Practical testing of digital winter road maintenance management to start in winter 2025/26

The NachWinD innovation project (increasing sustainability and precision in winter road maintenance) is taking another decisive step toward climate-friendly, resource-efficient, and safe winter road maintenance: Starting in winter 2025/26, extensive practical testing of a new type of digital winter road maintenance management system will begin. The system has been prepared, installed, and is ready to prove its performance under real conditions in the district of Lippe and the city of Paderborn.

The aim of the project is to significantly reduce road salt, fuel, and operating times in winter road maintenance—while at the same time improving road safety. This is based on an intelligent real-time road weather system that has already been implemented by the project partners involved. Precise measurement and sensor data will make it possible to assess road conditions much more reliably in the future. This enables pinpoint operations, reduces environmental pollution, and eases the burden on municipal budgets. What is measured? Road and ambient temperature, road conditions, humidity, and the slickness and water film are measured directly at the measuring stations on the road.

During the coming winter season, extensive data will be collected and fed into an AI-supported road weather model. In the future, this model will predict slippery conditions even in areas where no measuring stations are installed – a decisive step forward in making roads safer across the board.

Project engineer at the Fraunhofer Institute Björn Kroll is looking forward to the data from the field: “We have been researching IoT and AI solutions for climate applications for several years. In the coming winter season, we will validate the research progress with our partners in the field and are ready to roll out the solution to new partners.”

Local authorities, building yards, and infrastructure service providers can benefit directly from this technology: The Fraunhofer Institute in Lemgo and its project partners offer customized digital solutions that modernize existing road and snow removal processes, make them more efficient, and align them with the climate targets for the coming years. 

The project consortium includes:

  • Fraunhofer Institute Lemgo
  • INFA-ISFM e.V.
  • Okeanos Smart Data Solutions GmbH
  • Lippe District – Municipal Road Maintenance Department
  • ASP Paderborn
  • German Weather Service
  • NachWinD is funded by the Ministry of Economic Affairs of North Rhine-Westphalia and the EU.

The decisive phase will begin with the upcoming practical application in winter 2025/26: The way has been paved for AI-supported ice warnings and digital resource planning to bring about lasting change in winter road maintenance.