The Surface Transportation Weather Research Center (STWRC), in cooperation with the North Dakota Department of Transportation, established the STWRC Road Weather Field Research Facility (RWFRF) in late 2006 for the purpose of understanding better the physics associated with the interactions between the atmosphere and the roadway. The RWFRF is located adjacent to Interstate 29 in eastern North Dakota approximately 21 miles (approximately 34 kilometers) sound of the campus of the University of North Dakota (UND).

Mission
The mission of the RWFRF is to support the STWRC efforts to conducting leading edge investigations on advanced road weather data acquisition, sensor technology, sensor performance validation, and the validation of road weather prediction issues associated with transportation maintenance, operations, and advanced traveler information systems.

Facilities
The RWFRF supports a full complement of atmospheric, pavement, and sub-pavement instrumentation supporting field measurements of fine-scale processes involving interactions between the pavement and adjacent sub-surface and lateral land-surface features within the roadway with the surface atmopsheric boundary layer.