INDIANAPOLIS — A key piece of technology used across the state to monitor when roads freeze over is broken, leaving county and city road crews, public safety agencies, businesses and even school districts in the dark.
Road crews across Indiana were out in full force Monday night, preparing for the threat of icy roads and snow hitting central Indiana. While we didn’t see much snow in central Indiana, there were still threats of icy roads.
Because roads don’t go below freezing as quickly as the air temperatures, the sensors allow the crews to know exactly when the roads do freeze. The sensors are built into the interstate across Indiana. In October, they went offline for some and they haven’t been back since.
The sensors are part of INDOT’s Road Weather Information System and are relied upon by not only INDOT. but countless other agencies and organizations. StormTeam6’s Kyle Mounce emailed INDOT to report the issue and was told they were working. But the website shows the last update of Oct. 22.
That means when they can't see the data, those other groups can’t tell when the roads are cold enough for snow to accumulate or ice to start building up.
An INDOT spokesperson said they upgraded to a cloud-based system, which currently doesn't work for public users. There is no way for the public, or any other agencies and organizations, to see the data.
Without the sensors, those groups are left in the dark as weather conditions drastically change by the minute. Just like they did on Jan. 24, 2018, when road temperatures dropped below freezing and caused havoc on the roads around central Indiana.
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