UW WSU WSDOT




Maintenance

WSDOT Maintenance Performance Measure Algorithms

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.

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Review and Summary of Pre-Wet Methods and Procedures

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.

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Snow and Ice Treatment Products Evaluation

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.

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Design of Living Barriers to Reduce the Impacts of Snowdrifts on Illinois Freeways

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.

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Use of a Microwave Method to Prototype Electrically Conductive Concrete

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.

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A New Sustainable Additive for Anti-Icing Asphalt

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.

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Material Application Methodologies Guidebook

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.

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Bio-Based Renewable Additives for Anti-Icing Applications (Phase II)

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.

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Snow Removal Performance Metrics

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.

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Assessment of Lube Oil Management and Self-Cleaning Oil Filter Feasibility in WSF Vessels

To help Washington State Ferries investigate the use of a self-cleaning oil filtration system, researchers from Washington State University tested such a system on one ferry vessel, looking specifically at filtration effectiveness, environmental impacts, and costs. Results of filtration effectiveness showed little difference between the standard paper cartridge filtration system currently in wide use and the self-cleaning system. A life cycle environmental impact assessment revealed that although impacts from oil and filter use would be less, the additional diesel fuel consumed by that system would outweigh any benefits in many impact categories. Finally, a life cycle cost analysis suggested that the standard system would outperform the self-cleaning system in terms of whole life cost (unless the oil lifetime could be increased by more than three-fold), primarily because the self-cleaning system used additional fuel. The researchers’ overall assessment was that if expected costs and environmental impacts are major decision points, a suitable alternative system would need to consume less diesel fuel to be viable.

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