ABSTRACT
Towns, cities, counties, and states in the United States spend approximately $1.5 billion in direct costs and $5 billion in indirect costs on roadway snow and ice control in 1997 (1) alone. The direct costs arose from such maintenance activities as plowing, salting, and sanding road surfaces. The higher indirect costs stemmed from accidents, travel delays, lost economic
opportunities, infrastructure degradation, environmental damage to vegetation and water supply sources, and vehicle corrosion (2). Since the main objective of a snow and ice control operation is to return the road surface to a safe state for the driving public within a reasonable period of time, developing new techniques that increase the efficiency and effectiveness of this operation could reduce costs, increase safety, and improve mobility for the driving
public. More specifically, these improvements could be made through the development of an inexpensive, reliable, and easy-to-use technology that would allow snowplow operators to use friction indicators to support decision-making regarding chemical applications.
