Winter maintenance operations play an important role in assuring the safety, mobility and productivity of highways enduring winter weather. These maintenance activities offer direct benefits to the public such as fewer accidents, improved mobility and reduced travel costs. To achieve the benefits that various winter maintenance practices, equipment and operations present, agencies must first determine which alternative offers the most significant benefits given its direct and indirect costs. In this context, the Clear Roads pooled fund sponsored an initial Phase of this project which developed a toolkit to conduct cost-benefit analysis for different winter maintenance practices, equipment and operations. The Western Transportation Institute (WTI) team, in partnership with Current Transportation Solutions Inc., conducted the work during this initial Phase and successfully developed a toolkit to streamline the cost-benefit process and assist maintenance managers in decision making.

This Phase II research project addressed issues with the original toolkit and expanded its functionality to include additional materials, equipment and methods. Planned enhancements included:
• Ability to run on more versions of Internet browsers.
• Reporting in additional formats (such as Microsoft Word) for easier manipulation for presentation.
• Ability to save multiple scenarios and revisit them.
• Expansion to include analysis of more winter maintenance materials, equipment and methods.