Clear Roads Winter Highway Operations Phase III Pooled Fund

This new Clear Roads project will maintain its mission to advance winter highway operations nationally by undertaking practical, practice-ready research related to materials, equipment, and methods. State departments of transportation are aggressively pursuing new technologies, practices, tools, and programs to improve winter highway operations and safety while maintaining fiscal responsibility. Developing priority areas of interest in FFYs 2022-2026 include advanced anti-icing/deicing methods, new automated and intelligent technologies, improved decision-making tools, and national database networks, as well as others that cannot yet be anticipated over the next half decade. The Clear Roads pooled fund provides the critical funding and structure needed to evaluate these new tools and practices in both lab and field settings, to develop industry standards and performance measures, to conduct cost-benefit analyses, and to develop and evaluate new designs and practices that further improve winter highway safety and minimize environmental impacts. This project responds to research and technology transfer needs not currently met by other pooled fund projects. Existing partners make every effort to coordinate with other agencies to avoid duplication of efforts and to encourage implementation of results. This new phase of Clear Roads will address both operational and management research needs, investigating the most effective tools and practices for clearing snow and ice and for managing program resources, budgets, and performance measures. It will continue to promote an even stronger emphasis on the use of research results in the field. The project will provide expanded support for implementation and technology transfer through the development of user manuals, training modules, peer exchanges, and quick turnaround syntheses of the most effective state practices from around the country. This new phase will also include expanded collaboration with other research organizations focused on winter maintenance (such as the Aurora Pooled Fund, AASHTO, TRB, and APWA) to further leverage the research funding investment. Objectives of the new phase of the Clear Roads pooled fund project will include: (1) Conduct structured field testing and evaluation across a range of winter conditions and different highway maintenance organizational structures to assess the practical effectiveness, ease of use, optimum application rates, barriers to use, durability, safety, environmental impact, and cost-effectiveness of innovative materials, equipment, and methods for improved winter highway maintenance. (2) Conduct research that explores the use of innovative materials, equipment, and processes that will promote environmentally sustainable winter maintenance operations. (3) Conduct cost-benefit analyses to ensure that new technologies, materials, or methods contribute to operational efficiency. (4) Investigate state agency uses of performance measures for winter operations and develop management tools that support effective analysis and reporting of the measures. (5) Establish industry standards and develop performance measures for evaluating and utilizing new materials and technologies. (6) Support technology transfer by developing and disseminating practical field guides and training curriculum and reference materials to promote the results of research projects. (7) Support the exchange of information and ideas among state agencies via peer exchanges, ad hoc internal surveys, and collaborative research efforts that provide opportunities for winter maintenance specialists to share experiences related to winter maintenance. (8) Conduct national surveys to compile and document agency practices on the latest operational issues (for example salt shortages, level of service requirements, or other "hot button" issues). (9) Conduct quick turnaround, low-cost synthesis projects to investigate the latest research and practices on pressing winter maintenance topics. (10) Coordinate with the Aurora Pooled Fund (http://www.aurora-program.org/) to enhance the impact, and avoid duplication, of winter road weather research. (11) Promote public education and outreach related to winter maintenance and winter driving safety.

Language

  • English

Project

Subject/Index Terms

Filing Info

  • Accession Number: 01773728
  • Record Type: Research project
  • Source Agency: Federal Highway Administration
  • Contract Numbers: TPF-5(479)
  • Files: RIP, USDOT, STATEDOT
  • Created Date: Jun 6 2021 10:18AM