Use of Heating Facilities in Sidewalks to Improve Pedestrian and Bicyclist Safety

摘要

This paper presents the use of heating facilities (known as a snow melting system) in sidewalksat Northern Arizona University (NAU) and its practice in helping with reducing labor-basedsnow removal and improving pedestrian and bicyclist safety. NAU is located in Flagstaff,Arizona. In the winter months with high attitude (7000 feet), temperatures in Flagstaff areextremely cold and the amount of snowfall (approximately 108 inches per year) has beensignificant. As of 2012 NAU has planned to install snow melting systems in sidewalks with thegoal to provide visitors, students, faculty, and staff with a stably safe environment fortransportation in the snow. Hydronic system has been selected to generate heat energy usingglycol-water as heat source. Pipes are embedded 4 ½” below the pavement surface with glycolwaterbeing circulated within the pavement. To help with mechanical system design, heat outputvalues in Flagstaff from October to the following May were calculated. In January 28, 2013, asnow storm was blasting across the city. The snow melting system was turned on at midnight toheat the pavement. Based on an observation in the early morning at 7am, no snow accumulationwas found on all heating sidewalks at the three project locations, provided the heat outputcomputation was appropriate and the hydronic system embedded in the pavement was workingvery well to generate heat energy to melt the snow. The snow melting system has demonstratedits abilities to heat the pavement and melt the snow. The effectiveness of using heating facilitiesin sidewalks to improve pedestrian and bicyclist safety has been considered satisfactory.