The operators and maintainers of our highway networks are facing increasing demands and consumer expectations regarding mobility and transportation safety, especially during inclement weather, while also confronting unprecedented budget and staffing constraints and a growing awareness of environmental challenges related to chemical and material usage. Maintenance agencies are also continually challenged to provide a high level of service (LOS) and improve safety and mobility in a cost-effective manner. To this end, it is desirable to use the most recent advances in the application of anti-icing and deicing materials, winter maintenance equipment and vehicle-based sensor technologies, and road weather information systems (RWIS) as well as other decision support systems.

This project will develop a toolkit that will provide winter maintenance managers a means by which to evaluate and justify expenditures on a variety of practices, equipment and operations. Specifically, this research aims to establish a practical toolkit that can be employed by maintenance managers not only to understand the expected costs and benefits of specific practices, equipment, or operations (either individually or in combination), but also to convey those expectations to decision-makers outside the maintenance community.

The toolkit will include costs and benefits for new practices, equipment, and operations, as well as provide a means to be expandable in the future to include additional winter maintenance elements as needed. The team will complete the project by conducting a literature search and survey of best practices, developing the toolkit and methodologies, and leading training sessions.