A Technical Description of LARS and Lumi: Two Apparatus for Studying Tire-Pavement Interactions

The controllability of a vehicle equipped with tires decreases under certain circumstances. One of these circumstances is in winter, where snow and ice affect tire-pavement interaction and thus friction. In such conditions, the control of the vehicle might be lost, which results in longer braking distances or unsafe steering. The presence of snow, ice, water, sand or chemicals makes the interaction between tire and pavement extremely complex. As interfacial property, the frictional phenomenon, depends [...]

Measuring Sustainability in Winter Service Operations

Sustainability has been an area of growing importance in the transportation field over the past two decades. In the United States, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) now provides an online tool that allows agencies to assess their performance in transportation design and operations, and include examples of how agencies have made use of the checklist based tool that the FHWA provides. The challenge for agencies charged with winter maintenance is that tools such as provided by FHWA are very [...]

A Winter Maintenance Manual for the Finnish Transportation Agency

In 2016, the Finnish Road Administration (FTA) initiated a project to describe the best current practices and winter maintenance methods entitled the “Winter Maintenance Manual”. The target group for the manual is winter service professionals, contractors, subcontractors, quality assurance personnel and FTA contract managers without previous experience in maintenance works. The manual also gives an overall understanding of how maintenance contracts are designed and what knowledge is expected [...]

Climate Change and Adaptation Needs for Road Infrastructure in Indian Himalayan Region

Heavy snowfall in several parts of Indian Himalayan Region (IHR) during current winter throws normal life out of gear with roads and residential utility services getting mostly affected. The challenges of winter commuting for the people living in IHR is even more acute owing to its terrain, lack of adequate winter maintenance infrastructure and early-warning system leading to limited social and economic development. Several of the mountain passes, access roads to high-altitude villages, pilgrimage [...]

Use of the Pikalert® System in the Wyoming Department of Transportation Connected Vehicle Pilot Deployment

Rural Wyoming is strongly impacted by hazardous weather along its road network. Interstate 80 (I-80) is a major highway that runs west to east along the southern part of the state, which is located in the Northern Rocky Mountain area of the U.S. illustration 1. The entirety of I-80 in Wyoming is over 1,800 meters in elevation, with a maximum of 2,633 meters. This elevation and Wyoming’s continental, northerly climate lead to extreme weather along I-80 throughout the year.