Snowfighters belie the adage that everyone talks about the weather but no one does anything about it. Well, Salt Institute member Compass Minerals is providing a new online winter severity tracking service in support of those who are "doing something about it (winter storm events). See the company's Snow Events page to learn about the severity of winters impacting North American roadways.

The company promises to update the report quarterly. It defines a snow event as one where more than one inch falls in any 24 hour period in one of 11 large cities.

For comparison, the last decade these eleven cities averaged 48.5 snow events during the Fourth Quarters 1999-2008, but the annual fluctuation provides insight into the marketplace, ranging from 20 events in 2006 to 80 in 2008. Here are the numbers:

• 2009 42 snow events
• 2008 80
• 2007 56
• 2006 20
• 2005 68

This past week, the US House of Representatives, by a close 217-212 vote, passed a "jobs bill" directing more than $35 billion in highway and transit spending (and $30 million for barge-related improvements on the Mississippi). The money is intended to "stimulate" jobs in constructing more roads. This same week, headlines blared about people dying and businesses and industries being paralyzed by snowstorms for which overwhelmed road agency winter maintenance operations. No doubt, the increased public spending on building more roads will create jobs -- next Spring or Summer. But short-sightedly refusing to spend what we need right now is not only costing us lives and livelihoods right now, but it's also contributing to tax revenue shortfalls as taxes on worker earnings and commercial sales taxes take huge hits when impassible roads gridlock transportation. A study by Global Insight confirms these costs .

Let's "stimulate" highway operations and save jobs on "Main Street"!

As a member of the National Transportation Operations Coalition , yesterday I attended an FHWA-hosted meeting of NTOC members to discuss how improving highway operations can contribute to the Federal Highway Administration's goals for "sustainability" and "livability." (FHWA's other two goals are economic vitality and safety).

While some others talked about how to convince Americans to emulate the example of citizens in Malmo, Sweden who have tried to stigmatize anyone for driving on a trip of less than 5 kilometers (about two miles) as taking a "ridiculous trip," I tried to focus on the narrower topic of how changes in operations might lessen the environmental impacts of roads and contribute to the quality of our lives.

There are many things that could be mentioned; I offered four salt-related suggestions:

1. The imperative of Sensible Salting -- use of road salt in minimum amounts to deliver the required level of service and safety.
2. One particular aspect of Sensible Salting -- proper salt storage -- not only provides environmental benefits, but acts like an "insurance policy" for agencies assuring that they have enough salt to clear roads properly. Expanded salt storage also allows for early-season deliveries which can often take advantage of the energy savings inherent in moving salt, a heavy bulk commodity, by water rather than roadway.
3. The need for better real-time data on roadway conditions linked directly to road managers and the public, and
4. In support of encouraging people to walk and bike to work and shopping, communities must provide not only clear roads, but clear bike paths and sidewalks. Usually, residential sidewalks are a homeowners responsibility, often supported by (often unenforced) local ordinances. As for roads, assured, reliable access to safe bike paths and sidewalks is a priority for sustainable transportation.

Today's Chicago Tribune , coincidentally, picked up on this latter theme, reporting on a local Chicagoland activist group, the Active Transportation Alliance , and its efforts to encourage procrastinating homeowners to comply with the local law. Chicago requires sidewalks to be cleared "within three hours of the snow falling" or face a $50 citation.

The group points out the safety hazard of pedestrians forced to walk in snowy streets. Sustainable and livable communities should insist on timely clearing not only of public roads, but of sidewalks and bike paths.

Last week, in the aftermath of the DC area's paralyzing snowstorm, the Washington Post ran an article by Ashley Halsey III "D.C. region gets what it pays for when it comes to snow removal ." The article noted that a northern Michigan city received more than 7 feet of snow (compared to 2 feet in DC) and yet the roads were cleared with little disruption in normal activities. The annual cost of this level of service was put at $11,055 a year per lane mile. In contrast, the District of Columbia spends $5,636 annually for each mile for which it provides snowfighting service and this storm produced a government shut-down, widespread closures and extensive disruption.

