Winter road and highway maintenance is a service which is often misunderstood. The removal of snow and ice from road surfaces is clearly essential. However, because of yearly seasonal variability, highway maintenance agencies continuously risk being either under prepared or over prepared. Correspondingly, these same agencies are also frequently accused of either neglecting their responsibility or allocating financial resources unwisely. In addition, the practice of salting is strongly associated with several negative environmental and, possibly, health effects. Compounding these public relations and liability problems is the fact that winter maintenance often involves long hours spent in the worse kinds of weather. Obviously, roadway snow and ice clearance is a tough job. It may be facilitated though by careful planning. Moreover, the implementation of technological innovations such as roadway sensors, thermal maps, and weather radar may make operations more efficient. Such measures are certain to preclude some of the difficulties recently experienced in New England.
Within the United States, there are over 135 million registered motor vehicles, as well as about 4 million miles of roads and streets. With so many people depending on motor vehicles for transportation, government must be prepared to deal with adverse conditions. Winter weather can not only hurt area economies, it represents a major hazard to road safety as well (Kuemel, 1994, p. 52). For one, snow and ice tend to hamper most activities of individuals, industries, utilities, schools, and government. Secondly, it has clearly been demonstrated that winter weather increases the frequency of traffic accidents. Snow and ice reduce the coefficient of friction between the pavement and a vehicle's tires This can make maneuvering difficult at best, and occasionally even impossible. Moreover, ice is not always visible to drivers; icy sections of road tend to cat...