepted by agency IT personnel.

The key feature of MDSSPro identified by study members, however, is the ability to deliver dynamic treatment recommendations based not upon just the weather and a static set of practices (as in the Best Practices MDSS), but based upon the dynamic situation. These recommendations are produced by Meridian's HiCAPS pavement model, taking into account all the abilities and limitations of the agency, and the science of the interaction of the chemical with the weather, traffic, and other factors. Most importantly, the recommendations also account for maintenance activity that has already occurred (either reported by the agency to Meridian, or assumed from an agency's best practices).

Another powerful tool is the "What-if?" pavement modeling module. This allows a maintenance supervisor to easily test different treatment strategies, and see how they differ from the best practices or dynamic recommendations made by the MDSS. Other than the treatment strategy, other variables (traffic, weather forecast, etc. ) remain constant in this approach, and the same pavement model is used, allowing the user to clearly see the effects of the differing approaches in a controlled environment.

Highlights

Integrate real-time maintenance activities, diagnose their impacts, and predict when new maintenance is needed.
"What if?" scenario generator uses your staff's experience to model impact of any user-defined maintenance activities.
Simplified views of maintenance, RWIS, and weather data — offering user-defined overlays, loop, and zoom options.

The MDSSPro allows for the highest level of customization, including a variety of maintenance route configurations, differing pavement profiles, variable lane condition analysis, forecast, and recommendations, and route-to-route recommendation limitations, among others. The possibilities are nearly endless, and once configured, remain in place for the life of the service. These options can always be changed, if necessary, and can be modified on a day-to-day basis by the user if conditions warrant (for example, if a truck is taken out of service).

While the MDSSPro does contain a comprehensive suite of weather information to support decision making, it provides a much broader set of support tools than other, more weather-centric MDSS systems. The ability to cover the broad range of issues facing maintenance personnel is what sets the Meridian MDSSPro apart in the industry.

The MDSSPro is compatible with mobile data collection and display systems for real-time information sharing utilizing AVL and smart devices. Primarily, these systems have been used to provide information about real-time maintenance activities to the MDSS system. In recent years, however, two additional features have become more common. Several vehicles have been outfit with cameras, which can provide real-time images to the MDSS display (to accompany the static RWIS and webcam images already available in the display).