Grit SMART – How our software supports winter maintenance strategies
As local authorities across the country prepare for winter, there is always a sense of the unknown about the season. The lack of ability to predict weather patterns and forecast particular events makes it essential to plan for every eventuality. It is therefore useful to be able to use data to inform decisions and be as prepared as possible.
Managing grit bins effectively
Grit or salt bins are an integral part of every local authority’s winter maintenance strategy, giving residents and road users the ability to spread salt on public roads and footpaths that are not routinely treated. This is especially helpful in rural counties with more remote locations that are further from the designated gritting routes, allowing citizens to continue their day-to-day lives through periods of ice and snow.
At KaarbonTech, our Grit SMART solution monitors usage, interference and movement of grit bins, helping local authorities to:
Understand grit bin usage, monitoring levels of salt and avoiding unnecessary fill rounds
Monitor the movement of bins, identifying any that have changed location
Combat salt theft, monitoring any unusual activity with sensors
Collecting and combining this data helps to identify if grit bin deployment is adequate, or underused. It can also help take an efficient approach to filling, avoiding the ‘blanket-fill’ and only visiting those that need topping up. This saves valuable time and resources during a season that can be very demanding on operatives. Taking a risk-scoring approach can lead to removing unnecessary grit bins from the network and re-siting others for optimum use.
Using data to inform winter maintenance decisions
Integrating with existing platforms, the Grit SMART software is simple to use, leading crews clearly to the locations that need attention and providing high-resolution imagery for easy referencing. Within the app, filters can be applied to show the programme and which bins are left to fill, as well as providing navigation to the exact site, considering traffic-sensitive roads and other restrictions. This improves productivity with a clear and informative application in every crew’s hand.
The solution allows users to filter, share and create reports from any of the data held within Grit SMART to support critical winter maintenance reporting. This allows quick rectification times, reducing risk to the public as well as feeding into historic records which can be used to create predictions for future programmes. Progress monitoring also gives a clear view of work against the programme, allowing improvements to be identified and actioned. Accurate, evidence-based results allow you to view the season’s impact on resources and plan for the future.
Grit SMART integrates with third-party systems to ensure asset, inspection and defect data can be shared across the organisation. Fast, accurate and intuitive, it is an essential tool in the winter maintenance kit.
Find out more about Grit SMART here.