We earlier reported that lack of roadway snow and ice removal in China had gridlocked much of the country and imposed $3 billion in economic costs to the nation's economy. The Chinese government announced today that it now calculates the storm damage at $15 billion.

It's been two weeks now since officals admitted they were unprepared. More than 1.3 million soldiers have been mobilized in responding to the snow emergency.

This week, the New Scientist reported on an eco-friendly new form of concrete, made from fly ash and slag removed from powerstations and steeleworks. The concrete is under testing in Australia.

Although its touted for its minimal greenhouse gas footprint, some of its longer term functional value may result from its more alkaline starting material. In particular, it may be possible that this concrete is less susceptable to the corrosive action of the various salts used in winter maintenance.

The latest research on the impact of road salts by the University of Toronto Civil Engineering graduate group under Professor Doug Hooton indicates that sodium chloride has the lowest impact on concrete corrosion. However, this new form of concrete may provide an even greater resistance to corrosion.

We can only hope.

"Wild winter weather across China crippled energy and transport, and caused roughly 3 billion US dollars of economic loss," according to today's China Daily. For the past two weeks, snowstorms have pounded central, eastern and southern China "causing deaths, structural collapses, power blackouts, highway closures and crop destruction." Hunan Province and western Guizhou Province have been hardest hit, but the storm's impact was broad and severe; 220,000 were evacuated in Jiangxi province where 13 have died in snow-related accidents.

Toronto was embarrassed several years ago when it needed to call on Canadian army troops to help overwhelmed local snowfighters. China has mobilized 158,000 Peoples Liberation Army troops (about the number the U.S. has in Iraq), and supplemented those with more than 992,000 police and 303,000 "paramilitary" personnel. In Nanjing, capital of eastern Jiangsu Province, where the accumulated snow reached about 13 inches, the provincial government reports mobilizing a quarter million volunteers to shovel snow.

Yet roadways are reported uncleared. Seven of the eight highways connecting Guangdong and Hunan provinces have been cut off. At least 25 bus passengers were killed when a bus ran off a road "covered with a thick layer of ice and the temperature about minus two degrees Celsius." About 11,000 vehicles were piled up on the highways in eastern Anhui Province, where half of the state and provincial highways were crippled by the snow. China Daily reports that "more than 8,000 traffic police were dispatched to keep order on the 40-kilometer congested section in Anhui - nearly one policeman for every stranded car! Vegetable prices in cities have more than doubled.

Perhaps the storm clouds will have a silver lining and stimulate improved winter maintenance on Chinese roadways, opening a vast new market in highway deicing salt.