Bill
Bill works for a local authority in England in charge of the road gritting program in the local authority's road network.

His responsibilities are:

• To ensure the resilience of the local highways network during the winter season. He needs to make sure that local highways are appropriately treated with de-icing material when adverse weather occurs or is forecast.
• To liaise with his colleagues who are responsible for ensuring that the highways themselves are kept in good condition through appropriate maintenance processes.

The de-icing season for Bill

Bill’s de-icing season runs formally from October to April. Even before this, he has to decide how much rock salt to buy to make sure he can cover the demand for de-icing. He has to balance the cost of storing the salt against the possibility of needing to top up his stocks during the season, when it might be more expensive due to increased demand.

Bill also needs to be satisfied that there will be enough gritters available and enough trained staff to operate them, in the event of adverse weather conditions. He liaises with gritting contractors about this before the season and monitors it as the season progresses.

Bill and SPRINT
Bill already makes use of weather forecast information to support his decision-making. He is cautious, but curious, about the level of information that the EUPORIAS SPRINT prototype will provide him.
He has attended several monthly update teleconferences provided as part of the prototype, by which seasonal forecast information was disseminated during winter 2014/2015. He has made tentative use of the information in his decision-making.