With more than 2,400 miles of county-maintained roadways in Cobb County, keeping track of road closings and detours can be a daunting task for the commuter, traveler or casual driver. With this today’s snow, it could be downright impossible.

But the Cobb County Department of Transportation has launched a Web-based tool—available at http://www.cobbdot.org—that makes it easy for users to find road closings and determine the best detours around them.

“We created it because we wanted to be able to communicate to the public accurate and timely information about road closures going on in the county,” said Lynn Biggs, the supervisor of geographic information systems for the department. “And those road closures can be going on because of planned construction or because of an event like a storm event.”

With the tool, road closures are displayed on a map and listed on the left side of the screen. Users can click on a specific closing, zoom in on the relevant part of the map and find the exact parts of the road that are closed. The map also will provide the best detour routes.

“This application lets us get that information out as soon as possible,” Biggs said.

She said the application uses the county’s geographic information system (GIS) as well as information gathered within the new, state-of-the-art Regional Transportation Management Center. The center monitors the county’s more than 60 traffic cameras and more than 500 traffic signals and roadway traffic messaging signs.

The Georgia Department of Transportation provides a similar service through the Georgia Navigator system. But that program shows traffic patterns only on major state routes and the interstate system. The Cobb County system provides information about county-maintained roads.

Biggs said the tool is the only one like it in the region. You can access it anywhere you have an Internet connection.