Public comments to the online story were all over the lot; some considered the DC response laughable (e.g. "Giving out parking tickets is about the only thing DC does efficiently. As the nation's capital it is a joke.") while others defended the public works snowfighting crews. Many noted the inherent flaw by the author comparing a small city in a snowy rural region with a major city in an area with infrequent winter storms.

The larger lesson probably deals more with service level than budget. And that owes largely to the "wisdom of crowds" as displayed in the online comments. Had Petroskey, MI run a story on snowfighting, the comments would almost certainly have reflected its residents' insistent demand that winter not be allowed to hamstring their lives. The DC comments, on the other hand, are notably ambivalent and diverse. DC will get better snowfighting when it demands it -- budgets reflect citizens' expectations.

One could imagine a mayor of Petoskey who responded to a major snowstorm with the efficiency of the DC crews would become the next Michael Bilandic (see Wikipedia , 5th paragraph). But his job's safe in DC. The public doesn't expect good snowfighting. So the story might better be headlined "D.C. region gets what is wants when it comes to snow removal."

It could be better. It might cost more. That's democracy.

As Washington, DC, digs out from two feet of snow a week before Christmas, another round of winter weather paralyzed Christmas Day travel in the US midwest. A picture is worth a thousand words. It seems we've enjoyed above-average snow and ice events since the recent global warming confab in Copenhagen.

Weather forecasts from London's Met office for a "probably mild" winter and "light snow" December 21 were not just mistakes, according to WeatherAction long-range weather and climate forecasters. The easy-winter forecasts were designed to please the
Government’s ‘Global warming’ ideology when the forecasting method used has consistently failed," maintains WeatherAction.
WeatherAction says its models predicted the huge storms that immobilized the UK (and Copenhagen) at the end of the Global Warming summit last week. Moreover, the group forecasts major snowstorms in January and predicts "Salt to run out -- again."
Most snowfighters, whether they subscribe to the global warming hypothesis, know the vagaries of weather require prudent preparation so we doubt the Brits will have a salt shortage.

The Federal Highway Administration’s Office of Operations has published an important benchmarking report on use of performance measures which assesses state DOT adoption and effectiveness of harnessing new techniques and technologies to improve roadway operations impaired by adverse weather conditions.

As FHWA reports, “The impact of weather events on roadway safety and capacity is substantial.” Two measures, in particular, address major concerns for those dedicated to improving winter roadway safety and mobility. They are:

• The percentage of time a roadway meets safety and capacity level of service (LOS) standards during and after weather events (normalized by the frequency/intensity of winter events), and
• The reduction in roadway user costs as measured in traffic delays, crashes, vehicle operating costs, emissions and salt damage attributable to road weather strategies.

As the Salt Institute has argued, FHWA concludes that “national level statistics do no exist yet to directly measure” the goal of measuring safety and LOS/capacity impairment. Nearly a third of agencies (32%) measure “time to wet/bare pavement.” Only 4% measure “percent of time that lanes are open during a weather event, 7% measure “pavement friction,” 11% measure “time to pre-event travel speeds after a weather event” and 18% measure “customer satisfaction with maintenance and recover time.” Another 25% use undefined additional performance indicators.

While performance measures are “in an early phase of deployment,” there is better news in adoption of new operations strategies. New Sensible Salting techniques are being adopted. Road Weather Information Systems (RWIS) is credited with reducing crashes by 17% and anti-icing by 83%, but since the latter figure is equivalent to the 85% crash reduction in using older deicing techniques, the finding hardly represents great progress.

Snow and ice on roadways cause significant service degradation, the report explains, cutting roadway capacity by 25% or more (to say nothing of the number of would-be drivers who abandon planned trips entirely). Free-flow speed declines 19% in snow conditions. Despite this reduced load, weather-impaired roads are the cause of 22% of all injury and fatal traffic crashes, half of them due to slick roadway surface conditions. Overall, weather causes more than 500 million vehicle-hours of delays every year, the report documents. “Most of this estimated delay (90 percent) was due to snow in urban areas.”

