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Since 1994, advances have been made to the strategies, deploy- ments, and statistics related to conducting winter operations activities on the highways and municipal streets of North America. Survey responses indicated that several of the emerging advanced technologies and techniques have experienced storm event and agency testing, integration, and adoption. Although a few traditional practices have been discarded, many tradi- tional practices such as plowing and spreading have seen aug- mentation, modification, adaptation, and improvement through the continual improvement process that is the nature of daily front-line winter maintenance activities. Agencies and funding sources are now interested in absolute cost and material efficiencies, although the resources for gathering such are rare and the technology lim- ited in deployment. Nonintrusive data gathering is an area with great promise and one of the topics that should receive a high level of future consideration. Road weather knowledge combined with training has become a crucial part of snow removal and anti-icing deci- sions. There is greater availability and more widespread use of road weather information than ever before. Previously, road weather information was not always readily available to maintenance staff or was limited to a very small regional deployment such as a metro area or toll road. North American winter highway operators have better equipment, materials, methods, and are providing higher lev- els of service to the traveling public than before 1994. Corre- spondingly, they contend with increasing expectations, tighter budgetary and environmental constraints, and greater demands on information ingestion, collection, and generation. Several key conclusions emerged from this synthesis. These conclusions are organized here according to similarity, with the first being organizational and the remainder grouped under state of the practice and emerging technologies. ⢠The organization of snow and ice control or other winter maintenance activities by the various agencies follows logical outlines based on the local needs and governmen- tal structure and includes a current common thread of doing more with less under increasing constraints. ⢠New chemicals, all-liquid applications, and pre-wetting were the most significant changes to winter operations 28 over the past 10 years, with improved equipment, Road Weather Information Systems (RWIS), and weather forecasts following closely behind. ⢠Use of computerized controls associated with spread- ing rates for both liquids and solids represents a sig- nificant change in equipment that has occurred over the past 10 years. Ninety-five percent of the responding agencies reported increased use. ⢠An important trend is seen in the rise of problems asso- ciated with the increased use of on-board (truck) com- puterized systems, such as interference by radios with other electronic systems, complex and fragile wiring, and inadequate hydraulic capacities. ⢠Although increased use and expansion of RWIS are described as significant changes in the way winter operations are conducted, approximately half of the 17 responding agencies with RWIS have no deployment strategy or criteria for site location. ⢠Half of the agencies surveyed believe the Maintenance Decision Support System concept will develop into a useful tool. ⢠Operational and institutional rural drifting snow was ranked as the number one problem by 73% of the agen- cies. When the primary and secondary problem responses are combined, suburban and rural blowing snow is the most prevalent problem faced by 100% of the agencies. ⢠Road weather knowledge with training has become a crucial part of the snow removal and anti-icing decisions. ⢠Use of RWIS has become a mainstream technological methodology in the winter maintenance toolbox. The use of RWIS was fairly widespread geographically 10 years ago; however, it has become an even more essential com- ponent to winter operations and is increasingly used by traffic operations for its value in the highway manage- ment area of intelligent transportation systems. ⢠More than 95% of the agencies involved in this study stated that they report winter road conditions regularly to the public through a combination of the Internet, the media, and telephone services such as a hotline or a 511 system. ⢠A significant problem area is public expectation and bare road policies. A number of states have implemented such policies. Once bare roads policies are in place, the expec- tation by the public is that highways will be cleared immediately and that driving conditions will be com- mensurate with clear pavement conditions. Public aware- ness campaigns that emphasize caution during winter CHAPTER EIGHT CONCLUSIONS
29 driving, while explaining the efforts of maintenance forces to clear roads, could be very effective in address- ing this problem. ⢠Training, particularly that concerning pre-wetting and anti-icing, is important. Advances in technology com- pound the problem, because personnel need more and more technically specialized training to make use of equipment and materials. There are difficulties associ- ated with delivering this training effectively and effi- ciently to a workforce that may not begin shifts until the snow is ready to fall. ⢠Added emphasis on environmental protection affects maintenance operations, particularly with regard to the use of chemicals and abrasives. This added emphasis elevates the importance of optimizing the application rates of treatment materials, management strategies, and training. The following are suggested areas of future study: ⢠Blowing and drifting snow management. ⢠Impact of outsourcing winter maintenance activities. ⢠Impact of pavement design such as open grade on black ice formation. ⢠Operator and decision-maker training. ⢠Anti-icing chemical issues including vehicle and infra- structure corrosion, slipperiness, and environmental compatibility. ⢠Nonintrusive data gathering for performance manage- ment and research application. In conclusion, winter highway operations are dynamic and eventful. Winter highway operations now integrate snow and ice control strategies and activities, traveler information, traf- fic operations, weather effects, environmental impacts, and customer satisfaction. The maintenance worker has at his or her disposal a wide variety and higher quality of tools, tech- niques, strategies, and material combinations to provide higher levels of service to the traveling public than were available before 1994. At the same time, they contend with increasing expectations, tighter budgetary and environmental constraints, and greater demands on information ingestion, collection, and generation. One of the challenges of this synthesis was to investigate ways to simplify the selection process of what combination(s) to use. Ultimately, the concept of a toolbox or palette with multiple options to choose from continues to be the optimal solution. The drawers of such a toolbox are orga- nized hierarchically; the most used should be placed near the top followed by those that are necessary to operation support. Winter highway operations, and specifically snow and ice control, have long used this concept of a methods and tech- nology toolbox in accomplishing their tasks. This analogy can be expanded based on the results of the responses to this syn- thesis. As with any well-used toolbox, it comes with signifi- cant instructions. Included with the winter operations toolbox are guides touting constant attention to safety and environ- mental sensitivity. There are also guidelines from the public relations campaign designed to raise the publicâs awareness and appreciation of the efforts and role snow and ice control plays in their everyday life that are similar to previous cam- paigns about work zone driving responsibility. Accompany- ing this toolbox is a map case containing plans and strategies, which includes plans for the survey of customer expecta- tions, ways to communicate constraints, and strategies to meet desired levels of service with minimal environmental detriments.
