Salt & Winter Roadway Safety: For Roadway Maintainers (Snowfighters)

Northern Ohio is prime snow-belt territory, so it was hardly news when the Willoughy News-Herald ran a headline "Calm before the storm" that noted that even before Winter officially arrived on December 21, the state had already put down more than 200,000 tons of salt and spent $17 million combatting snow and ice conditions on its roads. Overall, the Ohio DOT spreads an average 650,000 tons and spends $56 million a year. The story chronicles that Cargill Salt's Cleveland, OH mine produced a shade over 3 million tons in 2006 while Morton Salt's Fairport, OH mine hoisted a bit over 900,000 tons. Pretty standard media fare, you'd say.

Perhaps instructively for other snowfighters, however, was the "spin" employed by Chardon (OH) Street Superintendent Steve Borawski and Mentor (OH) Public Works Director Matt Schweikert. Both stressed that their departments were as ready as "inadequate" salt storage capacity allows. Borawski said flatly:

Normally, I store 400 tons of salt, and that lasts me one weekend in a good storm. Then we have to get salt right away. If it's a real light snow, we use about 200 tons, and then Monday morning, we order another 200, and usually we get it by Thursday, within a week. So when we get hit with a heavy storm, we ration salt as much as possible.

In Mentor, which built a new 8,000-ton storage dome, Schweikert used the occasion to justify his Council's investment, noting that "salt left over from last season also has saved Mentor $100,000, with each new ton costing $36.47 or $38.47, depending on whether it's dumped or blown into the dome."

Whether it's the heroic work of operators on the road during (or before) storms or the strategic efforts of snowfighting managers to obtain critical resources for their lifesaving responsibilities, creativity gets results. Well done.

Posted by Dick Hanneman at 11:08 AM | Permalink

A useful state-of-the-practice review of vehicle-based technologies employed for winter maintenance was just published by the Transportation Research Board as the final report for NCHRP Project 20-7(200).

U.S. snowfighters spend $2.3 billion fighting the average winter's threat to safe highways, employing the strategy of putting the right amount of salt at the right place at the right time -- what we call "Sensible Salting." New technologies have allowed agencies to stretch thin budgets to meet service demands of increased traffic flow and higher public expectations of level of service, the report explains, noting that Automatic Vehicle Locator, roadway surface temperature sensors and fixed-automated spray systems have "matured and become fully operational." The operational advantages of the technologies are synergistic, say the authors from the Western Transportation Institute at Montana State University.

The key to effective decision-making is good data derived from roadway sensors and real-time friction measurement. The report provides a useful collection of important information.

Posted by Dick Hanneman at 06:05 PM | Permalink

The Federal Highway Administration has established 11 performance measures to determine its 2008 effectiveness in improving American highway transportation. Among them are several advocated by the Salt Institute, including a measure of the "percentage of time a roadway meets safety and capacity level of service (LOS) standards." This would be measured comparing roadway use to design capacity during and after winter weather events, adjusted for frequency and intensity of the events. A second important measure is the "reduction in user costs (i.e. delay, crashes, vehicle operating cots, emissions, salt damage)" attributable to winter maintenance operations. Other measures relate to the extent and effectiveness of technology transfer activities and the speed with which new technologies are put into operation.

Posted by Dick Hanneman at 10:26 PM | Permalink

Since 2001, two Ontario ministries have been working hard to reduce the environmental impact of the several chloride salts used to keep the winter roadways safe. The Ministries of Environment and Transportation helped fashion a national Code of Practice for road salts management, and 145 Ontario municipalities have joined in a spirited effort to create and implement new salt management plans which include use of salt-efficient automated spreaders, improved salt storage and preventive roadway treatments called "anti-icing." Massive numbers of plow operators have been trained on how to use the least amount of salt to achieve safe roadway conditions.

For that reason, a year ago, the MOE concluded, as Environment Canada had in 2001, that government units that put salt on roads are seriously addressing the issue and that enlisting their voluntary support is paying big dividends. It denied an environmental activist petition to jettison the voluntary program and replace it with a system of provincial permits issued to agencies allowing them to salt roadways -- or not, if the province so determined.

Twice examined and rejected, the mandatory permit system was resurrected for a third look in the annual report of the Environmental Commissioner of Ontario, a government ombudsman agency. ECO Gord Miller called for "comprehensive, mandatory, province-wide road salt management strategy to ensure aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems are protected from chlorides." The premier added vocal support for improved salt management. Environmentalists applauded the report as the foundation for renewed investments in mass transit.

While the Ontario Good Roads Association deserves loud congratulations for its effective leadership in improving salt management, the salt industry has displayed quiet leadership as well. Recognizing that sacrificing safe roadways is politically unpalatable and that the new Road Salt Code of Practice embraces the latest technologies from around the world, the Salt Institute and Environment Ontario initiated an effort to measure the environmental effectiveness of the Code's "best management practices." That research effort has been joined by Environment Canada and will be conducted this winter and next.

The ECO did not participate in the multi-stakeholder group that has studied salt management options extensively. That group labored three years and concluded that the only practical policy requires balancing environmental protection with roadway safety and preserving winter mobility and the jobs and economic health it provides. Poor response to a snowstorm would impose more than $357 million a day in lost wages, retail sales and tax revenues, according to a recent study. Effective roadway maintenance needs to be localized, since citizens will not accept unsafe roads.

By all means, let's heed the ECO's call for a "comprehensive ... province-wide road salt management strategy to ensure aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems are protected from chlorides." But let's keep local elected officials accountable both for environmental performance and for keeping roads safe -- a life-saving job for which MOE permit-writers are unprepared and unsuitable. And let's invite the ECO to attend the semi-annual meetings of the road salts multi-stakeholders group to learn of the enthusiasm and commitment of local governments to protect the environment against the dangers in mismanaged road salt.

Posted by Dick Hanneman at 12:34 PM | Permalink