Project Details
SPONSORS
NCHRP, AASHTO, FHWA
KEYWORDS
Handbooks, Literature reviews, Maintenance equipment, Snow and ice control, State of the practice, Winter maintenance
Project description
The FHWA compiled statistics that showed that during the 10-year period 2005-2014 approximately 321,000 vehicle crashes per year were attributed to icy or snow-covered roads. These same statistics showed 5,650 fatalities per year were attributed to adverse weather. This is approximately 10 times more fatalities than all the other adverse weather fatalities tracked by the National Weather Service. While participation fluctuates from year to year, 44 state DOTs and one Canadian Province rely on AASHTO’s SICOP Technical Service Program, the Clear Roads, and/or Aurora Pooled Fund Studies to help them fulfill their winter maintenance mission. This clearly demonstrates the impact winter weather has on the transportation network across North America. Road maintenance agencies employ a variety of strategies to maintain safe, passable roadways during wintertime weather events. In general, these strategies can be categorized into those that rely on the use of chemicals (primarily sodium chloride --salt) and non-chemical-based strategies utilizing mechanical means (e.g., brooming, plowing, scraping, or mechanical ice breaking). The reliance on deicing chemicals alone has presented issues for agencies as some salt supplies are becoming irregular with some agencies not able to secure sufficient quantities and the resulting increases in salt prices adversely affecting state wintertime budgets.