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.

This document is the final report for the Clear Roads project entitled Best Practices for the Prevention of Corrosion of Department of Transportation Equipment: A User’s Manual. The project team was led by researchers at the Western Transportation Institute at Montana State University (WTI) on behalf of Clear Roads, an ongoing pooled fund research effort focused on winter maintenance materials, equipment, and methods. Clear Roads research projects are managed and administered by the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT). Through this project, the research team developed a user-friendly manual that documents best practices for managing the risk of equipment corrosion, especially in the presence of chemical deicers. The audience for this manual includes operators, mechanics and garage-level supervisors. The manual defines the basic corrosion conditions, with a focus on the need for managing corrosion risks, common modes of corrosion failure, and corrosion-prone parts (priorities) on DOT equipment. This manual addresses design considerations and material selection for corrosion risk management. This manual also lists some commercial products that have been used by DOTs, and presents some successful experiences of DOTs, the US Navy and private companies. It also presents preventive maintenance strategies and tactics.

Departments of Transportation (DOTs) and other winter maintenance agencies are continually challenged to provide safe, reliable winter highways in a cost-effective and eco-friendly manner, while minimizing adverse effects to the environment, vehicles, and transportation infrastructure. Increasing concerns about the anti-icers available on the market due to their corrosion to metals (chlorides), impact on concrete and asphalt (acetates), and toxicity to aquatic resources (agro-based products) have directed agencies to explore alternatives. The objective of this project is to provide winter maintenance agencies various strategies to effectively reduce the environmental impacts related to winter maintenance operations by presenting strategies focused on alternative deicer compounds, mitigation measures, and management procedures. A series of anti-icers designed to reduce the environmental footprint of deicers and to meet the varying requirements of highway anti-icing performance, cost-effectiveness, and minimized corrosion impacts was developed. The research was accomplished through literature review, agency surveys, and laboratory investigation. A review of various new developments and available products is presented in order to identify the current state of the art and gain a better understanding of commercially available snow and ice control materials. Performance evaluations are presented with respect to ice melting capacity, corrosion effects, and impacts to the environment of various deicers to determine trends and future research needs. In addition, it was identified that roadway maintenance equipment in cold climates is exposed to high amounts of chloride-based deicers that are inherently corrosive. This work aims to identify current approaches available to manage the risk of deicer corrosion to equipment assets, including design considerations, materials selection, and maintenance strategies. Furthermore, this research summarizes the current practices and methods available to mitigate the water quality risks associated with chloride based deicers. Two common approaches used for reducing the impacts of chloride based deicers were examined. The first method known as a proactive approach focuses on reducing the amount of chloride based deicers introduced into the environment. The second method known as a reactive approach consists of effective practices used to reduce the impacts of chloride based deicers after they have been introduced into the environment, which is accomplished using treatment methods and controlling chloride transport through the environment.