As part of a pilot project, the city of Columbus and the Franklin County Engineer's Office will install the GPS technology on 20 city snow trucks and 10 county trucks before the start of winter. The technology will enable the city and the county to know where the snowplows are, what the snowplows are doing and how much salt or other chemicals they are spreading.

Once the results of the pilot program are analyzed, the city and the county plan to add GPS technology next year to additional snow vehicles, street sweepers and mowers.

“Clearing snow and ice during a winter storm is one of the toughest jobs in the world, and while we’re proud of our snow warriors, we must also be testing new ideas and technology to improve our operation,” Columbus Mayor Michael Coleman said. “This new system will let us start to adjust faster to changing weather conditions, to monitor and control snow operations in real time and to track salt usage.”

U.S. military uses similar technology to track planes, tanks and ships

The GPS technology is called COMBAT, an acronym for Central Ohio Management-Based Applied Technology. According to the city and the county, COMBAT will link GPS with tracking software to better coordinate vehicles and to let managers know how teams are doing, in addition to tracking costs.

The system is similar to the one that the U.S. military uses to track the location of its planes, tanks and ships.

With COMBAT and the accompanying software, the city and the county will be able to monitor:

• Location of equipment.
  
• Speed of each vehicle.
  
• Road and air temperatures.
  
• Rate at which each truck is applying brine or salt to the road.
  
• Whether plows are up or down.

Columbus City Councilman Andrew Ginther noted that COMBAT will benefit the safety of the city's road warriors.

“If we haven’t heard from a driver in a while or if the driver becomes ill and hits the newly installed emergency button, we can use the computer software to find the exact location of the truck,” Ginther said.

FHWA subsidized the project

The Federal Highway Administration contributed $4.1 million toward the startup of COMBAT. Columbus kicked in $522,000 and Franklin County contributed $237,000.

“GPS is welcome technology,” said Chester Jourdan, executive director of the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission, which played a key role in securing federal funding for COMBAT. “We are pleased to have been able to assist Columbus and Franklin County’s efforts to better manage their resources.”