The past two decades have seen a dramatic increase in societal awareness regarding the implications of climate change. While there is still debate on the methods and quality of some of the measurements, clear evidence exists that temperatures have risen from the early 20th century to the present time, with 9 of the 10 warmest years on record globally having occurred since 2000.

What may be a more significant change, which has been observed in recent years, is the increased volatility of the climate system. Many of the recent changes have been attributed by some to more "buckling" in the upper level flow, causing storms to stall for longer periods of time and thus bringing consistent wet and stormy conditions to one area, and mild and dry to another.

With precipitation and temperatures being critical to surface transportation, it is important for communities to understand how long-term trends could affect the way you prepare for and address winter hazards. In this presentation, you will learn at how this increased weather volatility and shifting patterns could impact winter road maintenance, and how your community can be better prepared for the future.

Does your agency want to install a brine system but you don't know where to start?

This session will discuss all of the aspects of a brine system. We will discuss what it takes to install a brine system in a new building or in an existing building. Whether inside or outside, with everything that goes along into it. Specific topics include layout, water supply, blending, storage, and discussion of some failures along the way. Bring your questions and get ready to learn.

The GIS-IT team at Wyoming DOT worked in conjunction with NeoTreks and CompassCom to design, develop and deploy an Android tablet application for use with the 600+ plows operating within Wyoming. The Wyoming DOT Road Condition Reporting Application was designed to improve the frequency, accuracy and timeliness of observational weather data from the plow operators themselves. The objectives of the Wyoming Road Condition Reporting Application Project were:

• Improve the efficiency of road condition reporting by maintenance staff.
• Improve the efficiency of the Transportation Management Center (s) operations in responding to the reported road conditions.
• Improve the timeliness of updated traveler information.
• Improve the situational awareness of maintenance staff in the field regarding road weather conditions.
• Come hear how the project turned out and see if your agency could benefit from something similar.

Put us together, Minneapolis and St. Paul, known as the Twin Cities, become one of the largest snowbelt cities in the United States. While we have many similarities as urban core cities, we are also two unique municipalities with differences in demographics, cultures, geography, economy, transportation networks, and last but not least, snow plans.

In this session, we will talk about the similarities and differences in how we manage snow and ice control in our adjacent cities; from coordinated snowfighter training to media relations and public outreach. In particular, we will describe how our snow plans deal with our differing public expectations, a high demand for on-street parking, and how our cities communicate two separate snow plans a very diverse and significantly transient population, as well as the media.

Discussion will focus on how we have both utilized modern public outreach strategies and opportunities to help improve public relations including public web sites, phone, text and email notifications, social media and smartphone applications.

Whether your city or agency is large or small, you may come away with new ideas about public relations and outreach.

Six years ago, The City of Council Bluffs, Iowa faced poor management, poor morale, antiquated equipment and an unsatisfactory work environment. In response, they developed a program to overcome these deficiencies through training and by involving employees from all levels of our operation. In 2013 they won the 2013 APWA Excellence Snow and Ice Control Award and the program continues to advance today.

The presentation will include before and after photos of our evolution over the six-year time span. We will share how our processes were put into place to develop strong leaders, create a team environment, and advance snow and ice fighting techniques - which lead to an overall successful Winter Maintenance program. We believe other small and mid-sized cities will be able to relate to our adversities, as well as walk away with some good ideas.

Has your agency considered using the TowPlow? After years of TowPlow use on our provincial highway network, the Ontario Ministry of Transportation has developed some best practices. Details such as winter material placement and lane clearing widths will either prove your worth or cause you many headaches.

Learn from previous errors made, work with the manufacturer and get the right equipment to do the right job. It is extremely important to detail the location and highway configuration where this equipment will be used and properly identify optional equipment available from the manufacturer. In this session, you will receive examples of simple configurations and go over the problems we encountered. Get it right the first time to be as effective and efficient as you can every time you leave the yard.

What variables should you consider when optimizing snow routes? In this session you will learn the practicality of route optimization (Theory vs. Reality).

Focus will be on how to determine deliverables and how to define what route optimization is and what it is not. Discussion will touch on the emotional impact of route optimization on current staffing as well as management's role in the process. If your routes need to be evaluated, these tips could help.

This is a case study on the City of Fort Collins' experience in specifying, buying, and building Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) tandem axle snowplow trucks.

The City of Fort Collins has a greenhouse gas emissions policy that is addressed in part by utilizing compressed natural gas powered vehicles. It takes much thought and discussion with the truck manufacturer, truck equipment dealer, and using entity to anticipate what it takes to put these alternative fuel trucks on the road.

This presentation will consist of three facets:

• A brief presentation from Cummins addressing what CNG motors are designed to do and how it may be a different experience.
• Discussion of the planning efforts that took place to specify and build the trucks.
• Further comments about using the CNG trucks which currently make up 40% of the plowing fleet
• If you are considering a CNG Fleet, you need to attend this session.

The City of Davenport, Iowa, is a fully accredited city with a population of approximately 100,000. There are 1,600 lane miles of roads to be plowed with over 400 cul-de-sac's and 60+ pieces of equipment. We utilize Skynet GPS tracking on all of the vehicles to monitor location, speed, salt usage, plow up/down and roads completed. We have come up with mix design ratio and we are planning to pre-treat all of our snow routes prior to the snowfall using a water, salt and brine mix.

In this session, you will hear what the City of Davenport has and will be doing to better plow/remove snow and you just might pick up a couple good ideas for your agency in the process.