Pursuit of road weather performance measures “has enabled and continues to strive for a culture shift among traffic operators to a more proactive weather management approach that in turn will improve safety and capacity,” the report concludes. The federal program is also “undertaking studies relevant to safety, including studies of the microscopic and macroscopic behavior of traffic in inclement weather conditions, weather-sensitive traffic prediction and estimation modeling, and evaluation of the effectiveness and safety implications of road weather advisory and control information.” FHWA is promoting its Maintenance Decision Support System (MDSS) to automate winter operations and participating in the IntelliDrive program to harness new “smart car” technology to improve road weather operations.

An evaluation of road deicing alternatives directed by Xianming Shi and Laura Fay of the Western Transportation Institute at Montana State University and conducted for the Colorado Department of Transportation examined common chloride, acetate and ag byproduct deicers and concluded:

• Corrosion-inhibited salt (NaCl) and mag chloride (MgCl2) is preferred "until better deicer alternatives are identified."
• Training, calibration and minimized application rates -- the essence of the Salt Institute's Sensible Salting program -- are key to minimizing adverse environmental impacts.
• Chlorides in the environment did not exceed the water quality standard. This is an aesthetic standard for taste, not a health standard.

The report formulated a "deicer composite index" similar to that published a few years ago as NCHRP Report 577 . The model, like that of Report 577, allows local customization. Using the current weighting for Colorado users, the method validated current CDOT user priorities ("the inhibited liquid MgCl2 deicer products present a better alternative than either the non-inhibited NaCl or the K- or Na-acetate/formate deicers").

Better watch out. Better not slide. Better watch out; I'm telling you why. Officials who don't clear roads, may lose their jobs.

Citizens know when you are sleeping; they know when you're awake. They know when you've been bad or good, so be good for goodness sake.

Tis the season for a little reminder to government officials: Ignore winter maintenance at your peril because there are a number of legendary examples of officials who have had worse than coal in their stockings.

In New York City during the winter of '68-'69, Republican mayor John Lindsey was held responsible for a snow removal debacle in the borough of Queens. He had the poor judgment to go out in his limo to survey the mess and his limo was stuck in the snow. He was retrieved by rescuers in a four-wheel drive--a complete public relations disaster.

During the harsh winter of '78 and '79 in Chicago, Mayor Michael Bilandic was labeled as incompetent for the city's failure to adequately clear roads. His opponent used this to her advantage during the campaign and pundits blame the snow for Bilandic's defeat.

In Washington DC in 1996, infamous Mayor Marion Barry took a bit less heat for disastrous snow removal efforts mostly because residents in the District were accustomed to the city's inadequate snow response. In fact, if you look at the antics of Marion Barry, you might draw the conclusion that the citizens were willing to overlook most any bad behavior.

And more recently, the Valentine's Day Blizzard of 2007 drastically affected the eastern half of North America, halting commerce and causing 37 deaths. In Pennsylvania, officials were under attack by residents who believed that they did not adequately respond to the snowfall. Although citizens don't need a study to know that salting and plowing saves lives, a study by Marquette University details the safety benefits of proper winter maintenance.

Since there is also an economic cost to poor winter maintenance, in this tough economy, we encourage officials to keep the roads clear for commerce and for the safety of their residents. They know when you've been bad or good. It is a little difficult to hide poor winter maintenance (video ).

Less than 2 years ago, China was paralyzed by a massive snowstorm resulting in $22 billion in economic losses , massive closures and disruption to transportation and travelers and significant loss of life and limb.

News this week shows the wake-up call to improve winter maintenance went unheeded.

On November 13, China Daily reported:

The country was blanketed by heavy snow and pummeled by severe weather yesterday during the third consecutive day of harsh weather.

The whiteout left several people dead and caused hundreds of injuries. It also froze traffic in many cities and grounded hundreds of flights.

Tens of thousands of people and vehicles were stuck along 21 expressways in seven provinces. Power supplies were lost in some parts of the country, the China Highway Information Service said on its website yesterday.

…

The heavy snow was the reason for at least six deaths and caused upheaval to around 630,000 people in Hebei (Province). The direct economic loss there has reached 400 million yuan ($59 million), according to the provincial civil affairs department.

