Road Surface Wetness Variations: Measurements and Effects for Winter Road Maintenance
Publication: Journal of Transportation Engineering
Volume 139, Issue 8
Abstract
Road wetness is a critical parameter when it comes to preventing road slipperiness. It has so far been difficult to measure, but new measurement techniques on the market make it useful to investigate the savings opportunities within road maintenance operations. The present study tests a new sensor mounted on a road maintenance vehicle run in a maintenance district in central Sweden. The sensor that measures road surface water depth is connected to a global positioning system (GPS) system and a global system for mobile communications (GSM) phone modem. Potential savings are calculated based on the measured road surface water depth and on the amount of applied salt needed to lower the freezing point to a certain degree. The results indicate variations in water depth along the measured roads, which implies that the salt concentrations along the roads could also vary. Though the variations were smaller along the tested highway, the calculated savings could still be up to 22%. Despite the many assumptions made in the calculations, considerable savings could potentially be realized by applying such wetness measurements.
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Acknowledgments
The authors would like thank the researchers participating in the NordFoU project MORS—Modelling Residual Salt for performing and assisting with measurements at the field site in Denmark. Furthermore, the maintenance personnel at Svevia in Västerås are thanked for installing sensors on their truck as is Johan Edblad for assisting with the measurements. This study was financed by the Swedish Transport Administration and SBUF through the Centre for Operation and Maintenance of Infrastructure (CDU). The authors also thank the language editor at Proper English AB for constructive suggestions.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Transportation Engineering
Volume 139 • Issue 8 • August 2013
Pages: 787 - 796
Copyright
© 2013 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Oct 24, 2012
Accepted: Feb 4, 2013
Published online: Feb 6, 2013
Discussion open until: Jul 6, 2013
Published in print: Aug 1, 2013
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