Winter road maintenance often includes the use of deicing chemicals. However, many roadway deicing products are available, and their ice melting capacity can vary significantly. In addition, the processes that states use to procure and test deicing materials are subjective in measuring performance and are becoming increasingly burdensome for staff. The objective of this project was to provide transportation agencies with an objective, standardized, repeatable laboratory test procedure for measuring the ice melting capacity of deicers.

WSDOT faces multiple challenges in managing its highway assets. The primary objective of this project was to develop a way to predict the performance of important highway assets such as culverts, barriers/guardrails, traffic signal systems, ditches, slopes, and shoulders. This could help the WSDOT Maintenance Division set performance targets that balance available funds, acceptable performance expectations, and maintenance division priorities, potentially preventing the need for expensive reactive maintenance.

Pre-wetting is an important part of winter road maintenance operations. This project compiled a summary of pre-wetting practices, including equipment, materials, methods, and application rates, and identified the history of successes and failures that have contributed to current practices.

The Maintenance Division of the Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT) uses different materials to reduce the negative impacts of snow and ice on state roadways. In addition to plowing, the use of chemicals and abrasives for highway winter maintenance operations is an essential strategy for ensuring a reasonably high level of service. This project addressed information gaps regarding the performance and impacts of these materials.

Blowing snow accounts for a large part of the Illinois Department of Transportation’s (IDOT) total winter maintenance expenditures. This project developed recommendations for the design and placement of living snow fences to minimize snowdrift on Illinois highways. More effective and efficient snow and ice control operations could produce significant economic, environmental, and social benefits for the state.

The heavy use of various kinds of deicers has proved to have undesirable effects on the natural and built environments. As an alternative, electrically conductive concrete (ECC) pavements, which contain different types of conductive components, can melt surface ice and snow when an electric current is passed through the slab. This study explored additives that can increase the electrical conductivity of pavement materials as a replacement for traditional deicing approaches and also investigated a method for evaluating conductive mixes.

This laboratory study developed and tested an anti-icing asphalt pavement that incorporated innovative salt-storage additives with a sustained salt-release rate. Anti-icing asphalt pavement that incorporates salt-storage additives holds promise as an effective strategy to not only prevent ice formation or weaken the bond of snow-ice to the pavement but also to reduce the use of salt chemicals for winter road maintenance.

Roadway maintenance agencies are challenged in winter to cost-effectively provide a high level of service and improve safety and mobility, and they strive to use the most recent advances in the application of maintenance materials, equipment, and sensor technologies. The goal of this research was to create a synthesis of best management practices for deicing application rates and material application methodologies.

Maintenance agencies are constantly seeking an alternative to chloride-based deicing salts, one with maximum anti-icing efficiency and minimum drawbacks. This project developed a high-performance “green” anti-icer, based on grape skins and other agricultural wastes, that can minimize the harmful impacts of traditional chloride-based salts.

This project sought to identify effective performance metrics for snow and ice maintenance operations. The project team gathered information from published literature and surveyed the winter road maintenance operations community. They analyzed the information with a focus on performance measures for snow/ice maintenance operations, their temporal evolution and effectiveness, costs of gathering and analyzing the performance data, and methods of communicating the level of success inside the organization and beyond.