…

Thousands of passengers were stranded at Beijing's two airports and its five railway stations.

Beijing Capital International Airport cancelled 59 flights and delayed hundreds of others.

Rush-hour traffic yesterday was heavily congested after several pileups and many expressways between the capital and Hebei province were closed.

Beijing's transport authority also canceled 44 bus routes from downtown to nearby destinations.

The next day, the same outlet reported worsening conditions :

The death toll rose to 21 in North China on Friday as storms continued to ravage the region.

The snowstorms left a trail of destruction that will cost more than half a billion dollars to repair, the Civil Affairs Ministry said on Friday.

Heavy snow, which has not been seen in the region for decades, left 21 people dead in seven provinces, the ministry said on its website.

The number does not include deaths came in traffic accidents that were connected to the storms that began on Nov 9, the ministry said.

China has come a long way in recent years and consumes more concrete every year than any other nation, much of it to build new, modern highways. One hopes they soon discover what developed countries well understand: operating the highways in winter weather is possible, and essential to preventing the kinds of economic disaster that unavoidable but predictable snowstorms can cause in the absence of effective winter maintenance.

Modeling losses from inadequate snowstorm response in the U.S. shows that economic losses from a single day’s snowfighting failure imposes greater costs than providing a full winter’s snowfighting service . That’s a massive “competitive advantage” for the U.S. economy.

Wisconsin DOT has warned that state budget woes may require curtailing winter maintenance service to the state's seven populous southeastern counties. Facing a $6.5 billion deficit, CBS-TV affiliate Channel 58 in Milwaukee reported that WisDOT Secretary Frank Busalacchi forecasts one-third of Milwaukee County snowfighters will be laid off and essentially what this means is up to one-third of county highway workers will be laid off which means that everytime a plow or icing agent is needed on the highways, it will take twice as long to remove it." Local officials wrote Busalacchi calling the threat "not only irresponsible but also dangerous."

The Salt Institute weighed in, commenting:

How short-sighted would be budget cuts for snowfighting. World-class research at Marquette University documents an 88.3% reduction in injury crashes in the four hours after salt is applied -- so if it's delayed, people, predictably, will be injured and die. Research shows that inadequate snowfighting would cost Wisconsin workers $85 million every day, depress retail sales by $39 million a day and this slackened economic activity would shrink tax revenues by $11 million a day. That's not a "budget cut," that's classic "penny wise, pound foolish" mismanagement. Rapid and professional winter maintenance has earned Wisconsin valued economic development -- and jobs -- and kept Badger State citizens safe on winter roads. "Irresponsible" and "dangerous" indeed would be any reduction in snowfighting services.

WisDOT has already cut summer maintenance, the station reported. I was in Vancouver, BC last weekend for the annual meeting of the Transportation Association of Canada and there learned that budget-induced summer maintenance (don't mow the grass or maintain the right-of-way) has led to other dangers for drivers. One maintenance engineer pointed out that failure to do routine summer maintenance has led to trees invading the right of way, themselves a threat to run-off-the-road accidents that already represent about half of all highway crash fatalities. In addition, trees and shrubs close to the road provide cover for animals who dart out onto the roadway imperiling their own lives and in the case of deer -- or moose in Canada -- the lives of travelers.

Surely we can find more effective budget cuts somewhere. Applying salt pays for itself in the first half-hour after it's applied -- considering only the safety benefits. For more see our website .

Hundreds of snowfighters gathered at the Ontario Good Roads Association’s Snow & Ice Colloquium earlier this week and celebrated the steady progress of their efforts to upgrade their salt management operations.

As the lead-off speaker, I pointed out that “Sustainable Salting” in current parlance is a direct evolutionary outgrowth of the Salt Institute’s Sensible Salting program begun in the 1960s. The real progress, however, in Canada, has taken place in the past decade with adoption and implementation of a Road Salts Code of Practice.

