Development of Chloride Reduction Training

Nixon, Wilfrid A.; Gerard, Anissa

Permalink

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/75850 Copy

Description

Title

Development of Chloride Reduction Training

Author(s)

• Nixon, Wilfrid A.
• Gerard, Anissa

Issue Date

2015-04

Keyword(s)

• chloride reduction
• road salt
• winter maintenance
• training
• best management practices

Geographic Coverage

Illinois

Abstract

The purpose of this project was to create a training program that could be used for Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) personnel who operated snow plows and spread road salt during winter storms. The training message was built around the three main goals of winter maintenance: safety, mobility, and environmental protection. The concept of winter maintenance operations being a system was introduced early in the training and stressed throughout. Another goal of the project was to develop a method or tool by which the effectiveness of the training could be measured. Achieving that goal requires the ability to compare quantities of salt used by IDOT (or some subset of IDOT, such as a maintenance garage) over winters before and after the training is provided. The method presented herein uses a storm severity index, summed over the whole winter season. This allows for comparison between two winters to be made by use of the index. Thus, as shown in the report, for the Moline maintenance district, the winter of 2012–13 can be compared with the winter of 2013–14. This comparison shows that the cumulative index for the 2012–13 winter was 13.20, while it was 26.88 for the 2013–14 winter. In other words the winter of 2013–14 was significantly worse than the winter that preceded it.

Publisher

Illinois Center for Transportation/Illinois Department of Transportation

Series/Report Name or Number

Illinois Center for Transportation Series No. 15-010

ISSN

0197-9191

Type of Resource

text

Language

en

Permalink

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/75850

Sponsor(s)/Grant Number(s)

Illinois Department of Transportation, R27-147

Copyright and License Information

No restrictions. This document is available to the public through the National Technical Information Service, Springfield, Virginia 22161

Owning Collections