Sustainable Winter Road Operations

The first and only comprehensive guide to best practices in winter road operations

Winter maintenance operations are essential to ensure the safety, mobility, and productivity of transportation systems, especially in cold-weather climates, and responsible agencies are continually challenged to provide a high level of service in a fiscally and environmentally responsible manner.  

Sustainable Winter Road Operations bridges the knowledge gaps, providing the first up-to-date, authoritative, single-source overview and guide to best practices in winter road operations that considers the triple bottom line of sustainability.

With contributions from experts in the field from around the world, this book takes a holistic approach to the subject. The authors address the many negative impacts on regional economies and the environment of poorly planned and inadequate winter road operations, and they make a strong case for the myriad benefits of environmentally sustainable concepts and practices. Best practice applications of materials, processes, equipment, and associated technologies and how they can improve the effectiveness and efficiency of winter operations, optimize materials usage, and minimize cost, corrosion, and environmental impacts are all covered in depth.

• Provides the first up-to-date, authoritative and comprehensive overview of best practices in sustainable winter road operations currently in use around the world
• Covers materials, processes, equipment, and associated technologies for sustainable winter road operations  
• Brings together contributions by an international all-star team of experts with extensive experience in designing, implementing, and managing sustainable winter road operations
• Designed to bring professionals involved in transportation and highway maintenance and control up to speed with current best practice

Sustainable Winter Road Operations is essential reading for maintenance professionals dealing with snow and ice control operations on highways, motorways and local roads. It is a valuable source of information and guidance for decision makers, researchers, and engineers in transportation engineering involved in transportation and highway maintenance. And it is an ideal textbook for advanced-level courses in transportation engineering.

The Editors

Xianming Shi, PhD, PE is an Associate Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Washington State University, Pullman, Washington. He is an Associate Director at the Center for Environmentally Sustainable Transportation in Cold Climates (CESTiCC) and the Center for Advanced Multimodal Mobility Solutions and Education (CAMMSE). His research focuses on reducing the environmental footprint of infrastructure deterioration and enabling sustainable roadway maintenance and operations.

Liping Fu, PhD is a Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario. He is also an Adjunct and Visiting Professor at Wuhan University of Technology and Southwest Jiaotong University. His research focuses on winter road maintenance, ITS, and road and rail safety and operations.

List of Contributors vii

Foreword ix

1 Introduction to Sustainable Winter Road Maintenance 1
Xianming Shi and Liping Fu

2 A Framework for Life�-Cycle Sustainability Assessment of Road Salt Used in Winter Maintenance Operations 7
Na Cui, Ning Xie, and Xianming Shi

3 Winter Road Operations: A Historical Perspective 23
Leland D. Smithson

4 Societal and User Considerations for Sustainable Winter Road Operations 45
David Veneziano and Laura Fay

5 Weather Services for Sustainable Winter Road Operations 59
Chris Albrecht, Ralph Patterson, and Leigh Sturges

6 The Fundamentals of Plowing, Anti�-icing, De�-icing and Sanding 82
Alex Klein�-Paste and Rune Dalen

7 Safety Effects of Winter Weather and Road Maintenance Operations 101
Liping Fu and Taimur Usman

8 Mobility Effects of Winter Weather and Road Maintenance Operations 131
Liping Fu and Tae J. Kwon

9 Economic Benefits of Winter Road Operations 156
David Veneziano, Xianming Shi, and Laura Fay

10 Environmental Risks of Snow and Ice Control Materials 180
Xianming Shi, Sen Du, and Laura Fay

11 Impact of Chemical Deicers on Roadway Infrastructure: Risks and Best Management Practices 211
Gang Xu and Xianming Shi 

12 Vehicle Risks of Winter Road Operations and Best Management Practices 241
Mehdi Honarvar Nazari and Xianming Shi

13 Strategic Planning and Management for Sustainable Winter Road Maintenance 273
Matthew Muresan, Tae J. Kwon, Liping Fu, and Xianming Shi

14 Source Control Tactics for Sustainable Winter Road Maintenance 309
Xianming Shi and Liping Fu

15 Reactive Approaches for Environmentally Sustainable Winter Road Operations 334
Xianming Shi, Eric Strecker, and Scott Jungwirth

16 Innovative Winter Maintenance Equipment 358
William H. Schneider IV, William A. Holik, and Mallory J. Crow

17 The Search for “Greener” Materials for Winter Road Maintenance Operations 378
Xianming Shi and Scott Jungwirth

18 Pavement Treatments for Sustainable Winter Road Maintenance 402
Xianming Shi, Jiang Huang, and Zhengxian Yang

19 Performance Measures for Sustainable Winter Road Operations 423
Tina Greenfield

20 Application Guidelines for Optimal Deicing and Anti�-icing 443
S.M. Kamal Hossain, Matthew Muresan, and Liping Fu

21 A Look into the Future 472
Liping Fu and Xianming Shi

Index 479

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