Oftentimes, satisfaction is achieved by adopting best management practices and basking in the glow that all that can be done is being done. Canada, however, has gone a step further: it has put in place an independent investigation of whether the recommended best practices are actually delivering environmental improvements. A half day of the two day conference heard from the scientists conducting those studies.

Dr. Michael Stone of the University of Waterloo reported a survey showing that more than 70% of Canadian snowfighting agencies have adopted written salt management plans (SMPs) governing their storage and application of salt (which represents 97% of the deicing materials used in the country). Unfortunately, surveys show that many SMPs may not be tied directly to operations; 43% haven’t been modified in the past five years. In another successful area, 63% of the agencies conduct annual operator training (though only 21% train snowfighting contractors). And more than half (51%) have identified “salt vulnerable areas” in their SMPs, areas where special salt management practices are utilized.

Overall, snowfighting technology and techniques are advancing sharply. Reports filed with Environment Canada show 1) salt usage is up sharply the past two winters, 2) 95% of the salt storage facilities are under cover and on impermeable pads, 3) 85% of snowfighting trucks use computerized ground-speed spreader controls, 4) 43% of the vehicles can do pre-wetting and 30% of the agencies employ anti-icing strategies.

Measurement not only leads to better accountability tomorrow, but helps today for us to see the need for more action in closing out antiquated, salt-wasting spreader technologies, giving better guidance for identification of vulnerable local ecosystems and training private sector snowfighters.

Snowfighting professionals agree: salt is the most cost-effective material to preserve safe winter roads and reliable mobility in the face of winter storms.
It comes with a pricetag, however, beyond the cost of the salt. Corrosion from all sources creates an estimated $8.29 billion in damages every year to U.S. bridges. The problem is most severe along the Gulf coast and in snowbelt states where chloride deicers enhance the corrosivity of roadway runoff. TRB estimates that 14% of U.S. bridges are structurally deficient, mostly because of corrosion.

These conclusions led the Transportation Research Board to review best practices for bridge construction and maintenance. On September 24, TRB published NCHRP Synthesis 398: Cathodic Protection for Life Extension of Existing Reinforced Concrete Bridge Elements.

The TRB report concludes that cathodic protection is "a viable corrosion control technology" and reiterates an FHWA policy statement that "cathodic protection is the only technology that can directly stop corrosion in reinforced concrete structures."

Pioneered 50 years ago in California and widely-used in Florida, Oregon and Missouri (and in Canada), cathodic protection provides "a significantly larger extension in service life compared with other corrosion mitigation systems," TRB concludes. But it is not being widely used because of its higher initial costs and unfamiliarity of highway agencies with its benefits, particularly because "corrosion is a moderate problem for the majority of the departments."

The report endorses use of cathodic protection on all bridges with marine exposure in coastal areas and for bridges on roadways on which five tons of deicing salt is applied each year per lane-mile.

Making the roadway environment compatible with use of the most cost-effective winter maintenance tool sounds like a good investment to us.

Not too little - not too much…….the Summer Salt and Highway Deicing Newsletter (pdf 450.51 kB) focuses on the merits of calibration for solid material spreaders and liquid distribution systems. Fundamental concepts, types of spreaders and controllers as well as the guidelines for assuring accuracy during the calibration process are reviewed.

The 2009 Urban Mobility Report by the Texas Transportation Institute documents congestion costs exceeding $87 billion in 2007, more than $750 for every American traveler. All told, congestion wastes 2.8 billion gallons of fuel -- three weeks' worth for every traveler -- an 4.2 billion hours; equivalent to an extra one-week vacation each year. But being stuck in traffic is hardly a vacation. This year's Report tracks a quarter century of traffic patterns in 439 U.S. urban areas from 1982 through 2007.

The Report emphasizes the distinction between “average” and “important” trips as

crucial to understanding the role of the solutions described in the next few pages. Some strategies reduce congestion for all travelers and at all times on every day. Other strategies provide options that some travelers, manufacturers or freight shippers might choose for time-sensitive travel. Some solutions target congestion problems that occur every day and others address irregular events such as vehicle crashes that cause some of the longest delays and greatest frustrations.

To "vehicle crashes," we'd add "snow and ice events."