May 12 2006
Motorists in Lansing generally don't worry about snow and ice in May. But for the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT), safety during dangerous winter storms is a year-long headache.
So this spring MDOT is trying something new. The SafeLane Surface Overlay system will be installed on the Looking Glass River Bridge on U.S. Highway 127. This will be the first test site in Michigan for a new technology developed at Michigan Tech University (MTU) to produce safer roads with less maintenance.
Here's how it works: SafeLane is made up of a patented combination of epoxy and aggregate rock. Liquid anti-icing chemicals are applied to the overlay before ice or snow storms hit. The material acts like a rigid sponge, storing the chemicals inside, and then automatically releasing them as conditions develop for the formation of ice or snow.
SafeLane keeps releasing the anti-icing chemicals over multiple events, greatly reducing the need to send out highway maintenance crews in the midst of a storm. "SafeLane is all about safer roads with less maintenance," says Bob Persichetti, general manager for SafeLane Surface Overlay at Cargill, which licenses and markets the system. "Until now, transportation departments often found themselves behind the weather. Frost or ice would form in the middle of the night, and they'd have to call out crews on overtime to treat the site. With SafeLane, anti-icing chemicals are there, in place, ready to work as soon as the first snow flakes fall or ice starts to form."
MDOT chose the Looking Glass River Bridge because at 300' long and three lanes wide the site is a relatively long bridge span giving a large surface area in which to observe the performance of the product. "Also, the southbound bridge at this location has our standard epoxy overlay applied a few years ago, so this location should give us a good comparison of the two different products," says Tim Croze, MDOT pavement maintenance engineer.
Severe weather contributes to an average of 1.4 million car accidents in this country each year, 7,000 deaths and more than 600,000 injuries according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The Lansing project marks the 13th installation of SafeLane at sites in seven states. An independent report by Asset Insight Technologies, a consulting service for the winter highway maintenance industry, summarizing SafeLane's performance at all current installations during the 2005-2006 winter season is scheduled to be released May 17. In the meantime, individual states are reporting impressive results.
The bridge on Route 8 in Crandon, Wisc., used to average three to four winter accidents each year. Accidents have dropped to zero since the 2003 installation of SafeLane overlay.
The Blatnik Bridge between Superior, Wisc., and Duluth, Minn., had 20 accidents in the four years before SafeLane was applied. The winter of 2005-2006 was crash free.
During a three-day ice storm last December in McLean, Texas, the SafeLane test site never iced over, and no accidents occurred while other locations in the area had significant problems with ice accumulations and many accidents.
"SafeLane also offers significant economic advantages," notes Persichetti. "Billions of tax dollars are spent each year to preserve and maintain roads and bridges. SafeLane can extend the life of roads and bridges by acting as a sealant that reduces the effects of chloride and water intrusion. And, the diminished need to have trucks out in inclement weather means call-outs and overtime can be managed more efficiently." Finally, as total chemical use declines there is less runoff into the local environment.
http://www.cargillsafelane.com